How MTV inspired Oliver Stone to make ‘Natural Born Killers’
In the 1980s and 1990s, the cinema of Oliver Stone hit American culture like a sledgehammer. A former Vietnam War veteran, Stone’s cinema sizzled with political unrest and social justice, with his first ever movie, the short film Last Year in Viet Nam in 1971, containing all the fire, fury and artistic enthusiasm that would encourage the director to make Salvador, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July in the decade to come.
An eclectic filmmaker, Stone’s interests didn’t merely lie in the Vietnam War, creating a number of movies through the 1980s that focused on the inner workings of contemporary America. In addition to his war trilogy, which included 1986’s Platoon, 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July, and 1993’s Heaven & Earth, Stone took on the bubbling tension of modern society with 1988’s Talk Radio and explored the life of the 35th U.S. President with 1991’s JFK.
Once 1994 rolled around, however, and Stone was an established name, he chose to challenge the changing face of modern media with Natural Born Killers. Adapted from a much-tweaked script from Quentin Tarantino, Stone’s film told the story of two victims of childhood trauma who join forces, become lovers and go on a murderous rampage that becomes wildly glorified by the mainstream media.
Starring the likes of Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, and Robert Downey Jr, Natural Born Killers attracted lovers of Tarantino’s 1992 flick Reservoir Dogs and gained a cult appreciation as a result. Critical and edgy, the film exposed the morbid voyeurism of modern media, often going a little too far in its display of violence, losing the heart of its meaning as a result.
“I think it’s a very fine piece of filmmaking and I think it transcends time,” Stone told New York Post, “It’s very fine cutting we worked on the cutting for almost a year and we shot it in a highly unorthodox style that you see more and more on TV. It had never quite been done before — a mixture of stocks and styles”. Vibrant in colour with snappy cinematography, Stone’s movie well represents the frenetic spirit of Tarantino’s filmography.
Continuing, the filmmaker explains: “I was influenced, I have to say, by MTV and some of the styles I saw in the early 80s and 90s on television. But no one had tried that style over the course of 90, 100 minutes”. Eccentric, colourful and pulsing with subversive energy, the mood of the American TV station MTV would radiate across American culture, inspiring fashion, music and more.
Despite Stone’s fondness for the movie, Tarantino was never much of a fan, even coming out to say that he outright “hated” Natural Born Killers. Claiming that he forfeited the publishing rights when he sold the screenplay in the early 1990s, Tarantino disowned the film and urged his own fans to stay away from Stone’s adaptation, stating: “I hated that fucking movie. If you like my stuff, don’t watch that movie”.
Take a look at the trailer for Stone’s MTV-inspired crime flick below.
