THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
ONE PATRON ran from the Lynnhaven 8 theaters shouting, ``This movie must have been made by somone on acid.''
Not necessarily. It's just Oliver Stone, the director who knows many passions but only one speed, fast forward. With ``Natural Born Killers,'' Stone has, at last, gone uncontrollably over the top - or is he merely on the edge? Is this is his messterpiece or his masterpiece?
To find out, you have to meet Mickey and Mallory, serial killers who traverse New Mexico's Route 666 and, in just three weeks, leaving 52 dead bodies behind. In each case, they leave someone alive to tell of the deed - and make them famous.
The controversy that the film is sure to churn up is hardly new. We've met Mickey and Mallory before. They are close kin to Bonnie and Clyde. They're young! They're bad! They're on the run. In this case, they don't even bother to rob banks; they just kill, senselessly and pointlessly. They're ``Bablands'' gone haywire. With all the violence masquerading as anti-violence, ``Natural Born Killers'' is more closely akin to ``A Clockwork Orange.''
Actually, though, ``Natural Born Killers'' is like no other film that has come before. It is a bona fide original if only for its unbridled degree of audacious excess. In interviews, Stone has said that he made this film as a break from his more serious subjects. If this is a rest, then the man is even more hyper than we imagined. There is a vague hint that he may have some of the mischievous absurdity of a Fellini, but only a vague hint.
For a man who claims to be a bad-boy outsider, he has been remarkably honored within the industry (Oscars for both ``Platoon'' and ``Born on the Fourth of July'' make him one of the few directors with double wins in modern times). He came close to making a fool of himself with ``JFK,'' even though his quite-impressive gift for craftsmanship and passion, coupled with his frequent interviews, served to rise above the silly wrongheadedness of ``JFK'' itself.
With ``NBK,'' he takes no chances that anyone will miss his point. He's making a satire. He's seeking to make an absurdist comedic statement about the media and the violence amid which we live.
An early scene is the funniest, and most original. In it, he depicts Mallory's home life as a TV situation comedy - filmed on video and called ``I Love Mallory.'' Rodney Dangerfield (a brilliantl bit of casting) plays her lowlife, sleazy father. The more he yells abuse and gross insults at her, the louder the soundtrack laughter roars. Comedy of cruelty is hit with a shotgun blast that nonetheless touches the target. (Are these insults very different from those on ``All in the Family'' or many of the current TV sit-coms? At the least, the difference is in excess, not in cruel intent). The TV audience guffaws with each vulgar attack.
Mickey gets applause when he arrives carrying several hunks of bloody beef. The two eventually murder her parents.
In Act II of the movie, Stone gets to his real target - TV's glorification of killers. Robert Downey Jr., who is likley to follow his best-actor Oscar nomination for ``Chaplin'' with a supporting-actor nod here, plays the unctuous TV host of a show called ``American Maniacs.''
With an accent that is pointedly similar to that of Robin Leach, he narrates a quite funny segment labeled ``a dramatization'' in which actors who look like the killers bump off a cyclist identified as an Olympic bronze medalist
When Mickey is finally captured, Downey, as TV host Wayne Gale, gets his rating dream - an interview with the killer to be broadcast on Super Bowl Sunday.
The violence is more repetitive but no more gory than in many other films. Nonetheless, it is sure to prompt commentaries across the land as the debate surfaces, again on whether showing violence is a way to fight it.
In the end, just to make sure we get the point, Stone trots out shots of O.J. Simpson, Tonya Harding, the Menendez brothers and Lorena Bobbit. Enough already, Ollie. We get the idea.
Woody Harrelson has an effectively snarling look and demeanor, but he is no match in the charisma category for nymphet-supreme Juliette Lewis as Mallory. She got an Oscar nomination for flirting with Robert DeNiro in ``Cape Fear,'' and she's been repeating the act ever since. Here, she dances in front of a juke box, only to murder the guys who take the bait. Lewis is quite fascinating to watch. She's the perfect leading lady for a Stone picture because you wonder how far they both will go.
It's all shot at such a furious MTV pace that viewers have no time to laugh, even if they were so inclined. There's more of an inclination to stare in wonder. Stone switches from color to black-and-white photogrraphy a half dozen times in one scene. (It does, actually, make sense in terms of each switch meaning a time or mood change). He holds the camera at so many different angles that you'll find yourself twisting your head to try to compensate. The editing and the photography are things of wonder as is the craftsmanship of the entire film.
In the end, one may well wonder if ``Natural Born Killers'' doesn't do Mr. Stone more good than it does his audience. He is passionate about his conviction that we've all gone to hell with a demon slugged ``too much TV.'' He provides no answers, just an indictment. He makes quite a flamboynat case that we glamorize and admire killers and that America admires a body count. He indicts the media but, on the other side of the ledger, he suggests no alternative. At the same time, he's selling tickets to the very mayhem he obviously abhors. This film is sure to be the box office hit of the week, even with the number of people who walked out
Those who are squeamish should not go near this film. They will either be exasperated or offended - or both. At the end of ``Natural Born Killers,'' you will need to rest a moment before leaving the theater. The hypnotic quality of this imagery is infectious - but only if you allow it to be. The images hit you so fast, and with such variety, that you can only sustain the pace on a sensory, and entirely visual, level. This kind of film daring doesn't come along often. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelon star as Mickey and Malory Knox in
"Natural Born Killers," Oliver Stone's satire about violence, murder
and the American media.
MOVIE REVIEW
``Natural Born Killers''
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy
Lee Jones
Director: Oliver Stone
Screenplay: David Veloz, Richard Tuttowski, Oliver Stone, based
on a story by Quentin Tarantino
MPAA rating: R (language, violence)
Mal's rating: three and 1/2 stars
Locations: Movies 10 in Chesapeake; Circle 4 and Main Gate in
Norfolk; Kemps River, Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke and Surf-N-Sand in
Virginia Beach.
by CNB