True Romance

"As the sun sets in the west we bid you a fond farewell"

True Romance plays like a heist film in reverse in which a newlywed couple named Clarence and Alabama, played by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, try to secure their future by selling cocaine that Clarence inadvertently stole from Alabama’s former pimp, Drexel played by Gary Oldman.  The film focuses on their burgeoning relationship as much as the unpredictable environment the couple finds themselves in while getting mixed up with some pretty nasty and colorful characters.

As always I discuss spoilers so please watch the film first.

Quentin Tarantino sold this script, one of two from early in his career before he was able to direct his own film.  Natural Born Killers is the other, a story about a vile couple that was changed substantially by director Oliver Stone.  Director Tony Scott in turn made some structural changes to True Romance but maintained the soul of the script and injected it with his specific energy. 

Like any artist I think Tony Scott was evolving at the time.  In the early 1990s I saw Scott as Ridley’s flashier and less substantial younger brother.  Scott’s films Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, Days of Thunder and The Last Boy Scout, all had some good moments but to me suffered from Scott’s tendency to stick his camera very close to the actor’s faces and to lower the light.  My reaction was that it was hard to see what was going on, especially when watching in the cinema.  True Romance was probably the last film in which Scott employed this style and as a result the climax and the scene in which Clarence faces off with Drexel lose some of their impact.

Scott’s film, Revenge released in 1990, a thriller starring Kevin Costner, was actually to me his most interesting film up to that point but the second half was edited poorly by the studio, sucking all the pace out of the film.  Later in his career Scott reedited the film and it was vastly improved. 

Crimson Tide, Scott’s next film, is my favorite of his work.  In this film Scott pulled the camera back more during the confrontations between Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman.  For the rest of his career Scott inserted visual flourishes in his action scenes, often using slow motion and changing film stock to give the audience some variety and as a result his films were always fun to watch.  Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 and Unstoppable are a treat for any action fan and Enemy of the State is an enjoyable study of some the themes Francis Ford Coppola had in The Conversation (does Gene Hackman play the same character in both films?—discuss).

Scott’s pacing is more disciplined than Tarantino’s and the film is exactly two hours long.  This leads me to think that it might be interesting for Tarantino to stick to writing and let others direct his films.  Tarantino’s longtime editor Salle Menke died in 2010 and the two films he has made since, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, each were much longer than needed to tell their stories.  Someone had the idea to edit Kill Bill into two films and fortunately the quest of the main character and the plights of those she hunted made each film time well spent. 

Tarantino has said in interviews that Clarence is based on him which makes the film a metaphor of sorts.   Clarence’s constant movie references often sound like a Tarantino interview.  Like Clarence Tarantino brought his hot product to Hollywood hoping to make a mark but was ultimately far more successful and without the gang violence.

Tarantino originally scripted the film with the early scenes out of order.  Usually I enjoy this in the films Tarantino directs.  Notably he killed John Travolta’s character Vincent Vega in the second act of Pulp Fiction and the third act goes back a few days earlier when Vincent was still alive and he figures in it prominently.  The Kill Bill movies are wildly out of order until the third act of Kill Bill Vol. 2.  In True Romance Tarantino also killed off Clarence in the finale.  Tony Scott restructured the beginning to avoid confusing audiences and only took away Clarence’s left eye at the end. 

Clarence as played by Slater starts off the film as a film fan unable to relate to most people. Once he meets Alabama and then manages to kill Drexel Clarence becomes an ultra-confident smooth talker with an answer for every situation.  While the growth is a little unrealistic Slater is so charming in the part the audience tends to go along with it.

Patricia Arquette is a burst of energy as Alabama, who I am guessing would have been the ideal girlfriend in Tarantino’s mind at the time.  She smiles a lot, is charming, resourceful and has so much chemistry with Slater they practically seem to be one.  I would have liked to see her interact with other women in the film as our only view on her is from the way other men view her. 

Every supporting character of note gets a least one good moment in the film, which probably helped attract such an impressive cast.  Although Brad Pitt (who plays Floyd, the stoned fellow on the couch) later became a huge name at that time he was mainly known from his showy part in Thelma in Louise, directed by Scott’s brother, Ridley.

Two of the more interesting characters, played by Tom Sizemore and Chris Penn, are introduced a half hour before the film ends, which is pretty late by most screenwriting standards but Tarantino and Scott give them a fun exposition scene, propelled by Sizeman’s energy, and once they enter the hotel room they dominate the scene.  Sizemore also had a key role in Natural Born Killers.

Many films about a romance will have the couple meet in the first act, pull them apart late in the second act and have them reconcile in the third.  True Romance inverts this by putting Clarence and Alabama together early on and although there are exterior threats their feelings for each other only intensify.  Like a lot of new couples Clarence and Alabama are constantly kissing regardless of the setting and there is no conflict between them.

True Romance underperformed at the box office, only grossing about $12 million, which given the names attached to it seems incredible.  Slater was never a huge draw but was well known and perfectly cast as Clarence and there was a strong supporting cast.  The presence of Tony Scott and the fun vibe should have helped.  Perhaps the lead characters’ quest to set themselves up financially by selling cocaine put people off but would they have known that prior to buying a ticket?  Some of the dialogue is pretty racist but there was far more in Pulp Fiction which was a huge success.  It’s a violent R rated film but no more the first couple of Die Hard or Lethal Weapon films.   Maybe it needed time to find an audience and when it didn’t make money off the bat the studio stopped supporting it.  A smaller release to let it build word of mouth might have been more effective.  The Fugitive had a longer than expected run at #1 and ate up some of the audience even though it was in its sixth week when True Romance debuted.  Warner Brothers released both films. 

Here are a few observations I had while watching the film:

·        The story has many dark elements but is sweet at its core due to the Clarence/Alabama relationship.  The titles reflect this showing bleak shots of Detroit with the calypso score by the great Hans Zimmer.

·        Sony Chiba who Clarence keeps talking about, eventually turned up in Kill Bill Vol. 1.

·        The kissing during the love scene is framed a lot like the one in Top Gun with the light and the camera on the sides of the actors.

·        I never understood Clarence’s motivation for going after Drexel.  As despicable as Drexel was he had never hurt Alabama and though she had some stuff at his place she had not mentioned that it had anything of value to her.  If he had left well enough alone it would have saved many lives and Drexel never would have bothered to look for Alabama.  Maybe Clarence has seen too many movies.

·       Elvis is the devil on Clarence’s shoulder.  As much as Tarantino loves Elvis (there is a cut reference to Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction being an “Elvis Man”) it’s his more destructive side that he actually explores.

·       Clarence is never picked up by the police even though three times in the film he escapes from the scene of a crime in the most inconspicuous car imaginable.

·       When Alabama delivers the line “so romantic” to Clarence after her comes back from killing Drexel it is a good litmus test for whether you are with the film or not. 

·        Hopper as the Clifford Worley, Clarence’s father, probably still wears his uniform as it is the only thing he knows even though he has retired.  The earmuffs and deliberate movements sell how cold he is.

·        The best scene in the film is between Walken as Vincent Coccotti, and Hopper.  Like a lot of extended scenes in Tarantino films one character is trying to keep information from another dangerous one and it ends in a moment of violence.  Coccotti looks Worley in the eye a lot and never blinks, which always looks more menacing on film as the recipient (nor audience) can never lower their guard (it is one of the tricks Anthony Hopkins used when playing Hannibal Lecter).  When Worley asks for a cigarette he is accepting his fate and takes his last moment to enjoy it, much as Michael Fassbender did in Inglourious Basterds. 

·        The scene in which Alabama is beaten by Virgil (such a deceptively harmless sounding name-also the name of Woody Allen’s inept criminal in Take the Money and Run) is difficult to watch.  Tarantino has created many scenes where a woman is in danger and gets herself out of it (ie Kill Bill Vol.2 in which The Bride is buried alive, the final sequence in Death Proof) but it looked like Alabama was not going to make it.  Alabama tries to flirt with Virgil and maintain some control though her voice is shaky.  The late Gandolfini looks grungy and balances his menace with a respect for Alabama’s resolve which kicks in once Virgil begins to assault her.  The intensity of the scene (reminiscent of a beating delivered to Kevin Costner’s character in Revenge) is broken up by the occasional cuts of Clarence buying lunch reminding us that he is nowhere near.  If Tarantino had directed the film he probably would have stayed with Alabama but I was glad to have a moment to look elsewhere.  Alabama becomes almost feral in turning the tables on Virgil by setting him on fire, which happens again when she shoots Nicky in the climax. 

·        In the scene by the airport Clarence reveals his limited worldview by stating his interest only in seeing TV in other countries.  Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction similarly spoke about Amsterdam by explaining how Big Macs were different than in the U.S.

  

·        Saul Rubinek seems to be impersonating producer Joel Silver, as was Steve Martin in the film Grand Canyon. 

·        Although Clarence talks tough (and to his credit he does finish off Drexel and his whole crowd) he is no help in the hotel room shootout and is wounded as soon as he steps into the fray. 

·        Though the cops get a good set-up prior to the hotel scene there is not much more with the mobsters.  The only interesting ones are Virgil and Cocotti.  Cocotti is inexplicably absent from the climax and Virgil is of course dead.

·        The hotel shootout is excessive and is a little tricky to follow due to the camera placement.  Scott does capture the sense of a situation that has gone utterly out of control.

·        At the end of the scene Alabama helps Clarence as they get away much as Clarence supports Alabama after the scene with Virgil.

·        Clarence gets a lot of innocent people killed in this quest (not to mention he has no shame in putting drugs on the market which could turn kids into addicts) but shows remorse after Alabama is beaten, though he continues on regardless.  The film never shows him learning that his father died so I wonder how he would react to that.  Slater’s likeability and Tarantino’s talent for making criminals interesting are the main things keeping us on his side.

  

·        On the beach Clarence’s patch looks fitting and I hope they are able to stay out of trouble and become responsible parents to young Elvis.

Would the film have been better if Clarence had died?  I think Scott made the right decision and it is consistent with the fun tone of most of the film.

In conclusion True Romance is a real joy, endlessly re-watchable and a fine sample of the late director Tony Scott, who is greatly missed by film fans.  ***