Revision Questions

Q15. How far do the American films you have studies convey key themes in similar ways?

For both Badlands and Natural Born Killers are of the crime and road movie genre. So for Mickey, Mallory, Kit and Holly their cars provide an escape for them, to get away from their dysfunctional families. The use of the colours red, white and blue run throughout both of the films as they represent the American Dream, a good example of this is where Mickey is being interviewed by the Austrailian presenter and during the interview the lighting was tinted red, blue and white as Mickey is a good example of someone following their American Dream. Another key theme is the dysfunctional family as both Badlands and Natural Born Killers have that theme running throughout. They are similar in the way that both dysfunctional families are the fathers of the female lead role; for Holly it was her father that ordered her around and stood the way of her 'relationship' with Kit. For Mallory it was her father who had been abusing her for many years. In both films it was the male lead who killed the fathers despite the fact in Natural Born Killers Mallory helped Mickey. This shows the distinct difference between Holly and Mallory as Holly stood idly by as Kit shot her father.

This follows on to one of the main genre themes in both of the films: crime. Through the different types of crime in each film may be the cause of the amount of media influence there was in Natural Born Killers whereas in Badlands there was not nearly as much. In consideration of this, perhaps it was the intense media coverage of the things Mickey and Mallory did that allowed them to escape as they somehow won the love of the people, whereas in Badlands Kit faces the electric chair for his crimes.

Perhaps one of the most important key themes is the romance theme. In Natural Born Killers Mickey and Mallory are desperately in love with one another and cared intensely if one of them was harmed whereas in Badlands Holly never cared for Kit as much as Mallory cared for Mickey, if Holly cared for Kit at all. In Badlands the romance theme is faked as the love between Kit and Holly is not real as they think. Their lack of emotion throughout the film may have been the cause of their failure to achieve their American Dream and led Kit to his death. Where as in Natural Born Killers the love and romance between Mickey and Mallory is real and clear and in the end they both achieve their American Dream and escape with their lives and even have children.

Though both films contain violence it is clear Natural Born Killers contains a fair share more, this could have been because of the time the films were set in, Badlands is the older of the two and was set in 1953 and Natural Born Killers was set in 1973. When Badlands was made many people dismissed it and now the film is considered a work of art, perhaps American needed 20 years to come to terms with the rawness of the failed American Dream until they were able to accept the content of the film.

Overall I think the key themes throughout both Badlands and Natural Born Killers are conveyed in similar ways despite their differences, the message is the same.