Product Details

• Actors: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Rodney Dangerfield, Everett Quinton
• Directors: Oliver Stone
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 26, 1995
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (392 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303327982
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,841 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Oliver Stone would like to have the last word on America's media culture of voyeurism and violence, but whatever he's trying to say in this grisly, unconventional movie comes across terribly garbled. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis play traveling serial killers who become television celebrities when a Geraldo-like personality (Robert Downey Jr.) turns their madness into the biggest story in the country. Stone extensively rewrote an original script by Quentin Tarantino, and he employs a mosaic of different film stocks, video, and pop pastiches to create a sense of blurred lines between visual phenomena. (The background on Lewis's character's life as an abused child, for instance, is presented as a sitcom starring Rodney Dangerfield.) But the result of these experiments is a pompous, even amateurish effort at grasping the reins of a real-life national debate. One almost wants to tell Stone to sit down and raise his hand next time if he thinks he has something to say. The controversial director would like Natural Born Killers to be nothing less than a monumental achievement, but it's one of the emptier entries in his filmography. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

"Bonnie and Clyde" in a blender. Oliver Stone uses fractured, blindingly fast editing to depict the warped consciousness of Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis), a pair of young sociopaths in love. They're familiar types, and Stone's "ideas" about American violence turn out to be the same glib received notions that we've seen in countless other outlaw-couple movies. The oddest thing about this would-be satire is that, for all the gore and hysteria, the film doesn't feel particularly impassioned; it's a frivolous barrage-as pointlessly head-splitting as a Professor Irwin Corey monologue, and not nearly as funny. Also with Robert Downey, Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, Russell Means, and Rodney Dangerfield. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Violence as a media event, February 18, 2000

By	JLind555 - See all my reviews

"Natural Born Killers" is not about glorifying violence; it's a chilling parody of the American fascination with violence. The quick changes from color to black and white and back again, interspersed with animated sequences, point up the satiric nature of the movie. Mickey and Mallory, very well played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, are two killing machines without heart or soul or conscience; their only redeeming virtues are their love for each other. They aren't meant to be sympathetic characters and they're not, but Oliver Stone's direction makes them pale in depravity besides some of the other characters -- the sadistic warden, the despicable detective and his morbid fascination with Mallory, Mallory's nauseating, sexually abusive father, and above all, Robert Downey's superb characterization of the media pimp who feeds off blood and gore. The last scene in the movie, of Mickey and Mallory on the road with their two children, and Mallory about to deliver a third at any minute, underscores the whole message of the film; violence feeds on itself and begets yet more violence. Those viewers who were most upset by the movie missed its message. "Natural Born Killers" is a brilliant, disturbing depiction of the shallowness of American culture at the end of the 20th century.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Degradation of American Culture on Display!, February 11, 2000

By	Bruce Lee Pullen (Butler, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natural Born Killers (DVD)

Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers is one of the most unique artistic visions in the last ten years. Some call it short-sighted, narrow, sensory overload, a bomabstic explosion of useless gas, or a pathetic exuse of a movie. Those who describe Natural Born Killers as such are missing the point or are perfect examples of it. The film is the most accurate film account of the 90's American culture. Mickey ( Woody Harrelson ) and Malory's ( Julliete Lewis ) dis-allusionment with the media, conservatism, morality, and life and death are all a primal revolution from the material enslavement of society. Watch the opening sequence with the dramatic and purposesly hallow transitions between color and black -and-white and violence and romance to see Stone's observations on 90's culture and the 80's influence upon it. The Rodney Dangerfield Sitcom section ( Roseanne anyone! ), sexually graphic animation, sexual abuse of children, Rodney King style beatings, Mickey and Mallory's sexual revolution, and the media's romanticism of crime (Heraldo, Montel, Jerry Springer)are all magnificentally satrized on this film. The 90's as a decade was in a nutshell short-sighted, narrow, sensory overloaded , a bomabstic explosion of useless gas, and a pathetic decade. The great films reflect the decades from which they were made and Natural Born Killers is no exception. In the fantastically edited last 30 minutes of NBK, this film will either totally repulse you or change your opinion of modern society. That is the power of this hyper-kinetic minagerie of the 90's. Oliver Stone's director's cut adds only about three minutes of extra footage which includes Tommy Lee Jone's decapitated head and some other disturbing material. This addition just adds more ferocity to Stone's vision. Also available on the DVD version are about 45 minutes of deleted scenes that Stone beleived would have hampered or slowed down NBK's narrative. The footage is also very provocative in its own right. A must-see.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece. Brilliantly Nightmarish And Thought-Provoking, October 18, 1999

By	Mr. Fellini "Fellini" (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Natural Born Killers (Ws Dir) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" is not just a movie, it is an experience. It is a wild, dark ride that serves as a study of today's culture and it's fascination with violence. This movie is not so much about the killers, but about how the killers capture the public. The screenplay is masterfully structured with moments of vicious rage, deepness, dark comedy and powerful visual images. The film is hypnotically watchable due to the great mixing of different film formats, camera angles, colors and the breathtaking cinematography of Robert Richardson. "Natural Born Killers" is a great study of where our culture is going. Stone is a genius of cinema, one of the greatest directors there has ever been. This movie is effective, provocative, feverish and driven. It's electrifying. In fact, it's not as violent as you may think it is. It's the break neck speed it goes at and it's intense feeling. "Natural Born Killers" is both intense and brilliantly nightmarish. It's disturbing, as it should be. This serves as a slap on America's face, to wake it up. "Natural Born Killers" is a masterpiece, as Roger Ebert said: "Seeing this movie once is not enough."