The Categorised Review: Volume One

Natural Born Killers is like a horrific car accident, but that's why I love it

Natural Born Killers is like a horrific car accident, there are pieces of the stereotypical Tarantino story dotted around the crime scene, with horrific violence everywhere else. Much like a car accident, Natural Born Killers is horrifically enthralling. This film is a nightmarish satire on the media and human nature. Even though, I describe Natural Born Killers with disturbed adjectives, I really enjoyed this film. Why did I enjoy this film, that I described as 'nightmarish', you may be wondering? I enjoyed it because it's a film about the darker sides of being human, the primitive, impulsive part of humanity that we like to suppress.

As humans we delude ourselves that we are something more then a primate with deeper thought. Even though we do possess this deeper thought, we also posses a primal instinct. We can't escape the fact that violence is so embedded in our human nature. Deep down, in a sense, we are all natural born killers.

However, even though we have this primitive violence within us, we can't forget we do possess this deeper thought. That's what sets us aside from our primate ancestors. This is why we can't blame this film, or any other form of entertainment media, for any violence that occurs in real life. Us, as humans, know the difference between right and wrong. Those who choose to take another life purely based on the fact they saw it portrayed in a film, couldn't have been mentally sane in the first place. I think that as adults we perceive film differently to real life. We can watch a film and know that it's all a facade . Those who cannot differentiate this facade from the real world aren't mentally competent enough to truly understand the meaning of film, especially films like Natural Born Killers.

The fact that many factual media sources condemn this film is quite ironic. Natural Born Killers is a brilliant satire on the sources that condemn it. Putting a pair of psychotic star crossed lovers parallel to a mentally unhinged tv presenter and a murderous, fame hungry detective, really puts across the message of the film. As an audience, we can all agree that the actions of Mickey and Mallory Knox are horrific, however, we begin to question, are those who thrive and prosper off of those actions as bad as the criminals they take advantage of? The Factual Media fear monger and provoke reactions from the public to boost ratings and book sales. Both are like snakes,Mickey and Mallory are the venomous kind, whilst the media portrayed in the film constrict their pray, squeezing the life out of every story they cover. They're dangerous in their own unique way but nonetheless dangerous.

The film could have easily ended with Mickey and Mallory dying in a blaze of glory, like many criminals in film, instead they survive the whole ordeal, whilst Scagnetti and Bruce die horrifically, a solemn reminder that media is interchangeable and forgettable but the villains it romanticises live on for decades after the programme is dead.