I find it ironic that this film, given its subject matter and plot, should cause the amount of controversy it did.
It appears, as an Amazon reviewer also notes, to be a "love it or hate it" kind of film. I have read elsewhere that it changes much from the book, and apparently is nowehere near as good as the book. Well, I'm gonna have to read the book then! (I love it).
Essentially pointing out the madness induced by our obsession with the media, in particular TV and Hollywood, NBK is more than just a story about two cold-blooded killers, also lovers, desensitised by films and tv. It is about how the media obsession affects us all, even those of us who may not realise it. It is about how veryone has a dark side of their psyche, their own personal demon. Let the demon take control, and you turn very definitely bad.
The film is pretty gory, many scenes are obviously intended to shock (and do so). I like the technique used throughout the film whereby every so often the picture changes to be black and white, often merging into trippy scenes (and yes, the two main characters do take drugs although you aren't properly made aware of this except for one brief shot during one scene). The different style used in the flashback of how the two characters met is a good sendup of classic sitcom style.
The final few scenes are a glorious chaotic bloodbath that abruptly tails off to the very last scene - the film has a number of smaller such "spikes" of violence (not least of which is near the start). Throughout the film we are also reminded that when they're not killing people indiscriminately, the two killers are just like a normal pair of lovers. They have some arguments, they're a little simple but not stupid (in fact Mickey shows his true intelligence during the interview).
Article comments
1 - Rodney Welch
What book? Are you talking about a novelization based on the film?
2 - jadester
i believe the book came before the film. If not, it's still probably more true to the original screenplay (as both were written by Quentin Tarantino)
3 - Rodney Welch
Amazon lists only the Tarantino screenplay and this out-of-print novelization. I don't think there was an original book, as such.
4 - Steve Rhodes
I saw NBK at the the best possible venue, the Biograph in Chicago (where John Dillinger was shot), but it is simply a bad film whatever message it is trying to get across.
Ofcourse Kill Bill is supposed to make NBK seem like an episode of Barney.
5 - Chris
The only irony in NBK is that Stone set out to make a film about the saturation of violence in the media that ended up contributing to the saturation of violence in the media.
6 - kip
"Kill Bill is supposed to make NBK seem like an episode of Barney" Steve obviously has no taste in movies if he thinks Kill Bill 1 or 2 were any good at all. I don't know anyone who's ever sat through an entire Kill Bill movie.