True Romance - 1993
Directed by Tony Scott
Written by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper
Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Val Kilmer
James Gandolfini & Samuel L. Jackson
Tony Scott's
True Romance is exciting and has flair, but it's the film's many varied characters that shine brightest, with an assortment of personalities jumping to life from the pages of Quentin Tarantino's script and attracting some of the finest acting talent available to sear themselves into the consciousness of those lucky people who saw this in a cinema in 1993. It's a collection of personas that weave themselves neatly into the story of Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) and actually deserve a paragraph each - such is the impression each individual character made on me, and the pleasure I got in watching them.
Christopher Walken plays crime boss Vincenzo Coccotti with style and a towering menace that truly makes him seem like a behemoth and a deadly man to cross. He only has one scene, opposite Clarence's father (played by Dennis Hopper) but that one scene just happens to be a classic - truly memorable, only in a way Tarantino could write - with words biting harder than the punches and cuts do. The entire scene ends with a kind of exclamation point, before Coccotti recedes into a place far removed from that of us mere mortals.
Gary Oldman plays pimp and drug dealer Drexl Spivey, aided with some awesomely effective make-up that transforms him into a scarred and ugly devil. Spivey is white, but thinks that he's black (I know someone who does in real life, which makes this less ridiculous than it seems to others.) His dopey crassness is almost poetic, and his physicality is as menacing as a snarling Pitbull. Oldman really disappears into this violent creature, and some consider this to be one of his greatest acting performances. I concur. I loved watching Oldman as Drexl Spivey, and I'd hate to run into anyone like this in a dark alley. He oozes brutality and sadism, but also the crass idiocy of a man devoted to pain and hedonistic selfishness.
Brad Pitt plays Floyd, one of my favourite characters the first time I saw this film. Floyd is simply a complete stoner whose mind has been dulled by the cone he just smoked a few moments ago (he's
always just smoked one, or is smoking one.) Despite displaying displeasure once or twice, he seems to be the most friendly and easy-going guy you could meet - and often inadvertently gives the villains in this film a fairly easy time of it. Pitt plays stoned better than I've ever seen anyone else do - not counting Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson in
Easy Rider, who were actually stoned when they filmed their scenes. Floyd is slow and confused, but at peace and happy with his lowly lot in life. He provides a great counterpoint to Walken's crime boss.
James Gandolfini plays Virgil, a hitman and violent thug who does dirty business for Vincenzo Coccotti. Ice cold, he nevertheless opens up to Alabama about how hard his first couple of kills were. He's also filled with an inner rage, and finds beating up a young woman to be nothing more than an amusing diversion. You could easily imagine Virgil torturing people, then going to have a meal with his mother and sister - Gandolfini really gives us some depth despite only really having one scene in this film. Of course, that's one good thing about Tarantino's writing that not many people give him credit for. None of his characters are mindless automations only used to forward a plot. They're all people with a degree of depth.
Dennis Hopper plays Clifford, Clarence's father who is introduced to us singing the Burl Ives song "A Little Bitty Tear" which I thought was clever, really clueing us in instantly that his character was somewhat softer, more put-upon, genuine and sad than any of the other characters in this. Ironically for Hopper, he also plays one of the more 'normal' people in
True Romance. Living alone in a trailer, he shows real affection for his son, who he is somewhat alienated from. He still has a funny edge to him, tinged with a tired and weary streak that life seems to have added.
Val Kilmer,
Samuel L. Jackson,
Chris Penn,
Tom Sizemore and
Bronson Pinchot all have smaller roles, but are great inclusions that I also enjoyed. Jackson, Penn, Christopher Walken and Brad Pitt have appeared in other Tarantino films.
So that leaves the film itself - a story (you could call it a fantasy) about a young guy named Clarence who loves movies and works in a comic shop who just so happens to have attracted a beautiful young woman to marry - she transforms him into someone with fight and vigour. A confrontation delivers an unexpected surprise : a suitcase full of cocaine which he decides he'll sell for a fortune to live the high life for a while. Unbeknownst to him, there are powerful people intent on recovering the drugs, and are hot on the tail of this young married couple. This takes all parties to Los Angeles, as Clarence tries to sell the cocaine to a hot-shot movie producer as the criminals and then finally the cops both close in. Christian Slater is serviceable as Clarence as is Patricia Arquette as Alabama. It just so happens that they're having the film stolen from them by an incredible supporting cast.
The opening act was taken from an early Tarantino short film, and introduces us to Clarence and Alabama, who has been a call girl for a short time before falling for Clarence - meeting him in a movie theater as a customer - but he doesn't know this initially. Their love story is introduced via a narrated intro from Alabama inspired by
Badlands - and there are plenty of film and comic book references slipped in, as we'd come to expect from Q. Nothing feels too derivative, and there's enough vulnerability to these characters that they become instantly likeable. Clarence's sudden decision to kill Alabama's former pimp is slightly out of character and improbable - we almost have to come to a realization that he's slightly out of his mind. Clarence's obsession with Elvis Presley has the King talking to him in fantasy sequences (a shame we don't get to see a little bit more of Val Kilmer in this role) and Elvis sometimes encourages Clarence's view of himself as a man with machismo, perhaps trying to compensate for weaker aspects of his personality.
Once the wheels are turning,
True Romance is gripping - violent consequences constantly conspire to bring our couple undone as we explore almost every tier of the criminal underworld - specifically in regards to the drug trade. This roller-coaster ride is aided by a soundtrack that is many-varied and takes us in many differing directions. Hans Zimmer doesn't shy away from the romantic aspect of the film in his score, giving us some xylophone music reminiscent of skipping over meadows and rivers in a plinky, dreamy rhythmic kind of way - it perfectly matches the kind of fantasy this film is. Cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball is a Tony Scott regular, having filmed
Top Gun and his experience mainly resides in the action genre - this perhaps explains how expertly scenes with much movement are provided to us in a clear way. The characters move and strike and we can observe in a steady manner.
The ending of the film is where screenwriter and director differed - but aside from what happens to our characters ultimately, I was just slightly let down by how bombastic and frenzied the final act is. I would have been hoping for something a little more clever than the all-out unbelievable violence the film erupts in with little regard to where the story was taking us. Perhaps it was inevitable, but it just seemed like there was a real lack of ideas left when all of the characters and forces at work converged on the one area. That, and the fact that I would have preferred Tarantino's ending (without saying exactly what that was.) But considering just how good the film was every step of the way there, it only diminished the film slightly in my eyes. When I first saw
True Romance I was blown away by it - and I still have a great time when I watch clever scenes with great characters that have amazing actors bringing them to life. It flies along with heart, excitement and exuberance in a simple, yet driven way. You can tell that everyone making it loved the art of making films, and knew what audiences really wanted.