Natural Born Killers (1994)

D. Oliver Stone



Oliver Stone's film (from a Quentin Tarantino original script), a modern update and remake similar in theme to Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973), was a visually-riveting (with an eclectic style mix, including MTV-style), controversial, anarchic and brutal film about media sensationalism and obsession, in its story of two serial killer-lovers and white-trash outlaws: abused Mallory Knox (Juliette Lewis) and psychotic Mickey (Woody Harrelson) - inspired by real-life spree killer Charles Starkweather, who went on a violent, cross-country (Route 666) Southwestern random killing joyride. TV tabloid show host/reporter Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) made them famous celebrities for his sensationalist "American Maniacs" show. In the shocking ending, the two outlaws shot Gale - broadcast live on camera in a rural setting.

The extremely violent film was lambasted as "evil" and "loathsome" for its hypocritical violence-soaked satire on screen violence. It was subjected to numerous edits and cuts (reportedly 150) by the MPAA at the time of release (now restored in Stone's longer 'Director's Cut' version, that was licensed to a third party) to achieve an R-rating from its original NC-17 rating. Its public screening in the UK was delayed, because the film had instigated or 'inspired' murderous copycat shooting sprees in the US (including the Columbine High School Massacre) by those who viewed the protagonists as glamorous and romantic folk heroes -- similar to what happened after the release of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971).

In a failed civil suit, lawyer/novelist John Grisham accused Stone's film of being a 'faulty' or 'defective' product and that there was a 'causal link' between the film and various murders - he argued that Stone was legally accountable for inspiring real-life murders. The parents of paralyzed Patsy Byers, a 1995 victim of teen lovers (Ben Darras and Sarah Edmondson) in Louisiana, took expensive legal action against Stone and Warners, but the case was ultimately dismissed in 2001.