Natural Born Killers Literary Elements

Natural Born Killers Literary Elements

Director

Oliver Stone

Leading Actors/Actresses

Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Robert Downey, Jr, Tommy Lee Jones

Genre

Crime Thriller, Black Comedy

Language

English

Awards

Recognized as the eighth most controversial film of all time by "Entertainment Weekly" magazine

Date of Release

August 26, 1994

Producer

Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy, Clayton Townsend

Setting and Context

1990s America, over four states, during the murder spree of Mickey and Mallory Knox

Narrator and Point of View

There are two distinct narrators and points of view; through his camera, Wayne Gayle narrates what is happening in real time and acts as the point of view of the American people who are watching events unfold. However, the movie is generally from the perspective of Mickey and Mallory.

Tone and Mood

Adrenalin filled, shocking, horrifying, captivating and salacious.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Mickey and Mallory Knox are the protagonists; the antagonists are any of the characters who try to stop them from being together or from continuing their murder spree. Any men who make sexual advances towards Mallory are particularly antagonistic to her.

Major Conflict

There is conflict between Mickey and Mallory when he calls her a "stupid bitch" and she becomes angry because that is exactly what her father called her and she had hoped for rather more than this from Mickey.

Climax

There is a prison riot which enables Mickey and Mallory to escape. We meet them again years later when they are still free and are raising a family.

Foreshadowing

The fact that Wayne Gale has recorded all of their activities on camera foreshadows his murder because now that they have been able to show the whole of America what they are doing thanks to his television coverage of it, they don't need Gale as an eyewitness.

Understatement

No specific examples.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

There were no particular filming innovations in a technical sense; however, one of Stone's directorial innovations was to film jail scenes inside an active jail, and have real-life prisoners work as extras on the movie, playing the role of rioters, only carrying rubber weapons.

Allusions

Wayne Gale's television coverage of the murder spree is an allusion to the live crime action that appeared so regularly on the news during the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the O.J. Simpson case when the police's televised chase of him escaping in a Ford Bronco was the most watched news item of the year.

Paradox

Mickey and Mallory are capable of the most depraved acts of violence for which they feel no remorse, yet they are also capable of the deepest and most genuine love for each other.

Parallelism

There is a parallel between the childhoods that Mickey and Mallory endured as both came from abusive households and had dysfunctional families who abused them.

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