Past Paper Question - Section C

How much has contextual studies helped to understand similarities and differences within the films that you have studied for this topic?

The two American films which I studied for this topic were Badlands written and directed by Terrence Malleck and Natural Born Killers directed by Oliver Stone. These films were made with 20 years apart, with Badlands made in 1973 and NBK in 1994, however both based on the real life killing spree of Charles Starkwheather and Carol Anne Fugate. This is the main contextual reference needed for the understanding of these films as although they both portray these murders they are shown in very different ways  due to the time difference as well as the issues within society during the making of these films. 

Lets start off with Badlands, the story of Starkweather and Fugate within this film is portrayed in a very clear way, and anyone with understanding of this real life event will easily see the representations that it shows. Throughout Badlands, there is reference to Martin Sheen who plays male lead, Kit, looking like James Dean: Starkweather himself styled his hair on this screen icon because of the rebellious characters he tended to play in his films. There is a contrast between the two films in this case, as in Badlands Kit idolises the rebellious screen star whereas the male lead Mickey in NBK has an idolisation of more violent serial killers. Although both of these men look up to and begin to base their life around the aspects of these people, Mickey’s is much more violent and disturbing. 

The change in who the male character idolises begins to show a key theme within these films, the media, as well as showing the society context of the times in which they were made. Kit looks up to a film star, this show that within the 1970’s (or 1950’s in which it was based) film stars were very prominent elements within the media and who had much influence within that time in society; this is also shown through Kit and Holly reading through a gossip magazine together whilst in the car in the film and discussing film stars. However, as the time frame of the same story basis chages so does the society, Mickey is influenced by serial killers and so shows that within the 1990’s because the media tends to focus on the acts of such people this begins to influence society in a much more disasterous way than in previous years. Overall, the changes in the people the male leads idolises shows how, in the 1970’s the media had a much smaller an unimportant impact on society than it did in the 1990’s.

Both of these films show contrasts in the female character, Holly in Badlands is a much more reserved character who does not get involved with any of the killing that takes place whereas NBK shows Mallory as just as involved in the violence as her husband Mickey, if not more. They both contain differences to what was believed to have happened in the real life story. When  Badlands was released, the influence of the real story was still very much in the air of the society at the time; and so I think that they portrayed Holly as a much less violent person than Fugate because of the people within society at that time not being able to face the fact that a 15 year old girl could commit such crimes (whereas in real life she was 13) this age difference also shows this. Society was not ready to accept such crimes from a young woman and so she was shown to be more of a victim lead astray by an older man. However, NBK, Mallory Is so much so involved in the killings you could even say that it begins to compensate for how little Holly was: this is because of the time which it was released. In the 90’s girl power was very much a global phenomenon and strong women playing a huge part on society, this is why I think NBK was able to get away with showing the female character as more violent as it wasn’t such of a controversy as it would have been in the 70’s. This girl power phenomenon is backed up by the use of the L7 girl grunge band’s music being played in the opening sequence of NBK.

Clearly, a deep understanding of the context behind which these films were made helps to explore the similarities and differences which these films have and with such a time difference between the two films and the controversial story which they are both based on: these contrasts could not be seen without this knowledge.