OLIVER STONE, 1994
After viewing this film many, many times since I first saw it I came to
the conclusion that this film basically put on screen my feelings as to
why I disliked and still continue to dislike the 90's/Post-Millenium
American Pseudo-Culture. At first I did not understand it (the
metaphors and such) but having viewed it countless times over the past
few years I have developed an understanding of this truly remarkable
film.
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Critics over the years have panned this film as a 'glorification of
meaningless violence', when in fact the film itself is basically the
90's equivalent to Kubrick's 'Dr. Strangelove', where it turns the
paranoia of a nation into satire and then deconstruct it in the best
way possible. Everybody who is reading this review right now has
probably seen the film anyway so I won't reiterate the plot, but what I
will do is try and help explain the concept of the film since it's
quite obvious that there are a few people out there who don't
understand this film.
The 90's - A decade after the Reagan years and a time for the next generation to settle down and basque in the trails of excess that the previous decade left behind. What are we left with in Western Civilization? Media sensationalism and the counter-culture of people who watch car crashes.
The 90's - A decade after the Reagan years and a time for the next generation to settle down and basque in the trails of excess that the previous decade left behind. What are we left with in Western Civilization? Media sensationalism and the counter-culture of people who watch car crashes.
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So why do the critics despise this film? The critics despise this film
because what they see on the film is themselves in Wayne Gale. Robert
Downey Jnr accurately portrays the absolute false hysteria and false
machismo of tabloid figures such as Geraldo Riviera and Oprah Windfrey
et al, in his characterisation of Wayne Gale. He plays the archetypal
media figurehead that lives in newsrooms, talking into mobile phones,
smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, watching television and living
deceitful private lives. Another reason why the critics hate this film
is because of the subversive message that it portrays in the script.
The writers grew up in the 50's and 60's when the paranoia of Cold War
was still in their faces everywhere they went. After the Cold War was
over these same people started asking themselves, "well, who is the
enemy now?". Some of them started realising that the enemy wasn't
10,000 miles away hiding in a mountain, the problem was not attached to
a very large metal object that goes 'boom!', but rather the fact that
the real enemy is in the corporations and media, the real power of a
nation doesn't rely in the leader but the television. 'Natural Born
Killers' subversively explains this, that THEY are the problem, and
many members of the mainstream media didn't like because they were what
the film was about.
Why do the general public despise this film? Because the same people who hate this film are the same people who the film-makers were laughing at when they made it. When the character of Mickey is on the television giving his interview, and the film cuts to a simple black and white image from a stock house of a typical American family sitting around the television, the same people who hate this film are the typical American family sitting around watching the interview, glued to the television like mindless zombies.
Overall - this film is brilliant and it tells it exactly how it is.
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Oliver Stone very much plays on the idea of
'serial-killer-turns-media-story-turns-pop-icon' which has been quite
evident in the cases of people such as Charles Manson and Richard
Ramirez. What Oliver Stone manages to do is portray the negative in the
90's, particularly American pseudo-culture in the 90's. You have Rodney
King, O.J Simpson, Tonya Harding, Waco, The Menendez Brothers... and
all these things are linked by a single medium, 90's television. The
sensationalism of the media saturates most of Western Civilization
today, and we live in a world where it's more important to see
celebrities on the front of magazines or right-wing televangelists
telling us that we need to give them money than it is to focus on the
real issues that exist in this world. 'Natural Born Killers' relates to
this. What 'Natural Born Killers' plays on is the question - 'why did
we, the people, turn on to CNN and watch a white bronco cruising
through the streets of Los Angeles one day in 1994?'. In turn, 'Natural
Born Killers' plays on the culture-question - 'why do people stop to
see car crashes?'. It also asks the question - 'Is that guy on
television crazy because he's killed 90+ people or am I crazy for
watching a white bronco cruise through the streets of Los Angeles?'. So
there are 3 questions that 'Natural Born Killers' raises without a lot
of people really understanding them. What the film does - instead of
answering these questions - is let the viewer decide for himself or
herself whether the serial killer on television is crazy for killing
people or we are crazy for actually watching a serial killer talk on
television.
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So why do the critics despise this film? The critics despise this film
because what they see on the film is themselves in Wayne Gale. Robert
Downey Jnr accurately portrays the absolute false hysteria and false
machismo of tabloid figures such as Geraldo Riviera and Oprah Windfrey
et al, in his characterisation of Wayne Gale. He plays the archetypal
media figurehead that lives in newsrooms, talking into mobile phones,
smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, watching television and living
deceitful private lives. Another reason why the critics hate this film
is because of the subversive message that it portrays in the script.
The writers grew up in the 50's and 60's when the paranoia of Cold War
was still in their faces everywhere they went. After the Cold War was
over these same people started asking themselves, "well, who is the
enemy now?". Some of them started realising that the enemy wasn't
10,000 miles away hiding in a mountain, the problem was not attached to
a very large metal object that goes 'boom!', but rather the fact that
the real enemy is in the corporations and media, the real power of a
nation doesn't rely in the leader but the television. 'Natural Born
Killers' subversively explains this, that THEY are the problem, and
many members of the mainstream media didn't like because they were what
the film was about.Why do the general public despise this film? Because the same people who hate this film are the same people who the film-makers were laughing at when they made it. When the character of Mickey is on the television giving his interview, and the film cuts to a simple black and white image from a stock house of a typical American family sitting around the television, the same people who hate this film are the typical American family sitting around watching the interview, glued to the television like mindless zombies.
Overall - this film is brilliant and it tells it exactly how it is.
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3 comments:
I've bren saying that for years.
*been...good thing i was only saying it and not typing it...
My fav...luv the shit.
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