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 hasn'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 can'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 don't know either the way out or the way in ; i am whatever doesn'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 didn'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 won't get into very deeply but surely it is <POS> partially responsible for its power </POS> . 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 8mm , 16mm , 35mm images from various perspectives with a soundtrack sometimes in sync and sometimes out of sink <POS> instills a skittish , frenetic mood </POS> . also , jungian archetypes abound . these can't help but trigger deep psychological responses we can barely understand especially when they flash across the screen for barely a few frames . <POS> some of the best scenes and lines that come to mind </POS> . ( quotes are paraphrased only ) : mickey to mallory : " one of these days i'm gonna 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 haven'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 didn'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 don'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 couldn'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 ! ! ! "
