In the late eighties, two video store clerks began to collaborate on a screenplay called “The Open Road.” The script grew so ungainly that the writers – Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary – quickly saw it mutate into two separate projects: “Natural Born Killers” and “True Romance.” Shortly afterwards, Tarantino and Avary's careers began to take off. Before production began on “Reservoir Dogs,” Tarantino would sell the script for “True Romance.” Initially, “Maniac Cop” director William Lustig was attached to make the film but would exit the project after some time. Soon afterwards, Tony Scott would come aboard. Considering Tarantino has been a passionate defender of Scott his entire life, one can only assume that the soon-to-be mega-star filmmaker was overjoyed to have his script directed by one of his idols. The resulting film unquestionably belongs to both its director and its screenwriter, standing tall as Tony Scott's best movie.
Clarence is an obsessive pop culture nerd who doesn't have much luck with the ladies. During a screening of a Sonny Chiba movie, he encounters a vivacious woman named Alabama. The two immediately hit it off. It's only the next morning that Clarence learns Alabama is actually a call-girl, hired by a friend to show him a good time on his birthday. Yet Clarence and Alabama genuinely fall in love anyway, spontaneously getting married. When Clarence learns Alabama's pimp was abusive, he sets out to the confront the man... And ends up killing him. He grabs what he thinks is Alabama's suitcase but is instead a bag of uncut cocaine the pimp stole from the Sicilian mob. The couple head off to Hollywood, hoping to sell the drugs to a movie producer for a big paycheck. The mob, and soon the cops, are on their trail. Because the course of true love never runs smooth.
Tony Scott is a director obviously not afraid of letting a screenwriter's particular voice characterize a project. After letting Shane Black's sensibilities shine through “The Last Boy Scout,” he makes sure “True Romance” is unmistakable as anything but a Quentin Tarantino movie. The film begins with a spirited monologue about the attractiveness of Elvis. A Sonny Chiba triple feature is a plot point. “Rio Bravo,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Bullitt,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “The Mack,” Spider-Man, Batman, Charles Bronson, and William Shatner are all mentioned by name. More than just the frequent pop culture references, the movie's hyper-verbal style, where characters communicate with fast-paced and energetic dialogue, immediately marks this as the work of Mr. Tarantino. The film is so specifically his that its inciting incident – a movie nerd meeting a beautiful woman who immediately falls in bed, and love, with him – feels like a personal fantasy of the then up-and-coming screenwriter.
This is still a Quentin Tarantino story, so it's not all love-at-first-sight and tender kisses. It becomes clear early on that Clarence is a little crazy. His admiration of Elvis is such that he actually imagines the King – played by a cleverly disguised Val Kilmer in a glorified cameo – talking to him, giving him pep talks usually while Clarence is taking a whiz. How much this is an imagined conversation to convince himself to do illegal things and how much of it is genuine delusion is kept ambiguous. Later, Clarence pulls a gun on someone and seems very sincere about shooting them. Of course, maybe both of them are crazy, as Alabama is touched when she hears that Clarence murdered two men for her. What would he had done if she hadn't been? He seemed pretty upset in the moment before! I guess these are the kind of intense personalities you expect from the writer of “From Dusk Till Dawn.”
“True Romance” is not just autobiographical due to Clarence obviously being something of a fantasy figure for Tarantino. This is also the story of someone trying to break into Hollywood. Clarence and Alabama travel across the country on a crazy dream. They meet with a struggling actor, an old friend of Clarence's, who promises them he knows a guy who works in the film industry. It's this tangential connection that gets Clarence an audience with a big shot producer, doing everything he can to charm the man with just his words. It's not too far of a stretch to see some of Tarantino's own story here, a fast-paced film aficionado doing everything he can to impress someone in the Hollywood system and have his big break. In a not-too-roundabout way, “True Romance” tells the story of how this nobody became one of the biggest talents in the industry.
Starring opposite Slater is Patricia Arquette as Alabama. She's probably not the most nuanced female character in the Tarantino-verse. Alabama mostly exists to be Clarence's perfect woman. She likes all the same things he does. She immediately falls in love with him. She never blames him for anything, even when it's his fault. The last big thing she does in the movie is tell him how cool he is. As thin as the part arguably is, Arquette's charm goes a long way. She makes Alabama seem so totally at ease in her own skin. She creates a character that never feels anything less than genuine, someone who is sweet and funny and one hundred percent sincere about what she feels. Even if there's never a good reason for Alabama to love Clarence, that's the way the character was written and Arquette makes that the reality of the film.
With a man like Tony Scott behind the camera, it was guaranteed that “True Romance” would look as cool as it sounds. You can see some visual continuity here with “The Last Boy Scout,” shots of Clarence and Alabama hanging out in front of a billboard while white smoke wafts up towards them recalling that movie's stylized cityscape. The sequence set inside Drexel's whorehouse is oppressively colorful and noisy, befitting the chaotic setting. There's also several shots of orange sunsets, L.A. skyscrapers silhouetted in front of the sun. Scott even sees a brief return to the soft-focus love scenes of his early films. Clarence and Alabama's love scene is all blue filters and wet kisses. There's no billowing curtains but presumably just because there wasn't any place to stick some.
If that fight between Gandolfini and Arquette is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of “True Romance,” another stern confrontation between two great actors is the second scene I think about. I'm referring to, of course, a terse trading of dialogue between Christopher Walken, as a stone-cold mob enforcer, and Dennis Hopper, as Clarence's cop father. It's two of my favorites actors facing off, each one perfectly delivering some of Tarantino's sharpest and most cutting dialogue. Hopper's acting in this moment is, really, quite subtle. As soon as he realizes who these men are, he knows he's dead. So he instead chooses to insult the men in the most intense way he can, telling a hilariously meandering anecdote undermining the men's proud Sicilian identities in their own vulgar, racist language. Walken plays his reaction as one of true amusement, admiring the balls on someone to do such a thing. Watching two titans of acting face off with such precise, poetically vulgar lines is something truly to behold.
That moment is also Christopher Walken's only scene in the movie and only Hopper's second. That represents another fantastic tendency of “True Romance,” which is to fill otherwise small roles with colorful character actors. Such as Gary Oldman as Drexel the pimp, a character that is utterly outrageous – from his scarred face down to his absurd hair and accent – that Oldman completely commits to, creating a gloriously hatable scumbag. Saul Rubinek is amusingly over-the-top as the coke head producer, reportedly patterned closely after Joel Silver. Bronson Pinchot also gets some laughs as his high-strung assistant, who really gets in some trouble as the story goes on. The movie even fills otherwise tiny roles with notable performers. Like Samuel L. Jackson and Brad Pitt, right on the edge of turning into huge stars, as a random associate of Drexel's and a stoner roommate, respectively. In fact, Pitt turns a nothing role into something with his hilariously stoned delivery.
I'm referring to Clarence catching a bullet in the eye and almost dying. As Tarantino originally envisioned the film, there was no “almost” about this moment. Clarence was going to die and Alabama was going to be left alone. Tarantino was excited about Tony Scott directing the film largely because he loved the bleak ending of “Revenge” and knew he'd be willing to do something similar here... Yet the decision to spare Clarence's life was not driven by studio mandates or test screening score cards. Instead, Scott rewrote the ending strictly because he loved these characters too much. And I think he made the right decision. Clarence and Alabama earn their happy ending. The original ending – it's on the DVD – would've felt like a balloon deflating. Instead, “True Romance” maintains its oddly sweet center all the way through to its conclusion.
On his commentary on the DVD, Tarantino also notes that Scott disregarded most of the music cues from his screenplay. Obviously, needle drops are an important part of Tarantino's identity as a filmmaker. Of the songs in the movie, only two seem to have been selected by the screenwriter. That would be Burl Ives' “Itty Bitty Tear” and the Big Bopper's “Chantilly Lace,” both of which are perfectly deployed. This doesn't mean I dislike the other songs included in the movie. “Wounded Bird” by Charles and Eddie, which plays over Clarence and Alabama's love scene, is an especially inspired choice. Also notable is Hans Zimmer's score, which establishes a swooning, romantic mood with some well-timed xylophone sounds.
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