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

Chapter 2.2
Film History <strong>and</strong> Reception
The effects that Natural Born Killers might have on younger audiences of the film was
perhaps one of the main reasons why audiences found this film particularly disturbing, as
there were fears of copy-cat behaviour. Films like Natural Born Killers could be seen as a
growing threat to society. According to Courtwright, Natural Born Killers inspired
killings were reported from places as diverse as France, Georgia, New York <strong>and</strong> Texas
with the best-known involving Ben Darras <strong>and</strong> Sarah Edmonson, who were apparently, so
taken by the movie they watched it 6 times in one night <strong>and</strong> during a hallucinogenic
spree, killed Bill Savage, a cotton gin manager.
The film itself split audiences <strong>and</strong> critics down the middle, some decided never to see it
whilst others saw it due to it’s taboo nature as Front Desk News suggests, (Front Desk,
1995) specifying that people reportedly paid up to £100 for tickets when it had been
screened at the London Film Festival for a one off screening when the film was yet to be
released.
The ‘dangers’ of Natural Born Killers was also echoed by best selling novelist John
Grisham, who states (Courtwright, 1998) “The film was not made with the intent of
stimulating morally depraved young people to commit similar crimes, but such a result
can hardly be a surprise”. However, in the article Front Desk News published in Empire
magazine (Front Desk, 1995) Oliver Stone argues that he disagrees entirely <strong>and</strong> that in
particular, the British tabloids had created another storm <strong>and</strong> that not a single murder had
been linked to Natural Born Killers.
Despite the fact that the media response appears irrelevant when talking about the ways
in which the filmmakers depict controversial images, it is a direct reflection of the ways
that Natural Born Killers used controversial images <strong>and</strong> portrayed violence to cause
shock within audiences as evaluated in the following critical analysis of Natural Born
Killers.
To fully underst<strong>and</strong> the shocking nature behind Natural Born Killers, it is important to
look back at some of the work Oliver Stone had directed in his career prior to directing
Natural Born Killers to establish an idea of the sort of reputation Oliver Stone had as a
director. Oliver Stone’s first major success was Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1987), a story
about the horrors of the Vietnam War, according to the website Filmmakers.com (2006)
“Platoon was the top grossing film in the country. Eventually the movie brought in a total
of $136 million in box office sales, taking home the Oscar for Best Picture of 1986.
Platoon was later followed up by Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987), which focused on life
within the stock exchange. The film itself was another successful attempt from Oliver
Stone, nearly tripling its budget in US box office alone according to the international
movie database (IMDB.com, 2007). However, “critics commented on how they felt Stone
avoided the real issues of the stock market, rather on crude <strong>and</strong> ruthless lifestyles of
unrealistic characters <strong>and</strong> situations” (Filmmakers.com, 2006)
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