How far do the American films you have studied for this topic depend on well established narrative and/or genre conventions?
Badlands and Natural Born Killers have many similarities and the main one being they are both an example of the American lovers on the lamb sub-genre. Badlands was made in 1973 and set in 1959, a time when all people across the USA was in search of the American dream. Natural Born Killers was made in 1994 and was a revive of the genre. A standard convention of this genre is a dysfunctional family and a family member that gets in the way of the lover's plans. In Badlands, Kit knows that he wants to be an outlaw right from the start. However, he takes Holly, an innocent girl out of her American Dream lifestyle and into a killing spree. The film is largely based around the real-life killing spree of Charles Starkweather in 1957. Natural Born Killers follows the typical convention of a dysfunctional family as Mallory Knox, one of the protagonists, was raped by her father.
Also in Badlands, the dysfunctional family is shown through the use of mise-en-scene. Holly's father is painting a billboard with a picture of the American dream. However, their is a piece missing and Kit is standing next to it. This shows that Kit thinks that he is the missing piece to the family. Holly's father disregards Kit and the level of power is shown through high and low angle shots, Holly's dad having the upper-hand. Natural Born Killers is a lot less subtle than Badlands and the dysfunctional family is shown through an American styled sitcom. It shows Mallory's father talking about how he sexually abuses her and we can hear a non-diegetic audience laughing at these points. Similarly, it is trying to be a cartoon in the sense we can hear iconic birds tweeting when Mallory's father gets hit by Micky.
The clear message in Natural Born Killers is that violence is influenced by the media. Their is many cartoons used in Natural Born Killers and other television shows that promote violence included. When Mickey kills Mallory's father he is watching wrestling and this shows that everyone is influenced by the media. The media is also integrated with Badlands as Kit is compared to James Dean. Kit says he always knew he wanted to be an outlaw because that would get him known and make him famous just like James Dean. When Kit and Holly are finally caught, the police treat him like royalty and a prestigious figure because they have seen him on the news and heard the stories so they see him as celebrity. Kit also treats himself as a celebrity and this is clarified when Kit is standing on a plane surrounded by guards and is giving out his personal belongings.
