"We said that in romance as a whole neither the waking world or the dream world is the real one, but that reality and illusion are both mixtures of the two (Frye, 55)."
"The decline of realism in our day has gone along with the rise of the film,with its unprecedented power of presenting symbolic action (Frye, 56)."
If the question is what is the greatest romance ever told and not the greatest romance ever written, then the answer is simply Natural Born Killers. This film was released in 1994 and its underlying theme is the tendency of modern culture to romanticize criminals, like Bonnie and Clyde, celebrating them as folk heroes instead of condemning their actions. In this film, writer Quentin Tarantino and director Oliver Stone utilize many of the elements discussed in Frye's Sacred to the Secular as well as other techniques that make up the structure of romance.
From its opening scene the viewer descends (with the story itself) into a world of adventure, violence, chaos and love. While warding off advances from a man who is not her lover Mallory incites a violent encounter in an effort to be chaste to her lover. In order to bring about an end to the blood shed in the diner, Mickey and Mallory play a game with the remaining survivors to determine which one they will leave alive. Once the decision is rendered the lovers embrace and the wild ride through the trials of a great romance really begins. "Now we notice that one recurring theme in romance is the theme of incest, very often of father and daughter(Frye, 44)." This is true of NBK, after the opening scene we are confronted with this concept, Mallory's father played by Rodney Dangerfield has carried on an incestuous relationship with Mallory for years. Enter Mickey, the hero, sent by fate to rescue Mallory from her abusive home. In their first encounter he asks Mallory if she believes in Fate; which is important to the romantic structure, as we saw in Abu Kasim's Slippers, and will be a recurring theme throughout the film. The two lovers run away but are soon caught and separated by Mickey's incarceration for auto theft. While visiting Mickey in jail Mallory reveals her father's plans to keep the lovers separated and his threats to kill Mickey. The lovers swear oaths to one another and Mickey vows to again come rescue her and reassures her that they are "fate, and you can't stop fate, nobody can (NBK)." Mickey's escape from prison is convenient and spectacular, everything we have come to expect from a great romance. Mickey keeps his promise and returns to Mallory, they kill her parents but let her brother go because "it would be perpetrating an infamous crime in killing...who was guilty of no wrong (Xenophon, 23)." Now the lovers are free to shed the past and embark on their murderous journey as "fates messenger", they wed in a ritualistic, mythological way. As they murder their way across the American southwest it is hard to determine who has more blood lust as these killers become folk heroes and the public and the media can't get enough of the murderous couple.
In the desert there is a brief summary of events when Mallory asks her lover "why'd you pick me up and take me out of my house and killed my parents with me? and you committed to me (NBK)." While in the desert they are taken in by an Indian. It is my opinion that, in relation to 20th century tales as well as stories taking place in North America, the Indian is the literary equivalent of the pirate. For modern and inland culture it is the Indian who takes captives and evokes separation; the Indian is the embodiment of freedom and fear. Rituals, visions, dreams, and the mixing of reality with illusion color the next few scenes which are indescribable; for they are pure visual art and raw energy culminating in Mickey killing the Indian as he wakes from a nightmare. As the Indian, played by Russell Means, lay dying his last words are "twenty years ago, I saw a demon in my dreams. I was waiting for you (NBK)." The lovers are beside themselves. They did not want to kill the Indian and are frightened by what fate now has in store for them, they wander blindly out among the serpents and feel the very fear they had imposed on others. This and their arrest signal not only a turn in the action but the continuing of the story. Again separated the lovers long for one another and Mallory again has to fight off advances to remain chaste for her lover.
"Even in the most realistic stories there is usually some trace of a plunge downward at the beginning and bounce upward at the end. This means that most romances exhibit a cyclical movement of descent into a night world and a return to the idyllic world, or some symbol of it (Frye, 54)." If this plunge did not occur at the beginning of the story it begins now with M&M's incarceration. All of the scenes in the prison illustrate this descent and it is here that a "probable impossibility" occurs or what Mickey calls fate. There is a brief discussion of mutual suicide when things look their darkest but the lovers make their escape despite the odds. In the end M&M are free and start a family together, for all its darkness this film has the ideal and required happy ending of a great romance. In the additional scenes of the directors cut there is an alternate ending in which M&M are murdered after their escape but Oliver Stone explains that he thought that this ending disrupted the films narrative qualities.
Natural Born Killers is a depiction of "the improbable, desiring, erotic, violent world of romance (Frye, 61)," its use of classic literary romance structure and imagery is what, in my opinion, makes it the greatest romance ever told.
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