True Romance is a 1993 American romantic crime film directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette with an ensemble cast; the film contains notable performances by some seasoned actors along with early appearances by later stars. It is billed as a "love story", albeit an unconventional one, as the plot revolves around drugs and violence. Clarence Worley (Slater) and Alabama Whitman (Arquette) attempt to start a new life for themselves using cocaine stolen from Alabama's former pimp and find themselves on the run from the Mafia, ending in a dramatic double-crossing when the police get involved.
True Romance was a breakthrough of sorts for Tarantino. It was his first screenplay for a major motion picture. He had hoped to direct the movie himself, but ended up selling the script.
Also notable is the film's score, by Hans Zimmer; its leitmotif is based on a familiar piece by Carl Orff.
Plot
Comic book store clerk and movie buff Clarence Worley watches a Sonny Chiba triple feature at a Detroit movie theater for his birthday. Here he meets Alabama Whitman, an attractive young woman. Afterwards they go for coffee and pie and he shows her his workplace. It is later in the night they have sex, after which she tearfully confesses that she is a call girl hired by Clarence's boss as a birthday present. She also confesses that she has fallen in love with him and he has fallen in love with her. The next day the two marry. Clarence soon learns about Alabama's volatile pimp, Drexl Spivey, which makes Clarence uneasy. He is later visited by an apparition of his idol, Elvis Presley, who tells him that killing Drexl will make the world a better place. Clarence assures Alabama he is only going to Drexl's to get her things. When he is there, Clarence stands up to the intimidating Drexl and tells him to leave Alabama alone from now on. Insulted, Drexl and his right hand man Marty attack and subdue Clarence and take his wallet to find out where he and Alabama live, threatening her life. With this Clarence draws a gun and kills them both. He grabs a bag which he assumes belongs to Alabama and leaves. When he returns he tells Alabama he killed Drexl which she tearfully finds "So romantic!" Opening the suitcase, the two find it is full of stolen cocaine.
Planning to leave town for Los Angeles, Clarence and Alabama first visit Clarence's father Clifford Worley. Clarence asks Clifford, an ex-cop, to use his police connections to find out if he is in the clear regarding Drexl's murder. Clifford tells him that the police assume the murder was a drug-related killing. With this Clarence and Alabama depart. In Los Angeles, Clarence and Alabama plan to meet Clarence's old friend Dick Ritchie, an aspiring actor. Clifford is later ambushed in his home by a gangster named Vincenzo Coccotti and his men who claim the drugs Clarence took from Drexl, their underling, belonged to them originally and wants Clarence and Alabama's location. Clifford stalls for as long as he can before accepting that he is going to die anyway and insults Coccotti and his Sicilian descent. Coccotti angrily kills Clifford before finding a note on the fridge giving Clarence's whereabouts at Dick's address. In Los Angeles, Clarence informs Dick of the drugs and plans to use Dick's contacts with an actor named Elliot to sell the drugs to a movie producer, Lee Donowitz. Elliot is soon arrested by the police for drug possession and uses his knowledge of Clarence's drug deal to escape prison time. Also when Clarence is away getting food, Alabama is found and interrogated by one of Coccotti's henchmen, Virgil who viciously beats her to find the cocaine. When he does, Alabama fights back and manages to kill him. Clarence takes her away, and they talk about moving to Cancun with the money from the drug deal.
On the day of the deal, detectives Nicholson and Dimes plan to stage a sting operation and have Elliot wear a wire and also a group of gangsters plan to retrieve the drugs for Coccotti. Clarence, Alabama, Dick and Elliot arrive in Lee Donowitz' hotel room and enter into negotiations. Clarence convinces Lee to go through with the risky deal. They are then ambushed by the cops and the gangsters who break into the room. In the middle of the Mexican standoff between the police, the gangsters and Lee's heavily armed bodyguards, Lee realizes that Elliot is an informant and berates him causing a massive shootout. In the aftermath Lee, Elliot, the police, the gangsters and the bodyguards are killed. Dick tosses the bag of drugs in the air as a distraction and flees. Clarence is shot in the eye when he exits the bathroom, angering Alabama, who kills Dimes and flees with the semi-blinded Clarence and the money. They escape as the police descend on the hotel. Afterwards, Clarence and Alabama are shown as a happy family on a beach in Cancun, with a son whom they named Elvis.
Script
The script for Natural Born Killers had been sold when Tarantino was introduced to director Tony Scott. Tarantino was a big fan of Scott's Revenge. Scott read both True Romance and Reservoir Dogs and wanted to direct both, but Tarantino was already set to direct Reservoir Dogs, so Scott took the other. Other than the ending (Clarence was shot dead during the climactic Mexican Standoff in the script) and the ordering of the scenes, Scott's film uses Tarantino's original script.
Originally the screenplay began with the same "I'd fuck Elvis" scene, set before the opening credits, as the release. But the first scene in Tarantino's script is the scene where Drexl steals the cocaine. After that, the next scene was Clarence and Alabama showing up at Clarence's father's home, from which point the scene order is the same up to where Clarence and Alabama meet Dick, which ends Act I. Dick asks how they met, which leads to the theater scene, marriage, and killing of Drexl and mistaken stealing of the cocaine. Act III begins with the scene where Dick sees the cocaine, after which the scripts converge.
Tarantino, in the commentary on the unrated director's cut DVD, mentions how this structure to the three acts results in the characters in the movie knowing everything in Act I while the audience doesn't know anything; the audience catches up in Act II, and the audience knows more than the characters in Act III. This is a method commonly used in Tarantino's works.
Cast
True Romance is notable for its ensemble cast. Featured actors who were popular at the time of production include Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, and Gary Oldman. Other actors featured had yet to achieve the peak of their fame at the time, including Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and James Gandolfini. Jack Black had a role as a movie theater attendant in a deleted scene.
Notably, some of the appearances by the supporting cast are very brief. Christopher Walken appears in only one scene, but gives a very memorable speech (as he would do in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction); Gary Oldman appears in only two scenes, albeit featuring a memorable dialogue with Christian Slater in the latter; Val Kilmer's face is never even seen in focus; Samuel L. Jackson's part was mostly edited out, though the full performance is included as a deleted scene on the 2-disc unrated Director's cut DVD.
Reception
Reviews for the film were largely positive. Out of the 36 reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes, 33 are certified "Fresh" or positive.[1]
Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star called it "one of the most dynamic action films of the 1990s."[2] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it three stars, saying "it's Tarantino's gutter poetry that detonates True Romance. This movie is dynamite."[3]
Roger Ebert gave the film a somewhat mixed review, but also said that "the energy and style of the movie are exhilarating", and that "the supporting cast is superb, a roll call of actors at home in these violent waters: Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper and Brad Pitt, for example."[4] A negative review by The Washington Post's Richard Harrington claimed the film was "stylistically visceral" yet "aesthetically corrupt".[5]
Film critic Richard Roeper named True Romance one of his all-time favorite films.
The Sicilian scene
Clarence's father, Clifford Worley (Dennis Hopper), is paid an unwelcome visit by Vincent Coccotti (Christopher Walken), consigliere to a Mafia boss named "Blue" Lou Boyle. Coccotti questions Worley as to the whereabouts of Clarence and the missing narcotics. Clifford realizes during the interrogation that he will be tortured until he gives the information. Apparently to deliberately provoke and enrage Coccotti, ensure a quick death, and protect his son, Worley gives a speech claiming that Sicilians are descended from "niggers." This speech is the precursor to Worley's death.
This scene has been nominated by Tarantino himself (on the True Romance Unrated Director's Cut DVD commentary) as one of his proudest moments. "I had heard that whole speech about the Sicilians a long time ago, from a black guy living in my house. One day I was talking with a friend who was Sicilian and I just started telling that speech. And I thought: “Wow, that is a great scene, I gotta remember that.”
In an interview with Mojo magazine in September 2006, Walken commented on his genuine friendship with Hopper implying that this helped create the warmth that exists between the otherwise antipathetic characters. "We really like each other, but I kill him anyway." He also expressed admiration for the Tarantino dialogue which was too good to improvise around, instead being delivered meticulously as scripted.
On an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, Hopper was questioned by one of the film students if "the Sicilian scene" was scripted or improvised. After laughing for a moment, Hopper replied that the scene was mostly done as scripted, and the only part that was improvised was the "eggplant" and "cantaloupe" remarks.
This scene has been colloquially named the Sicilian scene and become a cult favorite - and is included in Tarantino's original script.[6] The dialogue from the scene can be found in wikiquote.
References
External links
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Films directed by Tony Scott |
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Loving Memory (1969)
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