If you haven’t seen this film, I feel sorry for you. It’s a Tarantino script and his best, in my opinion. Directed by the late, great Tony Scott and starring Christian Slater in his most empathetic role (Clarence Worley) and Patricia Arquette (Alabama – that’s her name) at her sexiest and possibly, most powerful; The scene where she gets the shit kicked out of her by Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is forever etched in my brain.
Technically, it’s an action film; but really, a contemporary romance about sex, drugs and rock and roll – from the mind of possibly the most relevant filmmaker of the time. And directed by one of the world’s best directors of emotionally affecting action movies.
Clarence (Slater) falls in love with a call girl (similar to a prostitute) and decides to kill her pimp so they can get married and run away together. It’s a wonderful idea, but things don’t exactly turn out as he had hoped.
A road movie to the bone, but more romantic and beautiful than the more artistic and pulp – Pulp Fiction.
Standout bit parts by Dennis Hopper – a retired cop, Christopher Walken – the gangster, Val Kilmer as Elvis (is brilliant), Bronson Pinchot as a pathetic assistant (who introduces Clarence to the buyer played by the truly great character actor – Saul Rubinek), Gary Oldman – the pimp and Brad Pitt as a stoner called Floyd.
What else do you need? Watch it now! It’s got balls! True Romance is a beautiful story about love in today’s world; a world of greed, violence, moral degradation, the destruction of family values and death around every corner.
Among the best elements in this film are: It tells a story about an uncool guy who just wants to be cool. But he’s painted as the coolest man alive – perhaps because the narrator of the story is the woman who’s in love with him (and because Tarantino may have been writing a bit about himself.) It starts off – about a guy who lives an ordinary, nerdy life and doesn’t get out much. He’s not the kind of guy you’d expect to go on a murder spree, for example. But his imaginary friend, Elvis is also his consul and tells him what he needs to hear to take violent action to solve the immediate problem (the pimp.) Things escalate from there. But these two are not psychopaths like the pair in Natural Born Killers or Kalifornia. Rather, everybody else seems to be either violent cold-blooded killers or cold-hearted police. And all Clarence and Alabama want is to attempt to survive. They don’t kill anyone, except in self-defense, and nobody who doesn’t deserve it – at least that’s the viewpoint that we witness.
The writing is fiercely colloquial and clever, interesting, poetic and fast. The directing is beautiful in cinematography, framing, structure and the style of the performances. The structure is basic, but it doesn’t need to be anything else, it also doesn’t call attention to itself. It’s really about the characters; their motives and struggle. None of the characters are without depth, even Floyd is vital to the story and an interesting character and he plays probably the smallest part in the film.
The plot is more straight-forward than Pulp Fiction, you don’t have to be clever to ‘get it’. However, that doesn’t make it predictable. The writer is smart enough to throw in things you wouldn’t expect and weave the narrative into a satisfying and exciting journey. Anybody could get killed – like in The Sopranos. Anybody could win. Anybody could lose everything. I feel the point of this film is that love is the answer, though. Even in the world of the time, full of violence, danger, tragedy and struggle – love can still break through all the mess and make it a journey worth travelling. And I for one am drawn to these characters, even the bad guys. I care about these characters as if they were myself.
Tarantino makes a point of juxtaposing an ugly, broken, smoggy, slummy city world with characters who are fighters that you want to root for and they are people with real heart. Hate the world, love the person. It may not be as unique as a film like Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. or Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, but it’s beautifully written, beautifully told and it really transcends the genre of contemporary love story/action film. Two opposing genres (one aimed at women, the other at men) perfectly mixed into one luscious story.
5 stars
the joy of eating and the folly of thinking 