Sex and Violence on the Big Screen, what ... - SAE Institute UK

After the death of the man Mallory <strong>and</strong> Mickey share a quick embrace however Mallory
notices the waitress from earlier trying to escape, shouting “NO!” forcing both her <strong>and</strong>
another customer into separate corners of the room. Mallory then decides to play a game
of ‘Eeny Meeny, Minny, Mo’ to decide their fate, counting down which one will be
chosen to die by a gunshot fired by Mickey. The whole scene still in black <strong>and</strong> white, we
hear Mallory counting down as the camera looks through the point of view of the gun,
moving from victim to victim. As Mallory gets closer to her decision, the waitress flees
behind the counter, grabbing the kettle <strong>and</strong> cowering behind it. Stone deliberately builds
up tension in this scene by cutting from the view of the gun (the victims) to the view of
Mallory pointing (the oppressors), counting down until the moment where Mallory
decides who will be shot. Mallory then chooses the bar maid to be shot, to which we see a
shot being fired by Mickey through the point of view of the gun. Ironically, this is one of
the realistic violent depictions in this scene, as Stone does not cut to blood splattered
across the wall, instead he lets the audience see the shot being fired. However he cleverly
ensures that the barmaid has her face behind the kettle <strong>and</strong> as such we are still unable to
actually witness the graphic violence.
The scene then switches back to a point of view shot of the gun swiftly turns towards the
other man in the café to whom is left alive to ‘tell the tale’. Mickey <strong>and</strong> Mallory’s attitude
is again demonstrating to the audience when Mallory tells the only survivor: “When them
people (the police) come here <strong>and</strong> they ask you who did this you tell them that Mickey
<strong>and</strong> Mallory Knox did it!” Through the use of this dialogue, the audiences become fully
aware of the fact that Mickey <strong>and</strong> Mallory Knox are challenging the law <strong>and</strong> ultimately
are not afraid of it. This idea becomes important when the audiences analyze the rationale
behind why our two main characters carry out their murders therefore could cause shock
due to the fact that these serial killers are willing to kill anyone that gets in their way
whether they are innocent or not.
The scene then concludes with Mallory <strong>and</strong> Mickey embracing <strong>and</strong> telling each other
how they love one another. The scene cuts back to colour as Mickey <strong>and</strong> Mallory spin
around in circles, dancing romantically as the lights dim <strong>and</strong> a small spotlight begins to
cover them. Romantic music also kicks in, which appears to almost parody the romance
featured in classic black <strong>and</strong> white moves such as Casablanca (Micheal Curtiz, 1942)
Oliver Stone (Directors Commentary, 2003) suggests that the romance scene between
Mickey <strong>and</strong> Mallory was one scene that upset people a lot. This could be due to the fact
that the film focuses a great deal on the love that Mickey <strong>and</strong> Mallory share for each
other <strong>and</strong> through the use of visual techniques like this, aims to try <strong>and</strong> communicate to
the audience their feelings, which may shock audiences as they begin to empathise with
the pair.
Throughout the film, the action, <strong>and</strong> in particular, the violence on screen cross-references
many different genre conventions. This can be seen when Mallory firsts hits the man in
the diner, making him stumble much like the characters from cartoon films. Again we see
this technique when Mickey slashes up the man in the diner, slicing him in a number of
different ways with a variety of shots until he falls to his knees, very stylistically much
like in old samurai movies.
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