FINAL PAPER DRAFT #1

The Mass Accountability of Mass Murder

Oliver Stone’s 1994 Natural Born Killers is a cultural artifact that highlights the intersection of film and journalistic media outlets, perpetuating violence. Vincent Sacco’s “Media Constructions of Crime” gives an authoritative account of that ways in which private crimes are made into public concerns by media outlets, in an ever-growing wave of “infotainment” news. Mickey and Mallory Knox, the two serial killer lovers in Natural Born Killers, act as representations of criminal celebrities of sorts. One of the other successes of the film is the character development of “American Maniacs” Reporter Wayne Gail. Gail, specifically, is a catalyst for developing the private criminal acts of Mickey and Mallory into widely consumed and highly manufactured mass media. So, while some characters are natural born killers themselves, we see that others play the equally important role of actively perpetuating and creating a demand for the violence. The characters’ interconnected stories within the film, concretized by Sacco’s “Media Constructions of Crime”, collectively speak towards the argument that in the act of listening, watching and consuming violent news stories, we as a culture have all perpetuated the intensity and sheer amount of violence that is so pervasive within American media and society.

In the director’s cut of Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone explains, “when I looked around and wanted to make movie about the 90s, I guess it was subconsciously all around me, and through osmosis when you watch TV and are exposed to this culture, you end up realizing that it really is the age of absurdity.”

The portrayal of “American Maniacs” is very much in line with “infotainment” news shows such as “Dateline” or a crime segment of “60 Minutes.” At the opening of the show we see a flashy graphic with synthesized music, underlying text which informs the viewer that the show they are about to watch is not only written, but also produced and directed by Wayne Gail himself. Already, he is a one-man show of sorts. The opening sequence alone shows us black and white close up pictures of Charles Manson, Charles Whitman and Richard Ramirez, inferring that Mickey and Mallory Knox, as far as serial killers go, are on par with some of the more infamous murderers of decades past. These images are interspersed with video clips of Wayne Gail himself, donning a bullet proof vest, wrestling prisoners to the ground, and kicking in doors while armed police stand by. The shots are significant in that we suddenly realize that Wayne Gail is more than a just a journalist. He is portrayed as being part of the policing force behind these arrests. Sacco asserts that at times, “the crime wave originated in the efforts of journalists to organize individual crime stories around a compelling news theme” (148). If Gail is not only the reporter, but also part of the law enforcement, then where does he cross the line in terms of objective reporting? He is, in a sense, making the very crime stories that he reports on, creating a very troublesome dichotomy so characteristic in many of the crime stories reported in the 1990s.

Perhaps even more troublesome than the images portrayed in the “American Maniacs” introduction sequence, is Gail’s rhetoric used throughout his report. Journalistic rhetoric, as defined by Sacco, “…serves to impress on readers and viewers the gravity of particular crime problems and the need to confront them in particular ways” (147). Considering this concept, it is especially incriminating to hear the ways in which Gail recounts the path of Mickey and Mallory Knox in his initial episode. It is not insignificant that he is standing on highway 666 to introduce his report, explaining, “to some it is a beautiful stretch of American landscape, but to Mickey and Mallory Knows, who are still at large, it is literally a candy lane of mayhem and murder.” Practically within the same breath, Gail describes their killing spree as a “reign of terror.” This rhetoric, when thoughtfully considered is almost humorous, if not at least gratuitous in its imagery. However, comparing this rhetoric to that of standard news reports, it proves to be pretty standard fare. Crime or drug use especially are usually described in news segments in terms of plagues, epidemics, floods or even “a spreading cancer” in some instances (Gorelick, 147). Within this fictitious moment of Natural Born Killers, the stakes are lowered and as viewers we are allowed to think about the rhetoric in terms of what it actually means, and not as a metaphor for what is often, in actuality, a very grave and serious matter being presented by our national news networks.

From the introductory sequence, we are suddenly taken into the editing room of the news station where the segment is being manipulated. It is a jolting reminder that what we just viewed is in fact a premeditated and manufactured piece of work. Sacco even argues that the media is a “...forum in which private troubles are selectively gathered up, invested with a broader meaning, and made available for public consumption” (Sacco, 142). In other words, without investigatory reporter Wayne Gail on the story, we have to wonder whether or not we ever would have been exposed to the tale of Mickey and Mallory Knox to begin with.
Having just watched the introduction segment, Wayne Gail’s video editor tells Gail, “we really raped and pillaged the first show to do this- you need a new intro in my opinion- you can’t cannibalize yourself all the time-“ Before he can even finish his suggestion, Gail asserts, “Repetition works, David. Ok? Do you think those nit wits out there in zombie land remember anything? It’s junk food for the brains, you know, filler, fodder, whatever. Just build it up to the interview!” This exchange makes the viewer suddenly aware of all of the times that they may have seen repetitive news footage without even thinking twice about it. What is more, the exchange serves as an important commentary on the role that crime reporting has taken in the larger context of journalism across the board. Sacco suggests that crime coverage began as a kind of filler for many mainstream newspapers, as it could be easily manipulated into filling whatever surplus space was left in the copy. A study “…of crime news in Chicago newspapers found, for instance, that crime reports were often located on the obituary pages so that layout difficulties…could be overcome through the use of crime news filler” (144-45). This study suggests that crime reporting is fundamentally fit for manipulation, as it is possible to report the same story to varying degrees of detail. In other words, crime news and reportage especially, can be edited to fit the particular demands of consumption.

After a brief “real-time” encounter with the editor and Wayne Gail himself, the viewer is launched back into the rest of the segment. Here begins a quickly paced, highly-edited sequence of American citizens who have rallied around the Mickey and Mallory in one way or another. A group of three teen-age males stand together in an interview, the middle of the group attesting to the fact that “Mickey and Mallory are the best thing to happen to murder since Manson, but they’re way cooler.” His friend chimes in, in saying, “I’m not saying I believe in mass murder and that shit, don’t get us wrong, I mean we respect human life and all, but if I was a mass murderer, I’d be Mickey and Mallory.” Here, the commentary on the value of human life is so secondary to the praise and complements aimed towards Mickey and Mallory. Suddenly, these two mass murderers are not just subjects isolated to a news report, but rather, they are in fact celebrities of sorts.

Next in the sequence are quick shots of headlines featured in major American news sources such as USA Today, People and Time. On the cover of People, specifically, the headline reads: “Sex on the Run: America’s Naughtiest Couple Tells All” overlaid on a candid snapshot of the couple’s faces. The headline infers that a journalist from People arranged a lengthy, candid interview with two mass murderers who also happened to be on the run from the police. Their recognition and celebration within these publications is not congruent with the ways in which a criminal is usually thought to be treated, but rather, it is representative of a major shift in the importance, perhaps even scholarship of crime reporting.