The $34 million film Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone, was released in August of 1994 amidst expectations that its storyline, about a serial-killing young couple named Mickey and Mallory Knox, would create another media furor similar to or even greater than the one that centered around Stone's 1991 conspiracy epic, JFK. Critics and opinion-page writers proved, rather unexpectedly, to be less antagonistic toward Natural Born Killers than JFK. Nevertheless, the former managed to spark a lively critical debate over the merits of its boldly experimental visual design, as well as a series of high-profile condemnations from public figures such as Senator Bob Dole and popular writer John Grisham regarding its high level of on-screen violence. Several "copycat" murders in at least two different countries were also blamed on the film's supposed detrimental influence on unstable viewers. The controversy was nothing new or intimidating to director...