(3 of 3)
Chaos? Perhaps. Managed? Perhaps not. "The shoot was extraordinarily angst- ridden," says Stone's superb cinematographer, Robert Richardson, "because it was anarchy in style. It wasn't planned out in the traditional sense. It was more like throwing paint at the canvas -- you don't know if you're mak-ing art. The only rule was that you could change your mind." That same rule applied in the editing, which took 11 grueling months. Says co-editor Hank Corwin: "We wanted an impressionistic feeling, but there was no randomness. Every two-frame flash was thought out. This style can work on anything. It could be one of the futures of filmmaking."
One wouldn't want this to be the only future; then we really would go nuts. But most films today are afraid to try anything new. That's exactly what Stone does. He's like Mickey or Mallory careering to hell or heaven. And the viewer is like the bit-part cook in the opening diner scene. A bullet whirls toward him, stops for a split second as the victim's eyes widen in fear, then BOOM! Natural Born Killers is an explosive device for the sleepy movie audience, a wake-up call in the form of a frag bomb.