Natural Born Killers, 1994.
Directed by Oliver Stone.
Starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore.
SYNOPSIS:
Warner Bros. has reissued their 2009 Blu-ray edition of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers director’s cut, complete with a solid batch of extras. It was a curious decision by the studio, given Shout! Factory’s 2023 4K Ultra HD release that has nearly all the archival bonus features along with a few new ones. I suppose which version you opt for depends on how big a fan you are of the film.
I haven’t seen Natural Born Killers since I had the chance to take in a screening of it during the 1994 San Diego Comic-Con, back when you could actually get into that convention and the cosplayers were mostly of the Star Trek variety. Unfortunately, the sound system sucked, but I didn’t get a chance to revisit it until now.
Yeah, the more things change, the more they stay the same, as the cliche goes. But it’s true: humans have always glorified violence, and modern technology has simply enabled it to impact our lives in faster, more efficient ways.
What we’re dealing with now had its roots well before this movie, but Oliver Stone certainly did a great job of holding a mirror up to the state of humanity during the early 1990s. He and writer David Veloz and associate producer Richard Rutowski made major changes to the original script by Quentin Tarantino, who later distanced himself from the finished product, but I think that was likely the right decision at the right time (admittedly, I haven’t read Tarantino’s draft).
Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as Mickey and Mallory, respectively, a pair of ne’er-do-wells who go on a killing spree that begins with Mallory’s abusive father and enabler mother. They become media darlings, and soon Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.), host of the lurid TV show American Maniacs, begins following their story.
After Mickey and Mallory are caught, tried, and sentenced to life in prison, Wayne decides to do a live interview with Mickey that will air immediately following the Super Bowl. Soon Wayne finds himself crossing the line between observer and participant.
Along the way, Stone employs a variety of styles, including a 50s black-and-white movie look, a contemporary viewpoint, rough-hewn cinema verite, and parodies of American TV, including sitcoms. The end result feels heavily influenced by music videos shown on MTV back then, and while it was a startling experience in 1994, it might feel a bit stodgy to younger audiences.
In the end, though, I’ve always appreciated the way Natural Born Killers holds a mirror up to American society of the early 1990s. It’s not hard to imagine how the story would be portrayed today, with the end result largely feeling the same. So it goes.
As far as I can tell, this Blu-ray is a reissue of the one Warner Bros. released in 2009. It’s billed as a director’s cut, with about four minutes of even more violent footage added back in. I have a feeling this film would have earned an “R” rating today with no problem, which I suppose says something about the appetite for graphic violence these days.
I don’t know if any restoration work went into the version of the film found on this disc, although given the intentionally rough quality of much of the footage, I’m not sure that enhanced picture quality would really make a huge difference with this one. Shout! Factory issued Natural Born Killers in a 4K Ultra HD edition a little over two years ago, but I don’t have that disc, so I don’t know how it compares to this one.
On the bonus features front, the 22-minute Natural Born Killers Evolution was created for this Blu-ray over 15 years ago. It gets into the making of the film and, of course, compares it to the state of American culture at the time, when social media was still in its infancy. I’d like to see someone update that perspective based on today’s environment.
In addition, Oliver Stone filmed an introduction to the film and recorded a commentary track that’s just as packed with information and opinions as you’d expect. I admit I find him a little too full of himself sometimes, but I do appreciate that he has a very specific point-of-view and will lay it out for you in clear detail. Even when I disagree with him, I have to admit he backs up his take on the subject with clear supporting material.
Moving on, the 26.5-minute Chaos Rising was originally created for the laserdisc release in the 90s and, yeah, it really feels quaint when one considers that Columbine, 9/11, and other horrific tragedies were about to happen just a few years later. I wonder what Oliver Stone and Woody Harrelson would say today about their observation at the time that Natural Born Killers would never inspire the kind of violence that its main characters perpetrate.
There’s also a Charlie Rose interview with Stone that reiterates much of what he says in the commentary track and elsewhere, along with deleted scenes with an optional commentary by Stone and an alternate ending with an introduction from him. The Natural Born Killers trailer rounds out the platter.
SEE ALSO: Natural Born Killers at 30: The story behind the polarizing ultra-violent crime drama
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
