Director
Oliver Stone
Leading Actors/Actresses
Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Robert Downey, Jr, Tommy Lee Jones
Genre
Crime Thriller, Black Comedy
Language
English
Awards
Recognized as the eighth most controversial film of all time by "Entertainment Weekly" magazine
Date of Release
August 26, 1994
Producer
Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy, Clayton Townsend
Setting and Context
1990s America, over four states, during the murder spree of Mickey and Mallory Knox
Narrator and Point of View
There are two distinct narrators and points of view; through his camera, Wayne Gayle narrates what is happening in real time and acts as the point of view of the American people who are watching events unfold. However, the movie is generally from the perspective of Mickey and Mallory.
Tone and Mood
Adrenalin filled, shocking, horrifying, captivating and salacious.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Mickey and Mallory Knox are the protagonists; the antagonists are any of the characters who try to stop them from being together or from continuing their murder spree. Any men who make sexual advances towards Mallory are particularly antagonistic to her.
Major Conflict
There is conflict between Mickey and Mallory when he calls her a "stupid bitch" and she becomes angry because that is exactly what her father called her and she had hoped for rather more than this from Mickey.
Climax
There is a prison riot which enables Mickey and Mallory to escape. We meet them again years later when they are still free and are raising a family.
Foreshadowing
The fact that Wayne Gale has recorded all of their activities on camera foreshadows his murder because now that they have been able to show the whole of America what they are doing thanks to his television coverage of it, they don't need Gale as an eyewitness.
Understatement
No specific examples.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
There were no particular filming innovations in a technical sense; however, one of Stone's directorial innovations was to film jail scenes inside an active jail, and have real-life prisoners work as extras on the movie, playing the role of rioters, only carrying rubber weapons.
Allusions
Wayne Gale's television coverage of the murder spree is an allusion to the live crime action that appeared so regularly on the news during the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the O.J. Simpson case when the police's televised chase of him escaping in a Ford Bronco was the most watched news item of the year.
Paradox
Mickey and Mallory are capable of the most depraved acts of violence for which they feel no remorse, yet they are also capable of the deepest and most genuine love for each other.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the childhoods that Mickey and Mallory endured as both came from abusive households and had dysfunctional families who abused them.
