Natural Born Killers (1994)

• Information at Internet Movie Database
• Roger Ebert Review, Chicago Sun-Times
• Themes
  • Alternate Reality
    • The "psychic landscape" of the characters as well as of our violent culture is often seen in the background.
  • Angels
    • Owen the "guardian angel" appears reading a paper in the diner at the beginning of the film, and reappears to help Mickey and Mallory escape. In the alternate ending to the film, he also kills Mickey and Mallory.
  • Apocalyptic
    • Prison riot as apocalyptic destruction of evil. Mickey and Mallory leave there, make their final sacrifice, and end the violent cycles of their own upbringing and societal influences. (For a kind of 60's hippy utopia!)
  • Clean/Unclean
    • While decrying violence as negative, the media feeds the public fascination for it because it sells. Violence is rhetorically "unclean", but is invisible and/or encouraged through societal systems.
  • Cleansing the Temple
    • The prison riot - the prison "temple" (society's place of sacrifice for their own safety) is exposed for what it has become. Prisoners riot and put the head of the warden on a pole in a sort of ultimate sacrifice.
  • Confession
    • Mickey's understanding of his life through the shaman's ritual.
  • Conversion
    • Ironically, it is Mickey and Mallory Knox who break through the cycles of violence and stop killing. They go on to live in the underground without perpetuating the violence in our society.
  • Crucifixion
    • Wayne Gale is killed in a crucifix (or Buddhist monk's!) position. He is the representation of the media which caters to the public fascination of violence, which must be sacrificed before the cycle of violence can end.
  • Demons
    • The demonic is highlighted through the use of the color green and through demonic images. While Mickey and Mallory are the culturally revered "demons," other demons are exposed as well. Ambiguity of demon figures - color green, entwined snakes - throughout the film.
  • Difficulty Discerning Evil
    • While Mickey and Mallory are understood as evil, they are also revered as heroes. "If I were a mass-murderer, I'd be Mickey and Mallory Knox." Institutional evil - including the evil involved in promoting killers as heroes - is not recognized. (Mallory's family situation is washed over by bright colors and accompanied by a laugh track. The warden and Jack Scagnetti are seen as positive figures, writing books and "keeping order." The media presents itself as an unbiased observer when actually it encourages the glorification of evil and violence.)
  • Exodus
    • Owen as the Moses figure who leads them out through the bowels of the prison. (Sewage dripping on them from the pipes above.)
  • Fate
    • Major theme for Mickey and Mallory. They meet because of fate. Mickey kills because he understands himself as the amoral messenger of fate.
  • Father Types
    • Rodney Dangerfield as the perverse father who perpetuates abuse and violence through his treatment of his family, all accompanied (and hidden) by "50's family" sitcom laughter and music.
  • Healing
    • The shaman and the snakes in the desert are what "heal" Mickey and Mallory and start them on the path toward learning how not to perpetuate cycles of violence. Entwined snakes theme throughout film.
  • Institutional Evil
    • Prison system, abusive family cycles, media glorification of violence, environmental violence are all described as contributing to the level of violence in our society.
  • Interconnectedness
    • Mickey's words at the "wedding" as they bleed together: "We'll be living in all the oceans now." The violent cycles begun through their genes and their environment also continues through them.
  • Journey/Wilderness
    • The shaman and the snakes in the desert are what "heal" Mickey and Mallory and start them on the path toward learning how not to perpetuate cycles of violence.
  • Judgment
    • Mickey and Mallory always leave one person behind "to tell the tale." Scene in diner where they (as the amoral messengers of fate) choose which one not to kill - Mallory cheats because she doesn't like the waitress. (Lots of folks' concept of God is not too different from this!)
  • Prayer
    • Mickey Knox: Mister rabbit says, "A moment of realization is worth a thousand prayers."
  • Prophet
    • Mickey Knox as the prophet who understands evil at its core, and yet does not understand his own moral responsibility within it. (Prison interview.)
  • Sacrifice
    • Wayne Gale is killed in a crucifix (or Buddhist monk's!) position. He is the representation of the media which caters to the public fascination of violence, which must be sacrificed before the cycle of violence can end.
  • Seductive Power of Evil
    • Mickey and Mallory are glorified as heroes, mirroring our culture's continuing glorification of violence. Because there is no war to turn the violence out on "them," it is turned in on "us," but it is still glorified. Killers become "stars".
  • Temptation/Testing
    • The testing in the wilderness (complete with snakes!) where Mickey understands his life and who he is.

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