Natural Born Killers Review
by Ron Lawrence (rpl AT ovro DOT ovro DOT caltech DOT edu)October 13th, 1994
NATURAL BORN KILLERS
A film review by Ron Lawrence
Copyright 1994 Ron Lawrence
Out of all the reviews I have read of this movie, I would have to say that nine out of ten panned it and that remaining one slept through it.
First of all, Stone is trying to point out exactly what goes on in the media today in regards to how it effects people. The main focus is on violence. The problem is since a movie is a form of media Stone ran into the problem of glorifying violence while he was satirizing it. It is hard to ridicule violence in the magnitude that it is portrayed in the media today with, without glorifying it yourself.
I found when I left the movie that the violent scenes really did not affect me that much because I was so used to seeing that kind of violence in the media before this movie.
This movie was a masterpiece. It was extremely clever and conveyed many points across. Yes, some scenes were exaggerated and not true to life, but sometimes you need to step out of the lines to get your point across. The camera angles, use of color, animation, and flashbacks made this movie a new and interesting experience for my eyes. Harrelson and Lewis did excellent jobs. I think Jones' character could have been developed a little more, but his nose pinchers provided a good laugh.
Downey Jr. also did a wonderful job. I thought Stone's portrayal of these sensationalistic crime shows was very accurate and not exaggerated at all. I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future an anchor actually participated in a murder just to get ratings.
You could say this is a biased review since Stone is my favorite director. This movie made me feel less of him as a person though. It seemed that he thought he was the one exception to the media glorifying violence. After reading some reviews it came across to me that Stone is very high on himself because he feels he sees things others do not.
Not a family movie, but worth $6.00.
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