Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408310024
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But Oliver Stone has attempted just that with his new film, "Natural Born Killers," about a pair of mass murderers and how the media - particularly a tabloid show called "American Maniacs" - turns them into anti-heroes, the stuff of which modern legend is made.
The problem is that while Stone's screenwriting (with David Veloz and Richard Rutowski) and directorial brilliance help him create an apocalyptic vision of modern times, they also force him into a place from which he feels compelled to moralize. And that is when the confusion begins.
The story (by Quentin Tarantino, who wrote and directed "Reservoir Dogs") is this: A young, sexually appealing pair of troubled souls escapes their respective hells and hits the road, where mayhem ensues. As Mickey and Mallory Knox, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are completely convincing - especially Lewis, whose banshee screams give her character a primal quality that is exactly right.
Stone uses grainy black and white film, videotape, filters, cock-eyed camera angles and lots of rear projection to barrage with imagery. The score - an inspired compilation of everything from German opera to alternative music from bands like L7 - is as rapid-fire as the visual images. After their first on-camera slaughter at a remote diner, for example, Mickey and Mallory dance cheek-to-cheek to romantic, "lounge" music, suddenly spotlit as their victims still writhe on the floor around them.
The truth is, however, that after the first scenes of horror, the violence is numbing. And that's partly the point. Few deaths are mourned, and when the media get into the act - personified by Robert Downey Jr. as Wayne Gale, tabloid show host - the killing becomes routine. Prison warden McCluskey (a sputtering, hilarious Tommy Lee Jones performance) and Tom Sizemore as the evil cop Scagnetti draw the story way off course, and the pop-psychologizing flies fast and furious.
What does it all mean? Stone makes loose, moralizing connections: He blames the media for perpetuating violence, but partly excuses Mickey and Mallory because they had bad childhoods. Mickey tells Gale we are all part of the evil, and we are supposed to believe that because Gale cheats on his wife, he can also commit murder. Stone seems to apply the Domino Theory to morality.
Finally, though, Stone seems to hedge his bets when Mickey tells his last, most significant victim, "Killing you is a statement. ... But I'm not sure exactly what it's saying."
But it's too late, and too little, and "Natural Born Killers" ends up like most Oliver Stone films - a work of flawed brilliance.
Natural Born Killers
***
A Warner Bros. release playing at Salem Valley, Valley View Mall 6. 120 minutes. Rated R for graphic violence andi, strong language, sexual material.
by CNB