True Romance (1993) is an American romantic crime film written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, director of Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II. It stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette with an ensemble cast.
The title and plot is a play on the titles of romance comic books with their overwrought love stories -- very popular in earlier decades -- such as "True Life Secrets," "True Stories of Romance", "Romance Tales," "Untamed Love" and "Strange Love."
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 (Christian Slater) watches a Sonny Chiba triple feature at a Detroit movie theater for his birthday. Here he meets Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette), an attractive young woman. Afterward, they go for coffee and pie and he shows her his workplace. Later that 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 (Gary Oldman), which makes Clarence uneasy. He is later visited by an apparition of his idol, Elvis Presley (Val Kilmer), 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 (Dennis Hopper). 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 (Michael Rapaport), an aspiring actor. Clifford is later ambushed in his home by a gangster named Vincenzo Coccotti (Christopher Walken) 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 (Bronson Pinchot) to sell the drugs to a movie producer, Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek). 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 (James Gandolfini), 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 (Tom Sizemore) and Dimes (Chris Penn) plan to stage a sting operation and have Elliot wear a wire. Also, Coccotti's men plan to retrieve the drugs after finding out where the deal is taking place from Dick's roommate Floyd (Brad Pitt). 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 and seemingly killed, devastating Alabama. A lone remaining Italian makes a final exchange of fire with Dimes and Nicholson and is killed, but fatally injures Nicholson. Dimes then finishes off one of Lee's bodyguards, who is pleading for an ambulance. In an alternate version, he is in turn shot dead by an enraged Alabama. Clarence revives, only partially blinded, and 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.
Cast
Reception
Reviews for the film were largely positive. Out of the 43 reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes, 39 are positive, giving it an overall "fresh" rating of 91%.[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.
References
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