True Romance - Review

In this 1993 film from Tony Scott, Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) falls in love with a prostitute (Patricia Arquette), kills her former pimp, steals a suitcase full of cocaine and travels to L.A in hopes of selling the lot and living in luxury for the rest of his life. As can be expected from a film written by Quentin Tarantino, things are never as simple as they seem, with pursuits, deception and violence never being too far away, True Romance is an action packed crime thriller that does not fail to deliver in terms of excitement.

There is something awfully endearing about watching a film written by such a prolific figure in modern cinema before their 'big break', Tarantino shows his love for a big plot and even bigger characters in this feature that was released only one year after his magnificent Reservoir Dogs hit the festival circuit and blew critics away. The sky is never the limit with Tarantino's scriptwriting, and the Hollywood norm is never going to be followed wholly, with scenarios put in just for the fun of it, characters introduced just to be killed off and the N-word used as frequently as the name of our protagonist, the film delivers a script that could only be written by something with an intense passion for cinema. With many hints at the ideas brewing in Tarantino's head that would be put on film in his later films such as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, parts of the script seem like Tarantino testing the waters of Hollywood to see the reactions to his graphic imagination. Writing the script was market research for Tarantino, a mere peek into some of the ideas he had for future films that he could take the whole credit for.

There is a disconnection felt when we are watching our protagonist's adventures. Speeding through the US with a case full of cocaine, being pursued by big time gangsters and taking it all in their stride, this film is not one that is easily relatable to. This lack of connection with Alabama and Clarence means that some scenes seem too stretched out or too exaggerated, I tried really hard to understand their motives throughout and gain a sense of perspective but found myself repeatedly lost. The lack of understanding, intentional or not, fits rather beautifully with the thematic side of the film, however, this journey that the characters are on is like a dream for them and why the Hell should they filter their enjoyment for us to feel engaged? When looking at this case, the characters seem to have depth, and their diegesis, although seen from our perspective through a non-understanding eye, is captivating and exciting. 

The film packs so much into the two hour running time, action, adventure, crime, romance and thriller are just some of the genres the film touches upon. With spectacular performances from Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken and Christian Slater, and a 30 second appearance from Samuel L. Jackson, it appears that many Hollywood big shots were more than happy to get on board with this film, and with many of them it was the first of many collaborations with Quentin Tarantino. Tony Scott brings everything together in a compact and enjoyable way, making quite a complex and scattered script into an easy to watch crime thriller, this film is cemented as one of my favourites of the 90s.