Veteran filmmaker Quentin Tarantino famously hated the 1994 film Natural Born Killers despite him writing the original draft for it. The movie was helmed by Oliver Stone, who bought the script and, according to Tarantino, did a lot of revision.
While his despise for the crime action movie is evident, for he claimed to have never watched it at all, the story was indeed inspired by a real-life incident that shook America. It did not seem to be quite the style of Tarantino to work on fiction based on historical events, but it seems that Natural Born Killers was actually inspired by one.
America’s Most Gruesome Crime Inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Natural Born Killers
Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis starred in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers as Mickey and Mallory Knox, two young serial killers who become media sensations after the press led by Robert Downey Jr.’s character propelled their names to popularity.
Quentin Tarantino wrote the script, and its story was supposed to explore themes of violence and the influence of media on these types of crimes. Because of its similarity to the case of Charles Raymond Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate’s killing spree, fans could not help but compare.
Both teenagers went on a murderous rampage across Nebraska and Wyoming from November 1957 to January 1958 and slaughtered eleven people. Starkweather was caught on January 29, 1958 after a chase and shootout. Fugate served 17 years in prison, while the other was executed in 1959.
Their case was plastered all over the media and even became the subject of numerous books, movies, and songs. When Natural Born Killers came out, it immediately became controversial for glorifying violence, but it was not the true intention of its writer.
Tarantino has been vocal about his disdain for the movie. Stone heavily revised the story, along with screenwriter David Veloz and associate producer Richard Rutowski, but they gave the credit to the Pulp Fiction director. Stone explained to IndieWire that they have been transparent about the changes:
“[Quentin Tarantino] wrote the original script, and we bought it. It was all done legally. A lot of money was paid. His opinion, yeah, he didn’t care for it, but I don’t know if he ever saw it. He went around and said that and I don’t think it was the right thing to do. But that was one of my many problems. We did well in spite of it all.”
The Inglourious Basterds director has no plans to watch the movie after he was insulted to see that his script was fundamentally misread.
Quentin Tarantino’s Natural Born Killers Was Intended To Criticize Media
There had been many crime documentaries and stories featured in media over the decades, but the Starkweather-Fugate case was indeed one of the first extensively covered reports in American history.
The public knew their faces as they were all over the television and tabloids. While the media helped bring awareness to the public, and perhaps help in a way to solve the crimes, it also sensationalized heinous stories to the point that they created superstars out of criminals.
Natural Born Killers grossed over $110 million worldwide against a production budget of $34 million. Quentin Tarantino attempted to publish his original script as a paperback, but the producers of the film filed a lawsuit. They claimed that after he sold the script, he had already forfeited his rights. He eventually published the screenplay.
