True Romance (1993)
Director: Tony Scott
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Thriller
The Story
It is Calrence's (Christian Slater) birthday. His boss decides to get him a call girl for his birthday without his knowledge, but the call girl Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) ends up falling for Clarence almost immediately. Clarence decides he needs to get Alabama's stuff from her pimp, but when he goes to get it he causes a stir and ends up with dead bodies and a suitcase full of cocaine. Now he has to figure out what to do about the cocaine and the people looking for him and the cocaine. Clarence decides to try and sell the cocaine to a Hollywood producer for a great deal just so he can get out fast. The deal is more difficult for Clarence to pull off than he had originally imagined.
Everything Else
The directing of True Romance was unique in a lot of ways, but did not really take flight the same way that Top Gun did. Although the directing was solid as most Tony Scott films are, it lacked the intensity of other Scott films like Days of Thunder or Crimson Tide. I fell in love with True Romance for its scripting and story; thank you Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino sold this script to get enough money to make Reservoir Dogs and the rest is history as they say.
True Romance does not have the edge of a typical Tarantino film because of Tony Scott, but that does not hinder the excellent story much. Also, it allowed for plenty of stars to be included in True Romance; but then again I seem to recall some decent names in Reservoir Dogs. Ah well, the point is they got paid a lot more for True Romance. That says a lot about how the actors thought about Tarantino's talent.
Back to True Romance, Slater did an excellent job. Slater has a real talent, but for some reason I have never really liked his acting style. We may visit his talent a couple more times in some later Val Kilmer movies. Speaking of Kilmer, I did not even realize he was in True Romance the first time around. That might have been due to his out of focus 15 second part in the film. He apparently shot his part in just two days. The rest of the actors did quite well. You have Dennis Hopper, Tom Sizemore, James Gandolfini, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot (suspect in my opinion), Samuel L. Jackson for about 5 seconds, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Michael Rapaport, Patricia Arquette, and blah blah blah. Honestly it seemed odd that all of these stars were in this movie and only some of them like Pinchot got big roles. Maybe they could not afford the big names for much play time. It really worked though. However, look at Pinchot's face below; I think this says it all. I just don't buy it.
Val Kilmer
To be honest, there is really not a lot to say about Kilmer's performance in True Romance. We can say that he did well as Elvis, but he was in the movie for less than a minute. Kilmer originally wanted to play the role of Clarence, but agreed to do just the small role of Elvis. This was the second Tony Scott film that Val Kilmer appeared in. Possibly Val Kilmer was concentrating on more important roles such as his amazing role in Tombstone as Doc Holliday.
The Real Deal
I still like True Romance after the third viewing. I find the soundtrack a little bit annoying at times and still wish Quentin Tarantino had had the money to make this film on his own, but I will have to live with it the way it is. True Romance is a great movie if you are looking to see a large ensemble of great actors all together in a movie. There is a lot of sex, blood, and language, so keep that in mind if you are thinking of making this a family rental (it isn't).
The Short Version
Raw Score: 812,293
Sharon Movie? No
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8 comments:
For me, Patricia Arquette remains the hero of True Romance. Along with Tarantino's dialogue, she is the reason I enjoy this movie as much as I do. Alabama fits nicely in any discussion of Jackie Brown, The Bride or the chicks in Death Proof.
I would say that all of that makes the glam direction of Tony Scott much easier to deal with. Watching one of his films is a lot like spending time a kid who's eaten too much candy.
I would have loved to have seen who Tarantino would have cast as Clarence had he been compelled to direct this. I believe Slater probably would have been the last name on his list.
Joe -
This is two in a row for us. I guess we do share some opinions. I agree with you on the Clarence thing. I didn't think he was the best choice here either, but like I said it is all because of Tony Scott.
This is one of my all-time favorites, and is in my book for one of the, if not the, best casts ever. That said, it feels like a cheat to even call this a Kilmer movie (or include it here), since he's not even supposed to be recognizable, and probably only has three minutes (if that) of screen time.
This is the quintissential Tony Scott film, despite the large footprint left by QT's script.
Fletch -
It certainly is a cheat to call it a Val Kilmer movie, but I did it anyway. I would have reviewed this movie some day any probably, but Val Kilmer was the reason that I came back to it now. Typically if I have already seen the movie and it is not on the site it is not going to be unless someone requests it or I revisit for some reason such as Val Kilmer Movie Month.
You are 100% correct about this cast. I loved it too. I still think this movie could have been better without the mixture between Scott and Tarantino though. And you know already which way I would fall on that topic.
One of my all-time favorites. Great performances, especially by Walken, Hopper and Oldman in small roles. I thought Slater did a great job as Clarence. You'll definitely see this one on my list!
I have seen this movie years ago and can barely remember it so another viewing is in order. I do remember that Gary Oldman is in it but that could be because I think he's fantastic, though I didn't remember Val Kilmer.
I have always thought the same of Christian Slater he is a talented actor but there is something about him that I don't like, never figured out what it is.
Dove
Val Kilmer would probably be the easiest to miss in this movie, but truthfully Samuel L. Jackson had about the same screen time.
An interesting fact is that Val Kilmer performed one of the songs "Heartbreak Hotel" for the soundtrack. This gives him a little more credit I think.
Steven -
Thanks for stopping by. I think Slater did a good job, but I still just don't like him that much. He was pretty good in He Was a Quiet Man, but still there is just something about him that I find hard to take in.
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