The 20th Century's Last Great Film - "Natural Born Killers"

"The whole world's coming to an end, Mal."  Mickey Knox, played by Woody Harrelson, says this at the beginning of "Natural Born Killers" a movie released 20 years ago today.  The millennium was coming to a close and the world was a crazy place full of OJ Simpson and Tonya Harding.  At the time no truer words were spoken.

I saw it twice in the theater as a young 19 year old, and watched it again last night with wide eyes and a grin.  I still marvel at it's audacity and brilliance.  Audiences had never seen such hardcore bombast, and we haven't seen anything like it since.  It's pure cinema - a frenetic visual trip with a not-so subtle message.  We (Americans, Humans, Living Things) are all natural born killers.  With or without our culture, media, or government - we are hard-wired aggressors.  It's a brutal message, wrapped in a big budget Hollywood movie - a two hour entertainment that excites, confuses, repulses, and thrills.  It's the perfect movie for a young and impressionable filmmaker.

Much has been written and debated about the themes of violence in our society.  To me, "Natural Born Killers" is a kinetic feast, stylish and iconic, referential and fresh.  It's a brilliantly executed film that pushes the boundaries of what an audience can tolerate.  It's the apex of 20th Century filmmaking because it assimilates all that came before and delivers a unique, mesmerizing story.  It is the ultimate blend of style and substance.

Based on a story by Quentin Tarantino, "Natural Born Killers" is director Oliver Stone's most audacious picture.  It follows "JFK," "The Doors," and "Born on the Fourth of July" as he continues to explore the expression of Americana on film.  Like "JFK" he employs many tricks, such as multiple film stocks, non-linear storytelling, and the random odd flash of incoherence.  "Natural Born Killers" was filmed in color, black and white, and animation.  It uses vibrant 35mm photography, and grainy 8mm shots.  It utilizes video cameras from a TV sitcom, and vintage stock photography from 1950s monster movies.  It's all active and energetic, weaving a story together about life at end of the decade.

When it was released on August 26th, 1994, reality TV was in it's infancy.  The 24/7 news cycle was still young, and the internet was just about to connect us all.  TV was the big bad enemy, and the line between movies and TV was never clearer than at this moment.  No one would ever expect "Natural Born Killers" to play on TV, yet shows are now full of both big ideas and gratuitous violence.  Watching this movie makes you realize the power of the big screen.  Nothing on TV - even the best and most praised shows - looks this cool.

This movie does what the original innovators of the art form intended 100 years previously - it shows pictures that MOVE!  Again, I use the word kinetic.  And that's what's so striking about watching this movie today.  It understands the medium - in a world where very few films do.  Most movies today rely on CGI spectacle to create a bigger, louder, explosion.  But they don't really move with any visual flow - and they certainly don't tie it back to the narrative.

"Natural Born Killers" does all that and more.  It jumps from film stocks and colors while commenting on reality and perception and subconscious thoughts.  It uses all the tools to tell its story and provide deeper meaning. 

Like all important art, and other excellent films, "NBK" draws on it's references, acknowledges them, and creates a new, rich experience.  In this instance, Oliver Stone is clearly influenced by the films of Stanley Kubrick.  "A Clockwork Orange" is all over "Natural Born Killers" in terms of shots, style, and even characters.  The structure is very similar with before and after prison halves.  Even "Full Metal Jacket" comes to mind with it's two distinct halves.  Finally, "Apocalypse Now" comes up repeatedly as Woody Harrelson channels Marlon Brando with his cult rhetoric at the heart of darkness.

Led by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, "NBK" is filled with great performances that also includes Robert Downey Jr. and Tommy Lee Jones.  The multi-format cinematography is shot by Robert Richardson, the three-time Oscar winner who is both Martin Scorsese's and Quentin Tarantino's DP of choice. The rock and roll angst-filled soundtrack was produced by Trent Reznor.

20 years later, "Natural Born Killers" is an important film that was way ahead of it's time.  American society is still filled with guns and violence and wars and a runaway media that lacks journalistic integrity.  In many ways, 1994 was just the beginning.  And "Natural Born Killers" is exactly what Leonard Cohen sings about during the end credits:  "I've seen the future, and it's murder."

Oliver Stone Talks "JFK" at Special Screening

Why does John F. Kennedy matter?  What have we learned about our nation from his assassination?  These questions were on my mind last week as I attended the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood to see Oliver Stone host a screening of his 1991 epic "JFK."

These questions lingered long after the film ended, even after I sat glued to my seat for over 4 hours during the movie and introduction by the Academy Award winning writer-director.  50 years after the assassination, and 22 years after "JFK" nothing is any clearer.  It's also apparent from the remarks by Mr. Stone that he's still trying to make sense of things.  His latest project, "The Untold History of the United States" - the 10 part miniseries for cable TV - is yet another attempt to look at history with multiple perspectives, and take away the hope that informed citizens make a better democracy. 

I guess the first question is why does Oliver Stone matter?  As a filmmaker, he's very inspiring and influential due to his passion and style.  He writes and directs movies that entertain, innovate, and dig deep into our collective history to find relevance today.  

"JFK" is one of his finest.  Viewed in 2013, it stands tall as fascinating and groundbreaking.  An ambitious film that aims high and succeeds by telling a great story - a story audiences may think they know, but fall captive as the film surprises and thrills.  It's beautifully photographed by Robert Richardson, and expertly edited by Pietro Scalia & Joe Hutshing, combining newsreel footage, re-enactments, and multiple film stocks to create a rich American tapestry.  The acting is brilliant, led by Kevin Costner at his movie-star peak.  I've seen the movie multiple times since 1991, yet marveled once again at the powerful imagery and resonant themes of American innocence lost.

"JFK" is such a kinetic work of pure cinema that it could be equally enjoyed with the sound off.  Really - the images are that stunning and direct.  That is except for the two mesmerizing speeches that form the centerpiece of the movie:  Donald Sutherland's explanation of why and how Kennedy could be killed, and Kevin Costner's courtroom monologue where he debunks the single bullet theory attributed to a lone assassin. 

Oliver Stone introduced the movie by first showing the Kennedy section from his new "Untold History" documentary (now available on Blu-ray).  That selection summed up the radical ideas that Kennedy was implementing in 1963.  This includes his idea that space exploration should be a multinational effort, the first nuclear arms control treaty (The Atmospheric Test-Ban Treaty), the goal to withdraw American troops from Vietnam by 1965, and a call to end the Cold War.  He was viewed as soft on Communism, criticized for allowing the Berlin Wall to be built, and beat-up for the Bay of Pigs fiasco.  Kennedy stood up to the military and the intelligence community, and truly wanted a progressive course for the country.  All motives for a possible assassination, according to both the documentary and "JFK."

Oliver Stone remembered being 17 years old when JFK was killed.  "We didn't question it," he said.  "Nothing changed for me."  It was his experience in Vietnam that changed him.  "Vietnam was the result of the change of policies from Kennedy's death.  I didn't know it on that day, of course.  It took me another 10 years after the war to change. . . And until I got into this 'Untold History' in 2008, I was a dramatist interested in history, and now I've really gotten into it and learned a lot more."

The basis for the new documentary (made with historian Peter Kuznick) started with the policies that Kennedy wanted to change back in '63.  Mr. Stone found himself, in 2008, beating his head against a wall asking, "Why are we going back to these wars over and over again?  It seems like we don't learn anything."  In 2008, Mr. Stone wanted to learn what the pattern was; whether George W. Bush was the aberration, or was he just an example of the same policies since World War II.  Sadly, he found out that was the case, and that Kennedy was the only president we've had in the last 70 years that has tried to make a significant change.  Oliver Stone really wants to understand what life in America is about.  "We're at a very strange time now, when you have the NSA listening in on everything we do.  It's like Jim Morrison said, 'This is the weirdest life I've ever known.'  As a dramatist, I love to see the tension that exists.  If this empire can still pull it off.  With all this military muscle.  I don't know this thing can last."

4 Disc Blu-ray set now on sale

Regarding the assassination, Oliver Stone is concerned that the mainstream media continues to unquestionably perpetuate the lone assassin/single bullet story.  "It's crazy," he says.  "It defies common sense.  What you see with your own eyes [in the Zapruder film], back and to the left.  And this concept of firing three bolt-action shots out of the sixth floor at Kennedy; and hitting seven wounds in two different people with one bullet is insane.  It's so preposterous.  Lewis Carroll is rolling over in his grave.  I can't believe all these smart people in the United States establishment - The New York Times, Washington Post - with all these people writing about it and I'm the only one allowed on television to say anything different.  It's amazing the consensus we've reached, we've become so conservative in this country, it's depressing."

Although the debate still rages, it does appear from much of this 50th Anniversary talk that Oswald is the accepted culprit by the public and the media.  Consider this recent LA Times Editorial from a member of the Warren Commission, justifying the lone-assassin theory.

Oliver Stone wants you to make up your own mind.  He describes the facts that disprove Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin, and the information that shows the evidence of a massive cover-up.  He encourages all citizens to do their own research, and recommends the following books: 

Jim DiEugenio "Reclaiming Parkland"
Jim DiEugenio "Destiny Betrayed"
James Douglass "JFK and the Unspeakable"
John Newman "Oswald and the CIA"
Cyril Wecht "Cause of Death"
Joan Mellen "A Farewell to Justice"
Gary Aguilar "Trauma Room One"
Robert Groden "Absolute Proof"
Gearld McKnight "Breach of Trust"

So why does President Kennedy and his assassination matter?  His death on November 22, 1963 was a turning point (neither the first nor the last), when the country could have fulfilled its promise as a beacon of new ideas.  Instead, hope gave way to subsequent decades of war and conservatism, greed and corruption.  Maybe the '60s as we know it would never have happened - both the bad and the good.  Or was everything inevitable?  A world without war - seems unlikely.  Whether in drama or reality, conflict is inevitable.  An alternate history is all just science fiction.

Oliver Stone ends "JFK" with a single title card that reads:  'What's past is prologue.'

Even if we learn history, are we doomed to repeat it?