"I am the devil. And I am here to do the devil's work."

When you hear those words, how do they resonate with you? Chances are you think of Charlie Manson, one of the most well known serial killers of all time. But he's not just well-known. He's famous. He's not famous in the way more common modern celebrities are famous; who are generally accepted in society, such as, oh, say, Miley Cyrus. But he's famous. Our society has immortalized his name and his actions through our sensationalistic new reporting and television programming.

For another instance, the other day I happened to see a program on television entitled "Top 20 Hollywood Murders." Top 20. That title implies that it's something good, almost like "Top 20 Touchdown Passes" or something. And as if the title wasn't bad enough, the entire program showcases the shock-value crime scene photod. The dialogue used by reporters capitalized on the sensationalistic aspects and glorifies the horrific acts being described. The program was all a sad excuse to exploit truly horrible things for TV ratings.

That's all the newspeople care about. Ratings. They pay no mind to journalistic integrity as long as their stories provide a nice fat paycheck at the end of the week. Who can really blame them? They are just catering to their audience. We are that audience. The entire nation is that audience.

By now you might be wondering what all this has to do with the movie, "Natural Born Killers." Well, everything. The aforementioned is the entire theme and moral to the movie. It does a good job of nailing these messages into our mind. It does this by grabbing our attention with the movie's own unique brand of surreal directing, use of symbolism, and smart modern graphic filming.

The film is about a couple who happen to be serial killers - Micky and Mallory. Wherever they go, they end up killing people, leaving one person behind to tell the tale to the news, thus increasing their fan base. We learn much about them, their relationship, and their childhood as the film progresses. We also get to know a corrupt cop who wants them locked up and a guy who runs an America's Most Wanted-style show. It may sound typical, but this film is powerful and unique. The directing style truly breaks free from the Hollywood norm. You've probably found yourself rooting for the bad guys in a movie before, but this will really make you question if that's okay. I reccomend watching this film more than once, because I'm sure I didn't get everything out of it in one viewing. I don't want to spoil anything else, so if you haven't seen "Natural Born Killers", and you are old enough to withstand the harsh content and understand it's message, then I highly reccomend viewing it. I had never seen anything like it. This movie is truly a masterpiece that does not conform to casual Hollywood standards.

Grade: 10/10
Director: Oliver Stone