True Romance

Released: 10th September 1993

Directed By: Tony Scott

Starring: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper

Certificate: 18

Reviewed By: Max Hubbard

This film is my all time favourite so I’ll admit, I’m biased on this one. Quentin Tarantino wrote the script for this movie and was one of his first. The sale of this script did however pave the way for Tarantino to start and finish Reservoir Dogs and the rest as they say, is history.

The True Romance script is a comic book fantasy that sees a geeky comic book shop worker transformed into a lover, a vengeful vigilante and finally into a smooth criminal.

The story features Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) who works in a comic book shop and goes to the movies on his birthday each year and got set up by his boss with a call girl called Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette). They fall in love at first sight and get married. Clarence and Alabama then get involved with pimps, drug lords, cops and mobsters as they pick up a wrong suitcase full of cocaine in their pursuit of true romance.

True Romance, although directed by Tony Scott, oozes Tarantino class. The Mexican standoff at the hotel (Tarantino’s tribute to Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), the Sicilian scene and Alabama vs Virgil at the motel are all scenes worth taking note of as legendary in their own right.

With a stand out cast also including Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer, it has to be one of the best ever.

True Romance is not only an immensely violent, action packed, hollywood movie, but also genuinely romantic at times. Tarantino’s dialogue sparkles throughout as does the cast. Although directed by Tony Scott who made only one change from Tarantino’s original script namely the ending, he also shot the Tarantino ending which is on the DVD/ Blu Ray. Although this ending is less romantic and less Hollywood, it does link in with Reservoir Dogs. I will leave it up to you to decide which was is best as it always sparks debate.

True Romance is a very very cool movie. If you’re a movie fan, it’s a must see. It will always be my favourite.