True Romance

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1993
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Tony Scott
Genre:	Fast paced thrills
Starring:	Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108399/
Tagline:	Stealing, Cheating, Killing. Who said romance is dead?
Favourite line:	“Sicilians were spawned by niggers.”

Tony Scott directing.
Tarantino writing.
The dream team, right?

The plot:
Watching a triple bill of martial arts movies at his local Detroit cinema, Clarence (Christian Slater) is delighted when feisty, pretty Alabama (Patricia Arquette) seems to take a shine to him.
Later that evening, Alabama confesses she was sent to him as a gift. She’s a prostitute, but one who has now fallen in love with one of her tricks.
To help her escape the life of a call girl, Clarence pays a visit to her pimp, but things soon turn ugly, and a gunfight ensues Escaping, just, Clarence takes the opportunity to grab a suitcase full of cocaine on his way out, leaving nothing but bodies behind.
Loaded with narcotics, with a beautiful woman on his arm, Clarence heads to LA to offload the bounty at a bargain price but, inevitably, things don’t go entirely to plan…..

Could this be the movie with the best cast ever? I think it stands a chance. Let’s list them, in no particular order:
Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson and James Gandolfini.
And if you don’t know who Gandolfini is, you really need to sort out your DVD collection.
Stand out amongst their number are Hopper and Walken, primarily for a five minute sequence that really has to be seen to be truly appreciated. Under the duress of torture, Hopper informs Walken’s Sicilian Don Coccotti that “Sicilians were spawned by niggers.”
It’s shocking stuff, even today, and the tension on screen is palpable, both men acting their fucking nuts off.
Truly gripping.
Directed by the lesser Scott brother (Tony is Ridley’s younger brother, fact fans), thankfully his music video heritage is kept firmly in check. So often, his movies are blighted by over-direction, too much fast editing and a sense of style over substance. Here, the opposite appears to be true. It’s as if he just hit the record button and let the actors get on with it, which is to be commended.
With a plot that barrels along relentlessly, a troupe of actors that can be relied upon to deliver the goods and a script from Tarantino that is as good as anything he has ever written – and considerably better than anything he has written in the last fifteen years or so – this is a tour de force of sharp, inventive Hollywood movie-making, with all sense of grandiose artifice stripped away, leaving simply a blisteringly good thriller.
And did I mention the violence?
By all of Lucifer’s children, this is explosive stuff, one fight scene between Gandolfini and Arquette leaving you breathless.
It’s really hard to pick fault, here, and I’m only docking a mark as the score is pretty bloody awful, a horrid, steel drum driven up-lift-a-thon that seems entirely incongruous to the movie itself and very, very dated.
But, face facts, kids, if the only flaw you can find is a spot of dodgy music, then you’re well and truly onto a winner.
A fabulous film.
Watch it.