Favorite Filmmakers: Quentin Tarantino- True Romance

True Romance (1993)

Starring: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper

Directed by: Tony Scott


Plot Summary: Clarence Worley meets a girl named Alabama Whitman at the movie theater. After hitting it off, Alabama confesses to Clarence that she has been a call girl for less than a week. After declaring their love for each other, they go to the courthouse to get married. Clarence goes to visit Alabama's pimp Drexl Spivey to inform him that Alabama will no longer be a call girl. After shooting up the place and killing Drexl, Clarence leaves with a suitcase that he believes is full of Alabama's belongings. Instead, the suitcase is filled with cocaine that Drexl was peddling for the Irish mob boss "Blue Lou" Boyle. Clarence and Alabama make way for Los Angeles with hopes of selling the cocaine, completely unaware that Boyle's men have been sent to track them down and retrieve the drugs.

After some personal time off, I am finally back and ready to review some more movies. Catching everyone up on what's been going on, I recently got married....and that's about it. I'm as happy as can be, and ready to tackle my next challenge of movies. While I'm in a good mood for the rest of the month, I thought I'd go ahead and wrap up my thoughts on the collective works of my favorite director, Quentin Tarantino. One of my very first reviews on this blog was for one of my top 3 favorite movies and Tarantino's best film (Pulp Fiction), and I've also covered his very first film in my month of gangster reviews (Reservoir Dogs) and his most recent film in my monthly retrospective on Westerns (Django Unchained). Now it's time for me to fill in the gaps, and I'll start by covering an unconventional Tarantino film, True Romance. This may not reach everyone's radar on being a true Tarantino film since he only wrote it, instead of also directing it. However, a Tarantino vibe is all over this picture and can be found in various scenes of dialogue, the gratuity of violence, and the all-star cast scattered throughout the picture.

The main story in the film talks about the romance between Clarence Worley and Alabama Whitman, played by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. In terms of the main film and characters, this is the part of the film that works the best. You can tell instantly that these two have a connection with each other and the chemistry between Slater and Arquette is quite believable. While both do things that are morally questionable to the viewer, the viewer is still able to see WHY they do it, something that is very familiar with Tarantino's best written characters. Because they love each other and want to protect the other, they would murder, steal, and take a beating for each other. While it's not your typical movie romance, their love for each other can still be considered romantic once you sift your way through the bullets and cocaine.

Want some proof of why Tarantino is one of the greatest filmmakers of our era? Look no further than the scene between Clarence's father Clifford, played by Dennis Hopper and Don Vincenzo Coccotti, played by Christopher Walken. For starters, it's Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken having a dialogue together, the result is bound to be mesmerizing. On top of that, what they end up talking about really has nothing to do with the plot, but it's one of the most memorable aspects the film has to offer. That's the brilliance of Tarantino's writing. He doesn't write dialogue that needs to cater to the plot, but rather writes things that two people could actually say in a discussion. It's writing like this that I love most because it allows me to look at my own life, the discussions I have with people, and causes me to say "that could work as a movie or TV show." Plus, you'll never get the words "eggplant" and "cantaloupe" out of your head after seeing this scene.

One of the film's most memorable contributions is the character of Drexl Spivey, played by Gary Oldman. Already, the fact that Oldman is one of my favorite modern actors and in this movie plays a HUGE part in why I love this character, but there's much more than that. His look is very engaging to the eye, from his dreadlocks to the scars near his discolored eye (my wife actually said he was frightening). Add to the fact that he is a white pimp who thinks, acts, and talks like he is black and you have a fascinating character who makes the most of his screen time. Even when he's not on screen, this psychotic, jive-talking pimp is the catalyst for the entire plot and has a lasting impact on the rest of the film. Heck, he's so bad and cool he puts Samuel L. Jackson in his place...and that's no easy feat.

True Romance was released after Reservoir Dogs but before Pulp Fiction, so Tarantino wasn't the household name he is today. Yet, the film's biggest highlights definitely have Tarantino's fingerprints on them. The aforementioned scene with Hopper and Walken is definitely the film's best example, but there's tons more. There's a great situation in which Clarence and Alabama find themselves in the middle of a standoff between the cops, the mob, and a filmmaker's bodyguards, which actually takes the Mexican standoff at the end of Dogs and multiplies it by about 10. And yes, when the film gets bloody, it gets over the top bloody. Not in a comedic way, but rather in a way that feels overly brutal and gritty, which definitely fit the style of Tarantino's earlier films. On top of seeing some familiar Tarantino faces like Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Christopher Walken, True Romance has all the makings of a great Tarantino movie.

Yet, something still feels like it's missing. While I definitely saw a LOT of potential with this film, and I really wanted to LOVE this film, I just couldn't fall out of simply liking the film. The cast and the script were fantastic, but the biggest problem with the film was the pacing of the story. Tarantino's movies are quick paced and edited with precision to make sure a 3 hour epic like Django Unchained doesn't drag on and become a bore for the audience. Here, 2 hours felt much longer and not in the good way. Maybe Tarantino would have been able to tighten the screws had he been the director of the film, and that's not to say that Tony Scott was a bad filmmaker (he made Top Gun and Man on Fire for crying out loud). What I am saying is that when it comes to Tarantino films, they're like his children, and they need the necessary amount of care and effort from him in order for them to be successful. With True Romance, Tarantino wrote a great idea and put it in the hands of someone else to carry it out and put it on film. Can you imagine if he did that with Pulp Fiction? I shudder at that idea, and it's that feeling that causes True Romance to be an unofficial Tarantino film that I only like.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Even with all the good things True Romance has going for it, something feels like its missing from the final product. With Tarantino behind the screenplay, you can only imagine this film would have been a tighter and more cohesive film had he also been in the director's chair. I'm going to say this film is only necessary to see once if you're a major Tarantino fan.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review

True Romance and movie images are copyrighted by Warner Bros.