natural born killers is really a very simple story that , in essence , has already been told in bonnie & clyde with some major variations in emphasis , mood and degree .
both films glamorize " outlaws , " in one case bank robbers and killers and in the other mass murderers .
both relate the story of a couple liberated by love .
but where bonnie & clyde was partial and subtle , natural born killers is total and blatant .
where bonnie & clyde was social , natural born killers is psychological .
what bonnie & clyde hinted at , natural born killers confronts and explores .
what bonnie and clyde stole , mickey and mallory kill .
to examine natural born killers as nothing more than a psychological odyssey of realization and exposure of the frauds surrounding them , expressed metaphorically as killing , subdues the mysterious power this film wields .
for the most part , when mickey and mallory kill , they kill all that frustrates them unnecessarily , they kill what is trying to kill them , they kill what dissembles and cowers from life , they kill what needs to be killed .
this mythos is at least as old as the hindu trinity .
brahma created .
vishnu preserved . and siva destroyed , but he destroyed what needed to be destroyed to make way for the useful creations of brahma .
the following may be painfully mundane but metaphorically so accurate , i 'm forced to say it for clarity 's sake : a plumber must remove the old lead and copper pipes , that is , destroy the old plumbing system in order to replace it with the new one made of plastics .
your plumber , bonnie and clyde , mickey and mallory , and siva are all productive destroyers .
i think you could say without much of a challenge that religion is responsible for more killing and death , presently and historically , than any other phenomena .
muslims kill christians .
hindus kill muslims .
christians kill pagans .
jews kill christians , etc .
you could reverse subject and predicate in each instance and still not be challenged .
religion is an orgy of killing .
the institution of the state only misses first place for technical reasons like it has n't been a major player for as long or the two are frequently indistinguishable .
"
the state is the divine idea upon earth , " hegel said , meaning it is absolute , all - powerful , ineffable , unassailable , infallible , authoritarian and patriarchal just like jhvh , allah , god , etc .
well , what does all this have to do with natural born killers ?
let me first say that religions of this nature , in the ideal , take the place of sex . consider the catholic church , which in its hey - dey , took religion as seriously as any other religion or institution ever .
god takes the place of sex as manifested in all those vows of celibacy taken by the pope , cardinals , bishops , monks , etc .
they forego the one , in order to come closer to the other .
during the middle ages , when this doctrine was unmitigated and unchallenged , the most repressive regime the west has ever known in terms of scope and magnitude rose to power .
( parenthetically , witness plato as well .
in the republic , he attempted to launch the first systematic absolutist regime .
not coincidentally he was something of a mystic himself , regularly assailing the passions . )
catholicism , as policy , attacks the passions as evil .
it sees intercourse only as a means to perpetuate the species not as a way to pleasure .
masturbation is considered a sin with the sacrament of penance necessary for absolution .
this is religion , this is authoritarianism in its essence .
as further evidence , the nazis had the same attitudes as the church on these matters .
our culture , most of the cultures of the world have been steeped in this tradition for thousands of years .
we ca n't help but adopt , even internalize some of these same authoritarian attitudes , leading to a destructive split between the biological and social self .
mickey and mallory knox internalized them , too , then through spontaneous sexual awareness sparked in each one of them by the presence of the other , discovered them , and began expurgating them from themselves and from the world in the process unifying themselves .
it is a straightforward liberation through sex .
as some good patriarch once observed , " you can maintain control as long as everyone keeps their clothes on .
"
m&m had a vision of what the world would be like without contradictions .
they saw what civilization and culture and everyday life would be like under such conditions .
"
the moment of realization is worth a thousand prayers , " as mickey says .
as a the most consistent and impassioned critic of western culture there is nietzsche applying his typical stridency to the matter : let us look each other in the face .
we are hyberboreans -- we know well enough how remote our place is .
"
neither by land nor by water will you find the road to the hyberboreans " : even pindar , in his day , knew that much about us .
beyond the north , beyond ice , beyond death -- our life , our happiness .
. . . we have discovered that happiness ; we know the way ; we got our knowledge of it from thousands of years in the labyrinth .
who else has found it ?
--the man of today ?
-- " i do n't know either the way out or the way in ; i am whatever does n't know either the way out or the way in
" --so sighs the man of today . . . .
this is the sort of modernity that made us ill -- we sickened in lazy peace , cowardly compromise , the whole virtuous dirtiness of the modern yea and nay .
this tolerance and largeur of the heart that " forgives " everything because it " understands " everything is a sirocco to us .
rather live amid the ice than among modern virtues and other such south - winds ! as far as i can tell , this is what the movie has to say .
its alleged critique of the media is only secondary , tertiary , quaternary , subsidiary for sure .
for example wayne gayle 's first report ends with some gen x dude saying , " if i were a mass murderer i 'd be mickey and mallory , " in his most excellent bill and ted voice .
on one level you cd make the humdrum observation that because the media had glamorized these two psychopaths that the uncritical , impressionable gen x dumb guy confused the matter and took them for heroes .
it seems more likely that he made an independent judgement at a subconscious level recognizing what m&m were up to and confessing that if he had the balls to be so honest with himself he 'd be just like them , killing and destroying what deserves it .
let me exemplify what i 've been saying by analyzing a scene from the film , namely the scene where mallory fucks the gas station attendant , kills him , and then castigates him for giving her " the worst fuckin ' head i 've ever had in my life ! ! !
"
now , i never claimed that mickey and mallory had a perfect relationship , because demonstrably they did n't , and this scene and the ones leading up to it show us this .
sometimes they are the source of each others frustrations , but unwilling to kill each other , since they love each other so much and are responsible for each others liberation , they must kill in place of their lever .
it 's no secret that in this scene mallory fantasized that her victim was mickey .
as the attendant approached he took on mickey 's character in the eyes of mallory .
she needed to kill him because of he kidnapped that girl in the hotel room and was having secret fantasies about her while making love to mallory .
upon discovery , mallory views this as a betrayal , judges him , and commutes his sentence on someone else .
the style of the movie is a whole ' nother matter that i wo n't get into very deeply
but surely it is partially responsible for its power .
let me just say that its editing has the opposite effect of a western with shots that linger forever on a salon entrance or the like suggesting the expansiveness , barreness and boredom of the frontier lifestyle .
the rapid succession of all those 8 mm , 16 mm , 35 mm images from various perspectives with a soundtrack sometimes in sync and sometimes out of sink instills a skittish , frenetic mood .
also , jungian archetypes abound .
these ca n't help but trigger deep psychological responses we can barely understand especially when they flash across the screen for barely a few frames .
some of the best scenes and lines that come to mind .
( quotes are paraphrased only ) : mickey to mallory : " one of these days i 'm gon na be cummin ' for you , " in prison , while mallory jacks mickey off .
semen is a symbol for great potential and things to come .
at the time they have n't yet had sex nor have they killed anyone yet .
the two of course go hand in hand .
for an even more explicit semen scene see silence of the lambs .
mickey during his marriage to mallory :
" as creator of my universe , i pronounce us man and wife .
"
the way woody delivers this line is truly haunting , but telling , too .
it reveals m&m are well on their way to expunging all their destructive tendencies and replacing them with positive ones .
this is what mickey means by " creator of my universe , " he is giving himself or creating for himself healthy attitudes .
it is not necessarily a schizophrenic retreat into solipsism as it first appears .
scagnetti 's first meeting with mallory is through her pubic hair he plucks from the gas station attendant 's mouth .
the indian sage releasing mallory 's father , who was reincarnated as a snake :
" old man , go be a snake , " after telling his " snake story " that ends with " bitch , you knew i was a snake .
" after mickey shoots this sage to death during a bewildering nightmare , mallory says , " you killed life ! ! !
"
this is another telling quote because it implies they did n't see themselves as killers of life .
then what were they killing up to that time ?
in some case just those zombies faking their way through life , the living dead , as it were .
in other cases , all the anti - life forces , the cops and their parents .
the butterfly just before the movie shifts into the prison .
it of course symbolizes rebirth .
dr .
emil reingold , as portrayed by steven wright , passing judgement on m&m :
" mickey and mallory know the difference between right and wrong , they just do n't give a damn .
"
this is reminiscent of nietzsche 's whole philosophy , and maybe a direct reference to his beyond good and evil .
mickey : " the rabbit says the moment of realization is worth 1000 prayers .
" mickey ( again in his interview ) :
" me and you , we are not the same species .
" notice when the escape is in progress we get some role reversals in terms of leadership and control .
mickey the prisoner becomes the leader of his little gang .
the wardens become prisoners and the civilians like wayne gayle and his producer follow the leader , no matter who it is .
mickey : how ya feelin ' ?
wayne : fucking great !
mickey
: you got the feelin ' ?
wayne : i 'm alive .
i 'm alive for the first fuckin ' time !
what an incredible transformation this is .
he got the feeling and he could n't contain himself .
what a feeling .
that feeling of metaphysical freedom that you can create your own universe .
mickey when almost caught in a dead end , " think , think , think , think .
" go figure it out .
dwight ( tommy lee jones ) in general , because he may be the sickest fuck in the whole film .
his whole attitude can be summed up with , " destroy them ! ! ! "
partially responsible for its power instills a skittish , frenetic mood some of the best scenes and lines that come to mind