I hope not to necessarily offend any subscribers of this Listserv, but I have
to say one thing that is, I totally believe, my duty:
 
To say that Natural Born Killers is perhaps, arguably, the absolute worst
film I have ever seen.
 
Some may say this is hyperbole, contending that I say this merely because it
was fresh in my memory.  As much as this might be a factor to some limited
degree, I must say that the awfulness contained within Stone's film is to
such magnitude that I assure you that it certainly ranks up at the top of my
list of disgust.
 
Why, you might ask?  Well, first off, since I am currently typing this
directly into America Online, and not off line, I'll be brief.
 
Oliver Stone's pretentions have totally overwhemled this project.  His thirst
for 'importance' has led him (over the history of all his films) to the
utilization of 'straw men'-type antagonists.  Robert Downey, Tommy Lee Jones,
Tom Sizemore's (even Woody and Juliette's) characters are all 'sleazy' to the
point of cardboard cutouts, that are so one dimensional that anyone with half
a brain can topple.  His 'indictment' of the media amounts to similar
arguments against the USSR in the Reagan era, that like the USSR being the
'Evil Empire', so the Media is an 'Evil Violence Glorification Machine'.
 What, in fact, was his point? That 'violence is bad'?  This is not a new
concept.  That he attempted to have us embrace Mickey and Mallory and show us
our 'true nature'?  I honestly saw M&M as nothing more then brainless,
disgusting killers, who (as Mickey shows in the interview scene) that he has
no more grasp on what is going on as does Stone, and that it all ends up a
mish-mash of pseudo intellectual clap-trap.
 
All most irritating is Stone's obvious lack of any humor.  His
self-importance and ego does not allow such things as true irony or parody or
satire to exist.  One thing this film fails miserably at is satire.  These,
in fact, as probably the devices that would be most dangerous to someone of
such pretention (I hope to see plently of good parodies of NBK in the
future).
 
The visual style he used not only was basically MTV rehashed (perfectly
logical in this era of movies imitating bad tv), but was utterly meaningless.
 Why all the grainy reverse angles in slow motion of Tom Sizemore and Tommy
Lee Jones walking down an empty corridor?  Why the superimpositions of Stalin
and running Horses?  Using grainy footage to resemble the Zepruder film in
JFK was effective (although arguably 'shadily' playing with socialized
audience responses), but here it serves no purpose other than to call
attention to itself.  As if throwing every film stock, technique except the
kitchen sink together has merit.  This is something more like an exercise in
film school, not for a final finished project that should have more purpose
than to self-indulge.
 
Perhaps the most indicting this film can ever get is that it seems the
American film audience cannot think for itself.  Because this film is made by
a big name director, Oliver Stone, because its 'topic' is violence and the
media, because periodical and televised crap like Entertainment Weekly and E!
news daily do stories about the 'controversy' the film ignites, because Stone
sets the film up as 'deep & meaningful' and thus we accept it and thus walk
out of the theatre rationalizing this assumed importance.  Perhaps more than
the film's awfulness, does the audience's (and critic's) praise for this
enormous (excuse my french) piece of shit.
 
I'm sure there are more points in which I could elaborate on, but I feel you
get my gist...
 
Terry Jinn
Murray [log in to unmask]