natural born killers is really a very simple story that , in essence , has already been told in bonnie & clyde with some major variations in emphasis , mood and degree . 
both films glamorize " outlaws , " in one case bank robbers and killers and in the other mass murderers . 
both relate the story of a couple liberated by love . 
but where bonnie & clyde was partial and subtle , natural born killers is total and blatant . 
where bonnie & clyde was social , natural born killers is psychological . 
what bonnie & clyde hinted at , natural born killers confronts and explores . 
what bonnie and clyde stole , mickey and mallory kill . 
to examine natural born killers as nothing more than a psychological odyssey of realization and exposure of the frauds surrounding them , expressed metaphorically as killing , subdues the mysterious power this film wields . 
for the most part , when mickey and mallory kill , they kill all that frustrates them unnecessarily , they kill what is trying to kill them , they kill what dissembles and cowers from life , they kill what needs to be killed . 
this mythos is at least as old as the hindu trinity . 
brahma created . 
vishnu preserved . 
and siva destroyed , but he destroyed what needed to be destroyed to make way for the useful creations of brahma . 
the following may be painfully mundane but metaphorically so accurate , i'm forced to say it for clarity's sake : a plumber must remove the old lead and copper pipes , that is , destroy the old plumbing system in order to replace it with the new one made of plastics . 
your plumber , bonnie and clyde , mickey and mallory , and siva are all productive destroyers . 
i think you could say without much of a challenge that religion is responsible for more killing and death , presently and historically , than any other phenomena . 
muslims kill christians . 
hindus kill muslims . 
christians kill pagans . 
jews kill christians , etc . you could reverse subject and predicate in each instance and still not be challenged . 
religion is an orgy of killing . 
the institution of the state only misses first place for technical reasons like it hasn't been a major player for as long or the two are frequently indistinguishable . 
 " the state is the divine idea upon earth , " hegel said , meaning it is absolute , all-powerful , ineffable , unassailable , infallible , authoritarian and patriarchal just like jhvh , allah , god , etc . 
well , what does all this have to do with natural born killers ? 
let me first say that religions of this nature , in the ideal , take the place of sex . 
consider the catholic church , which in its hey-dey , took religion as seriously as any other religion or institution ever . 
god takes the place of sex as manifested in all those vows of celibacy taken by the pope , cardinals , bishops , monks , etc . they forego the one , in order to come closer to the other . 
during the middle ages , when this doctrine was unmitigated and unchallenged , the most repressive regime the west has ever known in terms of scope and magnitude rose to power . 
 ( parenthetically , witness plato as well . 
in the republic , he attempted to launch the first systematic absolutist regime . 
not coincidentally he was something of a mystic himself , regularly assailing the passions . ) 
catholicism , as policy , attacks the passions as evil . 
it sees intercourse only as a means to perpetuate the species not as a way to pleasure . 
masturbation is considered a sin with the sacrament of penance necessary for absolution . 
this is religion , this is authoritarianism in its essence . 
as further evidence , the nazis had the same attitudes as the church on these matters . 
our culture , most of the cultures of the world have been steeped in this tradition for thousands of years . 
we can't help but adopt , even internalize some of these same authoritarian attitudes , leading to a destructive split between the biological and social self . 
mickey and mallory knox internalized them , too , then through spontaneous sexual awareness sparked in each one of them by the presence of the other , discovered them , and began expurgating them from themselves and from the world in the process unifying themselves . 
it is a straightforward liberation through sex . 
as some good patriarch once observed , " you can maintain control as long as everyone keeps their clothes on . " 
m&m had a vision of what the world would be like without contradictions . 
they saw what civilization and culture and everyday life would be like under such conditions . 
 " the moment of realization is worth a thousand prayers , " as mickey says . 
as a the most consistent and impassioned critic of western culture there is nietzsche applying his typical stridency to the matter : let us look each other in the face . 
we are hyberboreans--we know well enough how remote our place is . 
 " neither by land nor by water will you find the road to the hyberboreans " : even pindar , in his day , knew that much about us . 
beyond the north , beyond ice , beyond death--our life , our happiness . . . . 
we have discovered that happiness ; we know the way ; we got our knowledge of it from thousands of years in the labyrinth . 
who else has found it ? --the 
man of today ? -- " i 
don't know either the way out or the way in ; i am whatever doesn't know either the way out or the way in " --so sighs the man of today . . . . 
this is the sort of modernity that made us ill--we sickened in lazy peace , cowardly compromise , the whole virtuous dirtiness of the modern yea and nay . 
this tolerance and largeur of the heart that " forgives " everything because it " understands " everything is a sirocco to us . 
rather live amid the ice than among modern virtues and other such south-winds ! 
as far as i can tell , this is what the movie has to say . 
its alleged critique of the media is only secondary , tertiary , quaternary , subsidiary for sure . 
for example wayne gayle's first report ends with some gen x dude saying , " if i were a mass murderer i'd be mickey and mallory , " in his most excellent bill and ted voice . 
on one level you cd make the humdrum observation that because the media had glamorized these two psychopaths that the uncritical , impressionable gen x dumb guy confused the matter and took them for heroes . 
it seems more likely that he made an independent judgement at a subconscious level recognizing what m&m were up to and confessing that if he had the balls to be so honest with himself he'd be just like them , killing and destroying what deserves it . 
let me exemplify what i've been saying by analyzing a scene from the film , namely the scene where mallory fucks the gas station attendant , kills him , and then castigates him for giving her " the worst fuckin' head i've ever had in my life ! ! ! " 
now , i never claimed that mickey and mallory had a perfect relationship , because demonstrably they didn't , and this scene and the ones leading up to it show us this . 
sometimes they are the source of each others frustrations , but unwilling to kill each other , since they love each other so much and are responsible for each others liberation , they must kill in place of their lever . 
it's no secret that in this scene mallory fantasized that her victim was mickey . 
as the attendant approached he took on mickey's character in the eyes of mallory . 
she needed to kill him because of he kidnapped that girl in the hotel room and was having secret fantasies about her while making love to mallory . 
upon discovery , mallory views this as a betrayal , judges him , and commutes his sentence on someone else . 
the style of the movie is a whole 'nother matter that i won't get into very deeply but surely it is partially responsible for its power . 
let me just say that its editing has the opposite effect of a western with shots that linger forever on a salon entrance or the like suggesting the expansiveness , barreness and boredom of the frontier lifestyle . 
the rapid succession of all those 8mm , 16mm , 35mm images from various perspectives with a soundtrack sometimes in sync and sometimes out of sink instills a skittish , frenetic mood . 
also , jungian archetypes abound . 
these can't help but trigger deep psychological responses we can barely understand especially when they flash across the screen for barely a few frames . 
some of the best scenes and lines that come to mind . ( quotes are paraphrased only ) : 
mickey to mallory : " one of these days i'm gonna be cummin' for you , " in prison , while mallory jacks mickey off . 
semen is a symbol for great potential and things to come . 
at the time they haven't yet had sex nor have they killed anyone yet . 
the two of course go hand in hand . 
for an even more explicit semen scene see silence of the lambs . 
mickey during his marriage to mallory : " as creator of my universe , i pronounce us man and wife . " 
the way woody delivers this line is truly haunting , but telling , too . 
it reveals m&m are well on their way to expunging all their destructive tendencies and replacing them with positive ones . 
this is what mickey means by " creator of my universe , " he is giving himself or creating for himself healthy attitudes . 
it is not necessarily a schizophrenic retreat into solipsism as it first appears . 
scagnetti's first meeting with mallory is through her pubic hair he plucks from the gas station attendant's mouth . 
the indian sage releasing mallory's father , who was reincarnated as a snake : " old man , go be a snake , " after telling his " snake story " that ends with " bitch , you knew i was a snake . " 
after mickey shoots this sage to death during a bewildering nightmare , mallory says , " you killed life ! ! ! " 
this is another telling quote because it implies they didn't see themselves as killers of life . 
then what were they killing up to that time ? 
in some case just those zombies faking their way through life , the living dead , as it were . 
in other cases , all the anti-life forces , the cops and their parents . 
the butterfly just before the movie shifts into the prison . 
it of course symbolizes rebirth . 
dr . emil reingold , as portrayed by steven wright , passing judgement on m&m : " mickey and mallory know the difference between right and wrong , they just don't give a damn . " 
this is reminiscent of nietzsche's whole philosophy , and maybe a direct reference to his beyond good and evil . 
mickey : " the rabbit says the moment of realization is worth 1000 prayers . " 
mickey ( again in his interview ) : " me and you , we are not the same species . " 
notice when the escape is in progress we get some role reversals in terms of leadership and control . 
mickey the prisoner becomes the leader of his little gang . 
the wardens become prisoners and the civilians like wayne gayle and his producer follow the leader , no matter who it is . 
mickey : how ya feelin' ? 
wayne : fucking great ! 
mickey : you got the feelin' ? 
wayne : i'm alive . 
i'm alive for the first fuckin' time ! 
what an incredible transformation this is . 
he got the feeling and he couldn't contain himself . 
what a feeling . 
that feeling of metaphysical freedom that you can create your own universe . 
mickey when almost caught in a dead end , " think , think , think , think . " 
go figure it out . 
dwight ( tommy lee jones ) in general , because he may be the sickest fuck in the whole film . 
his whole attitude can be summed up with , " destroy them ! ! ! "