The cult and sulphurous film par excellence
In August 1994, Oliver Stone was not yet at his first attempt when his eleventh feature film was released in theaters.. Acclaimed screenwriter and director of the 80s, we owe him in particular El Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street AND Born on July 4th, The Doors, JFK… Always surprising and certainly the most turbulent of Hollywood’s filmmakers, he then directed Born killersan ultra-violent story of the journey of a serial killer and serial killer couple, based on an original story by Quentin Tarantino. In the Skin of Mickey Mouse AND Mallory KnoxWoody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis burst onto the screen.
A young couple, Mickey and Mallory Knox, decide to embark on a bloody madness. Victims of abuse by their respective parents, they kill the people they meet in their path. Their decline and their bloody wandering across the United States are carefully examined by the media.
When it came out in theaters, Born killers It was a shock, radically divided critics and immediately sparked controversy. Extraordinarily violent and desperate, the total chaos generated by Mallory and Mickey, degenerate and spectacular version of Bonnie & Clydeit is all the more brutal because Oliver Stone’s production touches the viscera. The shots follow one another between black and white and maximum saturation, all the values of the shot are exploited, distorted, the camera draws frames as conventional as they are improbable, and the director integrates into his film the codes of television reportage and the “MTV” style. Born killers Is it beautiful? Does it make sense? Is it a blazing, blazing critique of the media and violence, or is it just a nihilistic, self-indulgent aesthetic fabrication?
One of the most controversial films in history
Questions that still remain open, 30 years after its release in cinemas, and that make Born killers a sulphurous film and a visceral experience, full of controversy that has never really died down. The film is in fact a vitriolic criticism of the cult of personality supported and amplified by the media, personified by the journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.) who stages the journey of Mickey and Mallory on television. But viewers and critics are divided, some judge the condemnation of the media as the main responsible for the phenomenon of mass and serial murders to be a failure and that moreover Oliver Stone easily dismisses the responsibility of his murderers for the crimes committed.
Despite its highly controversial content and mixed reviews, the film won the award Special Jury Grand Prize at the 1994 Venice Film Festival and grossed $110 million worldwide. The controversy over the violence Born killers will intensify in the years following the film’s release, with apparent connections – but without strictly established causality – between some murders that occurred in the United States and Born killers.
Source: Cine Serie
Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.
