Consider - How far do the American films you have studied for this topic depend upon well established narrative and/or genre conventions?

In this blog post, I will be giving my ideas regarding the genre and narrative conventions of two well-known 'Lover on the lam' style films; Badlands (1973) and Natural Born Killers (1994). In both of these films, the director has taken the main convention of the genre (murder) and used it as a method of showing how badly the past of each of the characters has effected them and their later decisions. For example, as opposed to Badlands, in Natural Born Killers the lead female character (Mallory, played by Juliette Lewis) actually helps her lover (Mickey, played by Woody Harrelson) to murder her own abusive father and takes pride and is quite joyful when doing so. The change of low key lighting to high key lighting within Mallory's bedroom helps the audience to understand how Mallory is feeling towards her situation (living with her father) and how she is ecstatic when Mickey arrives outside of Mallory's 'dungeon' to rescue her from her enslaver, her father. The high key lighting, presumably caused by Mickey's headlights on the front of his car as he arrives at Mallory's household, shines onto Mallory's face showing her joyful emotions.