Criticism on mass media found in Stones Natural Born Killers - Research Paper Example

 Criticism on mass media found in Stone’s Natural Born Killers 1. Introduction This paper focuses on the movie “Natural born Killers by Oliver Stone. The movie first screened on August 26, 1994. It portrays the newly-wed couple Mickey and Mallory Knox. The two attractive serial killers have already killed 52 people in the course of three weeks when the story of the movie starts. Both of them gain fame through Wayne Gale, a sensationalistic journalist, and host of the tabloid TV-show American Maniacs. After being bitten by a rattlesnake and searching for anti-venom in a convenience store, Mickey and Mallory get arrested by the police at and end up in prison. After some time Wayne Gale arranges an interview with Mickey, which should be broadcasted right after the Superbowl. The interview provokes a riot between the inmates and the prison guards, giving Mickey and Mallory the chance to flee. Wayne is coming with them and is filming the entire jailbreak. After killing Wayne and leaving his, still recording, camera behind as evidence, they begin a new life. In the end they are shown in a mobile home with two little kids and another one on its way. Even though the road, the route 666 to be precise, is displayed in the first part of the movie and in the very end, Natural Born Killers is not by definition a road movie. The Oxford dictionary (2010: 1536) defines a road movie as “a film of a genre in which the main character is travelling, either in flight or on a journey of self-discovery”. Even though self discovery surely is part of the reason why Mickey and Mallory travel around - which can be seen in the scene where Mallory throws away her old clothes, and with that leaves her childhood behind (Stone, Natural Born Killers, 1994: 0:19h) - that is not the main topic the movie is about. As Cohan and Hark (1997: 83) describe in their work The Road Movie Book: “Mickey and Mallory don’t travel down freeways and back roads - that’s all back projected, they surf the mediascape.” So, the road as itself can be seen as a metaphor for their journey through mass media and ending up as celebrated super stars. The whole movie passes criticism on different topics concerning the American Society and their sensationalism. The main point of critique is the shown hype about serial killers, which sometimes are celebrated the same way as pop stars are, along with the sensationalism and at the same time irrelevance of modern mass media. Stone wanted to describe the 1990s through his movie (Stone, Interview, 1994). He wanted to put a focus on the media chasing the violence and leaving its viewers behind with a loss of perspective (Stone, Interview 1994). But it is not only the media he is criticizing, but also the American prison and justice system (Stone, Interview: 1994 ). While the movie was still developing, incidents such as the O.J Simpson case - which was highly present in the media - happened. After noticing that the media was highly involved in the outcome of this case, Stone decided to change the style of the movie from action to a satirical critique on media in general (Stone, Interview: 1994: ). Other serial killers like Charles Manson and Charles Whitman are being mentioned in the movie too. He brought a lot of different real life influences into the movie, such as Bonnie and Clyde on who the story of Mickey and Mallory is based upon and transformed into a modern scenario (Cohan & Hark, 1997:82). This paper wants to take a closer look on how the media, is portrayed in the movie and what kind of criticism can be found behind that. A particular focus is put on American Maniacs and I Love Mallory. 2. Analysis 2.1. Character Description The main Characters of the Movie are Mickey Knox, his wife Mallory Knox and the journalist Wayne Gale. Mickey is portrayed as an efficient killer with no empathy for his victims. He sees himself as a natural born killer - a new species above ordinary human beings. In the movie he often talks about how important fate is for and he strongly believes that killing is part of it, just as it was meeting his wife Mallory. He has also strongly dislikes the media and everything and everyone it stands for (Stone, Natural Born Killers, 1994: 1:20h). He was abused by his father when he was a child and witnessed him committing suicide. Mallory too was abused by her father. Her mother, knowing about her husband’s sexual advances towards their daughter, was highly passive about it. Mallory and Mickey killed her family, only leaving her brother alive. She is a little bit more aggressive than Mickey and as well shows no empathy for her victims – the only exception is the Native American. She is highly devoted to Mickey. The couple shares a very passionate and sexual promiscuous relationship. Wayne Gale is a sensationalistic Australian journalist hosting a tabloid news show on mass murderers, in which he makes Mickey and Mallory famous. He is an arrogant and narcissist person that only cares about success and money. He is not interested at all in his audience – which he calls “morons” – but only in success and money (Stone, Natural Born Killers, 1994: 0:24h). His private life is not going well. His wife is mad at him and he has trouble with his girlfriend Ming. In the course of the movie he changes spiritually and in the end helps Mickey and Mallory escape from prison. He breaks up with his wife and fires a gun himself – although he said he would never want one in his handy. He ends up being killed by Mickey and Mallory. 2.2. The criticism on media (-genres) One main part of criticism the movie passes on the American society - and western societies in general - addresses towards the mass media. Stone uses two different kinds of media for his critique, firstly the depiction of families in the genre of sitcoms, and secondly the hypocrisy in handling violence and murder in modern societies. For this purpose he invented two different TV shows: I love Mallory and American Maniacs. In the Sitcom I love Mallory; Stone narrates the story of Mallory’s childhood and youth. The audience gets an insight on Mallory’s abusive childhood in which she is sexually and verbally mistreated by her father. The whole family seems to be a caricature of an American family. While Mallory is depicted as a teenager in a very short dress and too much sexiness, her father is depicted as a meat-eating, greasy, overweight and pig like man, having no respect for either his wife or his daughter. Mallory’s mother, who at first sight seems like the cliché of a caring housewife, complimenting her daughter on how nice she looks and being concerned about the use of language in presence of her little son, then turns out to be apathetic towards the sexual innuendo of her husband towards their daughter. Mallory’s brother is quiet and mostly passive in the whole scene. He has black and white make-up on his face. In the sitcom Mickey is introduced as the “meat man”, that finally rescues Mallory from ties of her family. The whole scene takes place in the house of the family, which is furnished in a seventies retro design along with some comic-like details such as a strawberry shaped bin next to the staircase. All of that is accompanied by fake laughter and funny music. Even the title I love Mallory shows the cynicism behind this depiction of a family. As Cohan and Hark (1997: 83) state in their work: By deconstructing the boundaries between television, the family, romance and mass murder, Stone ensures that Mickey and Mallory will appear both utterly familiar and disturbingly alien – the serial killers next door. So, the sitcom has the purpose of making Mickey and Mallory’s love and life stories appear understandable to the audience. The genre of sitcom was used because sitcoms are among us for decades already. There are new sitcoms coming to television every year, from the 1940s to the 1990s the number of scripts produced was 27.000 (Taflinger: 1996). The typical family of a sitcom is rooted in the American middle-class (Taflinger: 1996). The characters learn valuable moral lessons week by week (Weinberger: 1995), with the audience watching them and having the feeling of a connection. It seems that in I Love Mallory the audience should feel sympathy with Mallory’s situation, but not feel sorry for her. Therefore the genre of a sitcom is used to put her sad story in to a less dramatic setting. The laugh-tracks and the funny music take the cruelty out of her situation and cynically make fun of the whole genre itself. The show American Maniacs, hosted by the Australian journalist Wayne Gale reflects on the exposure to mass murder in mass media. American Maniacs confirms the cliché of a tabloid TV show. It uses close ups of the (crying) victims combined with a serious voice talking about the crimes of Mickey and Mallory. Both of them are played by actors, who, especially Mickey, do not look like the original duo. The show also uses slow motion when showing the dead of the victims. The first occurrence of American Maniacs starts with Wayne describing the crimes committed by Mickey and Mallory. He shows an interview with a policeman whose colleague was killed. Then the scene switches to the studio and shows Wayne having a small argument with his colleagues about repetition and whether the audience will notice that main parts of the show are exactly the same as in the one before. Then it switches back to the show and shows people from all over the world being interviewed and talking about how much they love Mickey and Mallory. A group young men state that they “respect human life and all”, but if they were serial killers, they would be like Mickey. The fact that mass murderers are celebrated like superstars seems highly bizarre, but is nothing new to American society. As already stated above, in the American past a lot of crimes were exploited by the media, making the accused person famous. The case around O. J. Simpson an American football player, who was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and the Waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman, has been described as the most publicized criminal case in American history (Price, Lovitt: 1997). But criminals are not only over present in media, due to the fact, that they were already famous before the crime happened, it also happens that to that time unknown people are celebrated like superstars despite, or maybe just because, they committed one or more murders. For instance the case of Charles Manson created a pop-cultural hype about his person. He was proclaimed “Man of the year” by an underground newspaper (Felton, Dalton: 1970). He has been present in many pop-cultural aspects. In the next occurrence of “American Maniacs”, Mickey and Mallory are on the way to their court date and are surrounded by a cheering crowd wearing t-shirts with their picture on it and holding up posters saying “Murder me Mickey”. In one part there is a close up on Mallory saying: “I never had so much fun in my life”. Mallory seems to be enjoying the fame she gets by the cheering crowd, what makes the criticism on American society even more satirical. Not only, that ordinary people are as excited about two serial killers, as they would be by the appearance of a pop star, but also at least Mallory is unbelievingly happy about this. Stone here holds up a mirror to the audience, making them realize how bizarre this situation is. The mass media may be initiator of the hype, but the audience has to react to it, and somehow it chooses to celebrate those people instead of being alarmed by the violence happening in our societies. And even if the audience realizes the satire that is happening in the movie, it probably will still sympathize with Mickey and Mallory. Both of them are not regarded as the cold-blooded and dead hearted killers, but rather one feels sorry for them. It is their romance and love they have for one another and their abusive and sad childhoods that could make the audience feel empathy instead of disgust and anger. But it also brings up the question if it is really enough just to have had a bad past and all your mistakes are forgiven? Perhaps this is something Stone wanted his audience to ask itself, to look behind the curtain and analyze its own contribution to events like that. The last occurrence of American Maniacs, broadcasted right out of the prison on the Superbowl night, Wayne wants to interview Mickey one last time before The structure of the scene differs a lot from the ones described above, there are not told from the background by Wayne, instead both Mickey and Wayne are sitting across from each other and talking directly. Sometimes there are close ups of their faces shown on a TV screen. They are surrounded by police officers and Mickey is tied up on his. Stone used a lot of different montages here, sometimes showing pictures of nature, Mickey’s (childhood) memories, people sitting in their living room and watching the interview and the other inmates observing the event and clapping now and then. After some time, Wayne looks directly in the camera and says:”Only love can kill the demon. Hold that thought” Then a commercial for Coca Cola is shown. Mickey talks to Wayne a lot about his very personal life. He talks about how he got the evil from his father who got it from his father. He claims that murder is something natural that every species does, and he is fates messenger, bringing a message to humanity. In the end of the interview Mickey says that he is “a natural born killer”. As the interview finishes the other inmates start to cheer and riot. During the whole interview Wayne seems to be only focused on getting a really big story, pushing Mickey towards saying what will bring the highest audience rate (“Let’s cut the BS and get real”). After hearing what he wanted to hear (“I’m a natural born killer”), he gets a face of perverse delight. This could be understood as a critique on the sensationalism in shows like “American Maniacs”. It does not seem to be important to tell the full story, with all the up and downsides, but rather to get the most shocking story. Even if that means, that it is not the full truth. The part with the commercial again shows the satirical approach Stone made in his movie. The placement of a family friendly commercial for a soft drink, containing cartoon like polar bears, in a show about serial killers appears highly bizarre – since such a show should not be appropriate for children. The setting of the interview seems to be a very important part too. As already mentioned above Stone also wanted criticize the police and justice system in America. The fact that the interview is broadcasted directly out of prison and visible to other inmates means that some person of authority had to permit that. Broadcasting a TV live show about a serial killer directly out of prison should sound like a bad idea for an ordinary person with some understanding of appropriateness. For Wayne Gale and his crew however it seemed to be the best idea they ever had. This directly passes criticism on the media and the police and justice system in America. 3. Conclusion As described in the second part of this paper Stone uses a lot of different styles in criticizing the American society. The critique is not only shown through dialogues and actions of his characters, but also through the different styles of montage and mixing genres he uses. By re-inventing already existing types of TV shows such as tabloid “news” programs and sitcoms, he uses the emotional reactions of his audience to already known types of media, which makes the criticism easier to recognize and understand. He even underlines his critique by openly exaggerating it and putting it in a satirical and very cynic setting. He openly holds up a mirror to his audience making them think about and reconsider its own role in society – at least that’s what he did to me. Natural Born Killers is an open critique on the sensationalism of society, not media in the first place. Media, especially the type of media used in the movie, only reflects on what its audience wants to see and hear. And that perhaps is the whole morale of this movie. The audience itself sometimes “begs” for sensations, for bloody, cold and brutal stories, for people we can watch in disgust, and sometimes in amazement. We as the audience seem to need something comforting, something that makes us think that we are not that bad, because there are people in the outside being worse. So, what can a society or even single human beings learn from watching this movie? It is hard to say, perhaps to question things shown on TV, to question why we praise a certain famous person. And also not to be too naïve when it comes to tabloid news, may it be stories of pop stars or serial killers. References Acton, K. (2015, April 29th ). Oliver Stone 1994 Charlie Rose Interview - NBK [Video file]. Retrieved March 12 th, 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4r2JZaUnNY Cohan, S., Hark, I. R., & Hark, I. R. (Eds.). (1997). The Road Movie Book. London, New York: Routledge. Felton, D., & Dalton, D. (1970, July 25). Charles Manson: The Incredible Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive. Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 12th, 2016 from http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/charles-manson-the-incredible-story-of-the-most-dangerous-man-alive-19700625?page=2 Price, R., & Lovitt, J. T. (02/12/97). Confusion for Simpson kids 'far from over'. USA Today. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/nns224.htm Stevenson, A. (2010). Oxford Dictionary of English (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Warner Bros. (Producer). & Stone, O. (Director). (1994). Natural Born Killers [DVD]. Taflinger, R. F. (1996). Sitcom: What it is, How it works. Pullman (WA): Washington State University. Retrieved March 12th, 2016 from http://public.wsu.edu/~taflinge/sitcom.html Weinberger, M. (1995). Natural Born Killers: A Postmodern Analysis. Retrieved March 12th, 2016 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/13L_LhG7LllbTDfbXP-thhhFTdbx5XvRmNPXkIpZ3d3k/edit Read More