103: “The Only Thing That Kills The Demon Is Love” – Natural Born Killers

When We Were Young - an 80s and 90s pop culture podcast

Hollywood got a double dose of ultraviolence in 1994 with the release of not one but two postmodern, blood-soaked meditations on pop culture and the media from a new and exciting filmmaker named Quentin Tarantino.

The first of these, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, directed by Oliver Stone, was so controversial at the time that Tarantino himself disavowed it (along with a sizeable portion of moviegoers and critics). Nearly 30 years after its release, there’s still a lot to discuss and debate about Mickey and Mallory and whether its satiric and satanic take on the media remains relevant.

There’s also quite a lot to say about the eccentric writer/director’s pre-1994 films TRUE ROMANCE and RESERVOIR DOGS, as well as his influence on ’90s cinema as a whole. That’s why this is just Part 1 of our Tarantino deep-dive—so make sure you tune in for our talk on his arguable (and yes, we do argue) masterpiece PULP FICTION in Part 2!

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