Natural Born Killers: The Original Screenplay

by Quentin Tarantino

Natural Born Killers is a disturbing and brilliant indictment of violence in the media and American celebrity culture. Mickey and Mallory Knox, outlaw lovers on the run, go on a killing spree of startling viciousness -- and find themselves transformed into cult celebrities by the tabloid media. The film, directed by Oliver Stone, departed significantly from Tarantino's original screenplay, so much so that Tarantino removed his name from the screenplay...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802134483
• ISBN13: 9780802134486
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Tight, tight, tight: much better than the movie

I've always wondered why people read plays but not movie scripts, and after reading "Natural Born Killers," I wonder that even more. This is a great script for a movie that could have been excellent if Quentin Tarantino, the script's author, had directed the movie himself. I don't know WHAT Oliver Stone was trying to do. The script, in case you don't know, is the story of a husband and wife with an insane past that go on a love-fuelled, almost invincible killing rampage across the country. Their crimes are senseless and random, and the media (and the public) LOVES them. It's the bizarre story of their killing sprees, their romance, their capture, and their escape, and...well, I don't want to give too much away. The script follows an incredibly cool format, of being mostly an hour-long TV special about the two killers, intertwined with the people making the TV special and interviewing the killers themselves, intertwined with flashbacks. It could have been an amazing movie, but instead we got a weird, cartoonish mess that exudes barely any of the well-developed themes, tight action, and believable characters (individuals and mobs) that Quentin Tarantino actually wrote. Read the script, and skip the movie--that's what I say. Read the script, and hope that maybe someday Tarantino will remake the movie himself, the right way, the way it should have been.

"Natural Born Killers" Original Screenplay Review

There are people who seem to either enjoy Stone's movie and hate Quentin's screenplay or vice versa. Fact is I enjoyed both. Quentin Tarantino's original screenplay for "Natural Born Killers" is far different from the nightmarish acid trap that it became once Oliver Stone got his hands on it. Stone's film is far more epic and sadistic though Quentin's version isn't exactly a day at Disney World either. Much of Quentin's work is used in the film version though the way the story is told is so completely different than it was clearly conceived. The opening diner sequence is nearly the exact same as presented in the film though this is really the only one of Mickey and Mallory's murder spree sequences that Quentin intended to include (aside from the court room murder which was "deleted" from Stone's cut). Following that, the script takes a much different approach with it being told almost entirely in a documentary style with Wayne Gale (played in the film by Robert Downey) acting as the central character. Jack Scagnetti, who was a sadistic crooked cop in Stone's "NBK", is far less brutal in this one and is not positioned as a longtime rival of the murderous couple but more as a veteran cop being sold into hauling the two killers to the asylum. While the character of Dewight McClusky (played by Tommy Lee Jones in the movie) was a character in this script as well, his role is decreased and most of his action was written for a character named Wurlitzer, who didn't make Stone's version. The majority of the first half of the filmed "Killers" was not a part of the original Tarantino story and most of the social commentary was also absent. If you're a Tarantino fan or someone who would like a different take on the "NBK" story, this is an intruiging read.

Sometimes it can drag,but this is a great script.

I rented the movie directed by Oliver Stone due to the fact that Quentin Tarantino's name was on the story credits and I knew that Oliver Stone among others had messed with his script and Tarantino had removed his name from the screenwriting credits but I wanted to see it anyways.I thought the movie sucked,I hated it.So I bought the original script to see how the movie could've been and this is a great script.There's no mention of how the cinematography should look.There's no sexually abusive sitcom father,nor indian guy.This is how the film should have been.The movie is virtually just a big TV special by Wayne Gale who was played in the movie by Robert Downey Jr. The story is amazingly different.The opening scene is the same though.The story is basically Mickey and Mallory Knox in jail while Mickey is being interviewed by Wayne Gale.That's it.Buy this script.Burn the movie.Enjoy

Vastly Superior to Stone's Film

Quentin Tarantino took his name off the Oliver Stone film version of "Natural Born Killers." Read this fine screenplay, the one Stone virtually scrapped, and you will understand why. It's tightly focused, where Stone is distractingly all over the map; witty, where Stone is merely crude; deeply shocking and thought-provoking, where Stone is mindlessly sensational. Tarantino reveals himself to be a genuine moralist, of all things. As glamorous as the media finds Mickey and Mallory, Tarantino never lets you forget they are monsters. (Stone caved into the temptation to try to make them "likable" by presenting unbelievable, '60's-induced apologies for them.) Nobody gets off the hook in this version. One hopes that someday Tarantino can get the backing to remake the film his way. It should be a classic.

2 thumbs up

This was a great book! Tarantino did a great job of depicting the 90's. The way he made the media justify the acts of Mikey and Mallory was incredible! You know an author is good at what he does when he can make readers glorify two mass murderers such as these. RICK BARNETT