Unrated Director's Cut of Oliver Stone's NATURAL BORN KILLERS - Blu-ray Review by John J. Puccio

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—> See Link to our Blu-ray Review (below)

The Media Made Them Superstars.

Notorious for its violent content, the film was named the 8th most controversial movie of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Warner Brothers recently released (Oct 13) the original Unrated Director's Cut of Oliver Stone's controversial NATURAL BORN KILLERS on Blu-ray and 2-Disc DVD.

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as Mickey Knox and Mallory Wilson, two young, attractive mass murderers in love in Oliver Stone's wild-eyed satire on the American fascination with criminals. After killing Mallory's loathsome parents, the pair perform a ritual "marriage" and take off on a "honeymoon" killing spree that wipes out 52 people. Bloodthirsty tabloid reporter Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.) reports their every move to an adoring public while warden Dwight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones) is only too eager to welcome such celebrities to his prison.

Burbank, CA – Fourteen years ago, Oliver Stone shocked the world with Natural Born Killers, a disturbing hallucinogenic ride through the minds and exploits of two cold-blooded lovers who killed for sport, love and attention.

Prior to the theatrical release, Stone reworked the film, made more than 150 cuts, and removed approximately four minutes in order to get an R rating. Still, when the film opened in August, 1994, The New Yorker's Stephen Schiff called it "the most radical film any studio has released since A Clockwork Orange."

Now available, Warner Home Video has released the original unrated film in a dazzling Blu-ray version ($28.99 SRP) that includes a new high-def introduction from Stone, a 44-page booklet on the film's production and a wealth of bonus content from previous releases. A 2-Disc DVD ($20.97 SRP) is also available.

Most importantly, Natural Born Killers Director's Cut features NBK Evolution: How Would It All Go Down Now?, a new featurette from 6-time Emmy Award®-nominated producer Woody Thompson, illustrating how current communication technology would impact the film if it were made today.

Stone's film takes a satirical swing at the American media world of 1994 which was becoming dominated by tabloid journalism. Mickey and Mallory are born out of a media frenzy and eventually kill for the media.

That led Thompson to wonder what if Stone were to shoot Natural Born Killers in 2009? How would he portray today's instantaneous user-generated media society and its reaction to the exploits of Mickey and Mallory? How would the social networks and the blogs cover, discuss and rate each of their killing sprees? How many views and comments would their home-made videos generate on Youtube?

Thompson's multimedia production company Eyeboogie, Inc. presents the answer in NBK Evolution: How Would It All Go Down Now?, which examines the issues and changes in the context of current media and even follows a timeline of the killers' activities in cell phone videos, blogs, tweets and Facebook updates to demonstrate the timeline and fully immerse the viewers in the "what if?"

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as husband and wife serial killers in this powerful, gut-grabbing look at how violence and crime are sensationalized and glamorized in the media. As Mickey and Mallory cut their swath of terror across America, they are regarded more like celebrities than fugitives. Robert Downey Jr. and Tommy Lee Jones also star.

Oliver Stone is one of America's most prolific cinematic innovators and the recipient of three Academy Awards® — in 1978 (Writing, Midnight Express); 1986 (Directing, Platoon); and 1989 (Directing, Born on the Fourth of July). Other memorable Stone films include Wall Street, JFK, The Doors, Nixon, Any Given Sunday, Alexander, World Trade Center and W.

BONUS FEATURES include: (both DVD & Blu-ray)
• 44-Page booklet
• Introduction by Oliver Stone (New Intro HD)
• Commentary by director Oliver Stone (from original SD release)
• NBK Evolution: How Would It All Go Down Now? – New documentary providing a look at how the film might be different if today's technology advancements were available (in HD)
• Chaos Rising: The Storm Around Natural Born Killers – Shocking 'making-of' documentary about the storm of controversy surrounding the film (from original SD release)
• Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Oliver Stone (from original SD release)
- The Desert
- Steven Wright
- The Courtroom
- The Hun Brothers
- The Drive-In
- Denis Leary
• Alternate Ending with introduction by Oliver Stone (from original SD release)
• Charlie Rose Interview – Charlie Rose interviews Oliver Stone on the making of this violent film (from the HD DVD release in SD)
• NBK Director's Cut Trailer

NATURAL BORN KILLERS – Explore further:
—> Blu-ray Review by John J. Puccio »
EXCERPT: Sometimes it's hard to tell what Oliver Stone's intentions are in making a film. Evidence suggests that he intended "Natural Born Killers" as a dark satire on America's love of outlaws and desperadoes, plus as a scathing indictment of the news media for glamorizing such criminals and selling out to violence. In an accompanying featurette, Stone calls it "news for profit." However, in the process of nearly bludgeoning us to death with his points, the director also makes us feel uncomfortably entertained by the story's deranged goings on. He asks us to enjoy the violence, and then in effect he says, "I told you so." It seems rather unfair, but it's the kind of controversy Stone thrives on ("JFK," "Born on the Fourth of July," "The Doors," "Salvador," "Talk Radio"). Unfortunately, it doesn't make for an entirely satisfactory motion picture, and while "Natural Born Killers" has unlimited vitality, its director might have exercised a little restraint, a restraint further absent from the Director's Cut. Therefore, I have always viewed the film with a grudging admiration at best.

If the idea of a pair of young, mass-murdering lovers blasting their way blissfully down the road of life (Route 666) sounds bizarre, credit the original story to Quentin Tarantino, who also had a hand in an early draft of the script. The film is an all-out assault on the senses, eager to prove that society creates its own monsters. Stone tells his story in a never-ending stream of multimedia light shows. If there is some kind of filmic device the director doesn't employ, I can't think of what it is. He uses colored filters; out-of-focus lenses; MTV-style quick editing; grainy, handheld, home-movie sequences; camera shots from every angle; mixed black-and-white and color photography; animated cartoons; fast and slow motion; multiple flashbacks; laugh tracks; voice-overs; film-overs; you name it.

Stone hammers his message home: The media are the bad guys, and they have desensitized us to the realities around us. But he's part of the media, and the pizzazz his techniques communicate is a part of the hype he is railing against. He utilizes overkill to criticize overkill. Then he has the gall to suggest that love can overcome everything. I dunno.

I couldn't help thinking as I was watching "Natural Born Killers" how much more effective the black humor was in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," a dark comedy that satirized an even more serious subject than here--world annihilation. Kubrick continued throughout his film to make telling jokes and devastating comments on the stupidity of Man in a manner that evoked laughter, sympathy, and agreement. Not so here, with Stone's sledgehammer approach.

There is no denying that "Natural Born Killers" can sometimes be highly entertaining or that the director has something important to say. But he makes his point in the first ten minutes and continues to hit us over the head with it for the next two hours. Stone has guts, I'll grant him that; but he needn't have spilled so much of it in our laps.

(Click thru the Link above for the full review)

Unrated version / The Theatrical Version is Rated R for extreme violence and graphic carnage, for shocking images, and for strong language and sexuality

Film Synopsis:
A bold new film that takes a look at a country seduced by fame, obsessed by crime and consumed by the media.
In the media circus of life, they were the main attraction.

The story of a husband and wife who are serial killers involved in the ultimate road trip from hell: a cross country killing spree that elevates them from fugitives into infamous media celebrities. A sleazy reporter helps to elevate the serial-killing lovers to cult status.

Oliver Stone delivers a powerful (and controversial) movie unlike any other: NATURAL BORN KILLERS, a visually dazzling, wickedly funny slam of violence and media obsession that's "the most radical film any major studio has released since A Clockwork Orange (Stephen Schiff, The New Yorker). As fugitive serial killers Mickey and Mallory, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis play crazy mixed-up kids a demon has nightmares about. And Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Sizemore and Rodney Dangerfield make vivid impressions in this wild ride that packs a wallop.

Oliver Stone's over-the-top satire on America's worshipful fascination with tabloid criminals stars Woody Harrelson as Mickey Knox and Juliette Lewis as girlfriend-wife Mallory Wilson. Commencing with the dual murder of Mallory's sexually abusive father (Rodney Dangerfield) and grossly negligent mother (Edie McClurg), the anomic couple take off on a three-week killing spree across the country, telling everyone who they are so that they get the credit for their crimes. The media are immediately enthralled with the couple, especially Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.), the bloodthirsty host of a tabloid TV show who follows their every move.

By the time they're finally arrested, they've become such huge media stars that the cops treat them more like celebrities than criminals. Even the maniacal limelight-hogging warden of the Batongaville State Prison, Dwight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones), is in awe. Stone pulls out all the stops in the prison riot, as the unwitting Gale becomes an unwilling participant in his own broadcast of the event. Again the director switches from film to video, from color to black and white, from sitcom parody to newsreel parody, and from one film stock to another, hoping to jar the audience out of its complacency with visual hyperbole.

The prison riot scene took place at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois — 342 maximum security prisoners were cleared to act in the Hollywood riot. The Director's Cut restores footage that was edited from the original release version so it could receive an MPAA R rating. It also includes seven complete scenes that Oliver Stone had voluntarily excised from the movie for its theatrical release. One of these sequences features Ashley Judd as the sister of one of Mickey and Mallory's victims. "'It's such an outrageous story,' [Oliver Stone] said, 'and in the time between oppositioning the film and making it, tremendous things have happened on America's landscape.'"--interviewed by Bernard Weinraub, New York Times, 8/16/1994 "I shoot good violence. I mean, I know I do."--Oliver Stone

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