True Romance

John Chard 5/16/2024 3:22:09 PM 8.4

The King, Chiba, White Boy Day and Love…Bloody Love. True Romance is directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Michael Rapaport, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore, Bronson Pinchot and Saul Rubinek. Music is by Hans Zimmer and cinematography by Jeffery L. Kimball. Comic book store clerk Clarence Worley (Slater) falls in love with call girl Alabama Whitman (Arquette) when she turns up at the movie theatre as one of his birthday presents. Marriage is quick but as the whirlwind romance gathers apace, complications quickly follow in the form of psycho drug dealers and the mob! It's still speculated on how True Romance would have panned out had Tarantino directed his own screenplay, but really in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. For True Romance is a wildly exciting fusion of lovers on the lam premise with violence a go go thrills. Director Scott did a bang up job bringing Tarantino's screenplay to life, even making a couple of narrative changes that suits (QT agrees) the picture no end. People often get hung up on the fact that Scott had previously helmed Top Gun, Beverly hills Cop II and Days of Thunder, citing these as reasons that Scott was wrong for the material, yet the film he did immediately before True Romance was The Last Boy Scout, a thrilling and muscular actioner that pings with sharp savvy dialogue scripted by Shane Black. It was the perfect trial run for True Romance, and Scott proved to be a wise and cohesive choice for the material. He also expertly marshalled a large ensemble cast, garnering career high turns from Slater and Arquette in the process. Almost everything clicks into place on True Romance, it never lacks for kinetic thrills or edge of the seat drama. In turn it likes to grab you around the throat with some wince inducing violence, cunningly drawing you in to root for a couple of lovers who will do anything for each other, while simultaneously causing carnage for all they come into contact with. There's odd ball characters galore (Oldman and Pitt excelling in this area), exquisite set-pieces and dialogue so sharp you could cut a steak with it. From conversations between Clarence and his imaginary Elvis (Kilmer) mentor, to iconography unbound with one of the 90s great sequences that sees Walken's mob boss verbally joust with Hopper as Clarence's stoic father, it's a film as rich in the art of vocal acting as it is in eye splintering gloss. All that and it's a clinically beautiful love story as well! A wet dream fantasy of QT for sure, and if you wanna be churlish? Then there should have been more room made for Sizemore and Penn's glorious coppers. Hell we could even complain about the editing being a touch too slam-bang at times…But nah! Small complaints be damned, the meeting of Tarantino the writer and Scott the director delivers neo-noir goodies galore. In fact it's a film that just gets better with age. 9/10

Peter McGinn 10/25/2022 7:40:14 PM 8.4

This is a sort of pre-Tarantino Tarantino movie. The story I read is that he rewrote a script for a co-worker, and he didn’t end up directing it, so it is both his and not completely his work. But it is a violent quirky films like many of his other ones. I had to smile when i read the brief summary of the plot on this site. Rarely does a movie blurb capture the essence of a movie this well: “Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.” The dialogue rings true and there is a chemistry between the romantic leads. It is star studded also, though the actors play secondary roles to make for quite a talented group of character actors/actresses. I highly recommend it. Oh, and there is one other aspect of the movie that intrigued me and contributed to how much I like it. I haven’t seen it mentioned in other reviews here or elsewhere, and that is the soundtrack. It was composed by Hans Zimmer, who is widely recognized as one of the best movie composers. If you have seen the movie “Badlands” with Martin Sheen and Cissy Spacek, you will hear a startling resemblance (almost identically so) between the opening themes of the two movie. The music for Badlands, also a road movie featuring a killer and his girlfriend, was written by Carl Orff, taken from a study piece he apparently wrote for other composers and performers to use as a learning or development piece. I only know this because back then in pre-Google times I searched for weeks tracking down where the music came from, as Badlands did not release a soundtrack album. You can also notice the voiceover ending for both movies, recited by the girlfriends, are also very similar. I assume this is done as a tribute to the earlier film.

Rob T 6/23/2021 3:57:47 PM 8.4

Can't believe I haven't seen this movie until now. My neighbor could not believe I never saw this movie, and suggested I watch it A.S.A.P.! I did and loved it! This is a _**must see**_ Star-Studded movie. One of Quentin Tarantino best works.