There are many ways of obtaining fame and fortune in modern Hollywood, but few are so thankless and so hard like the career of a screenwriter. When people remember films, they usually associate them with the names of stars, directors or producers, almost never with the names of writers. One of the rare screenwriters to escape such fate was Quentin Tarantino, arguably the most influential Hollywood filmmaker of 1990s. However, this couldn't have happened without Tarantino's directorial triumphs in Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. Those two films allowed Tarantino to reach such degree of fame that the people started using the phrase "Tarantino movie" for titles that actually weren't Tarantino films in traditional sense. True Romance, 1993 crime drama directed by Tony Scott, is a perfect example for such phenomenon.
The plot of the film is based on the script written by Tarantino (and co-written by his former associate Roger Avary). Protagonist is Clarence Worley (played by Christian Slater), comic books store clerk from Detroit obsessed with the more obscure elements of popular culture, including 1970s martial arts movies. While he celebrates birthday by watching Sonny Chiba's triple feature in cinema, he is approached by Alabama (played by Patricia Arquette), beautiful young woman. Two of them spend the night together and realise that they are hopelessly in love with each other. Two of them marry, but there is one major obstacle to their happiness - Alabama is a call girl employed by nasty and murderous pimp Drexl (played by Gary Oldman). Clarence decides to win his wife's freedom by confronting Drexl, but this noble act leads to violent shootout, couple of dead gangsters and bag full of uncut cocaine in Clarence's hands. The drugs are worth millions and Clarence decides to leave Detroit and head to Los Angeles where his best childhood friend and aspiring actor Dick Ritchie (played by Michael Rapaport) is supposed to help him sell it to Hollywood celebrities. Unfortunately, Detroit mob led by sinister Vince Coccotti (played by Christopher Walken) wants the drugs back and sends the team of ruthless assassins in Los Angeles in order to retrieve it.
In some ways True Romance is more "Tarantino" film than movies actually directed by Tarantino. The script is partially autobiographic - character of Clarence resembles Tarantino's own past of a video store clerk, while Clarence's misadventures in Los Angeles look like they have been inspired by Tarantino's attempts to pitch his scripts to Hollywood establishment. However, few critics and film scholars like to think about connections between the script and real life and concentrate their attention on variousearlier films that had inspired it. Best known among them is Mallick's masterpiece Badlands, which shares some plot elements with True Romance and is given homage in the form of narration and Hans Zimmer's musical score. Another film that has inspired True Romance is Lynch's Wild at Heart - protagonists of both films are obsessed with Elvis Presley and have visions. But the most visible inspiration is a multitude of obscure B movies that Tarantino had found while working in video store, including Hong Kong titles with the almost ridiculous amounts of violence and high bodycounts. This is most visible in now legendary final scene that displays massacre more suitable for Elizabethan tragedy than modern Hollywood movie.
Yet, there is still something original in True Romance. What truly makes this film a "Tarantino film" is a dialogue. Tarantino managed to equip almost all of his characters with incredibly good lines and thus make them memorable despite their brief appearances. So, True Romance features plenty of truly memorable scenes, helped by a wide variety of excellent actors, all willing and able to make a lasting impression despite having only a minute or two of a screen time. Unfortunately, this is also a flaw in the film - some of the most powerful scenes are simply wasted in the beginning of the film, while the best one could have been easily cut from the film without any negative effect to the plot. This scene - brilliant exchange between Clarence's father (played by extremely subdued Dennis Hopper) and Vince Coccotti - could have easily become one of the most famous in the history of cinema, or at least become the most powerful piece of anti- racism in modern Hollywood. Yet this scene lacks connection with the rest of the film and from that point forward the plot is becoming less interesting.
The ending of the film is another problem. It is debatable whether the original downbeat version could have been more faithful to the general atmosphere of the film, but the new, more upbeat, version, introduced by director Tony Scott, looks like a lame attempt to bring fairy tale ending to otherwise dark, cynical and nihilistic story. But the fans of Quentin Tarantino shouldn't feel cheated. True Romance, despite not displaying Tarantino at his best, is still a Tarantino film and it delivers the goods to all those who expect some stylish entertainment. The best way to describe this film in one sentence is to quote a line that features prominently in the end. "You're so cool."
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on October 21st 2002)
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