Copycat Crime To Go To Court

A court has ruled that a case against Oliver stone's controversial 1994 film, Natural Born Killers can go ahead. The suit stems from the shooting of a woman in a Louisiana convenience store in what was claimed afterwards to be a copycat move from the film. The suit was originally thrown out but following an appeal to the US Supreme Court the family of Patsy Byers has been given leave to pursue the matter further. Byers was shot by a young couple - Sarah Edmondson and Benjamin Darrow - who claimed they had watched the super-violent movie at least 20 times before finally going out and gunning down their unfortunate victim. Their reckless act confined Byers to a wheelchair, but she tragically died several months later of cancer. Yet to see release in the UK, NBK follows a young couple on murderous crime spree across the States. Stone himself as been quoted as saying that the film was not intended as a celebration of violence but as a comment on the manipulation of mass media.