True Romance(1993) Film Review

Rating: 4 Stars out of 4, thumbs up.

Rated R For Strong Violence And Language, And For Sexuality And Drug Use.

Theatrical: 1hr 59min/119min. Director's Cut: 2hrs 1min/121min.

241 Uses of the F-Word.

Elliot: "Hi, how are you? My name's Elliot and I'm with the Cub Scouts of America. We're selling Uncut cocaine to get to the jamboree."

You know, in the future, when I have children of my own, I would like to give them a unique name. Not something generic like Jimmy and Sally. Thanks to "True Romance" my children will now be named Clarence and Alabama, based off of the two main characters in the film. Yes, quite unique names for a birth certificate, but I like them. They have quite the nice ring to it. Yes, the daughter will be quite shocked when she finds out that her name came from a character whose previous profession was a call girl.

Yes, but you see, she's more then that. Alabama(Patricia Arquette) gets paid to sit in the same movie theater where Clarence(Christian Slater) is sitting, watching a Sonny Chiba triple feature. After they meet, she wants to quit her profession. She does so and not long after, the two get married. After Clarence goes to confront her old boss Drexl(Gary Oldman), a white man who thinks he's black and is also a pimp(which is what made Oldman accept the role), he ends up killing him due to his unjust treatment towards everybody. The two are on the run because Clarence grabs a suitcase that he thinks has Alabama's things in it, but is actually filled to the brim with cocaine. They are hunted by a mysterious gangster(Christopher Walken) who only appears in on scene, another ruthless gangster(James Gandolfini) all while trying to sell the coke to a famous film director, who directed Clarence's favorite film of all time, a Vietnam film called "Coming Home In A Body Bag".

"True Romance" has so many things to talk about. The characters come alive on screen. The characters of Clarence and Alabama Worley are two of the best characters ever put to the silver screen. Their romance IS true(no pun intended) they don't act like fake Hollywood couples like you see in films like "The Notebook". As you watch the film progress, it becomes so lively that we get to follow these two lovebirds around and yet, so sad when we have to let them go. They don't get into trouble on purpose, they just get caught up in the methodical madness.

This film also has a wide variety ensemble. There's Gary Oldman as the pimp Drexl Spivey, who bursts onto the screen with marvelous villainy. There's Dennis Hopper as Clifford, Clarence's father. We have Tom Sizemore and Chris Penn as two cops who come in on the case. There's Brad Pitt as stoner Floyd, Val Kilmer as a mentor only Clarence can see and the always classic and always welcome, Christopher Walken, where he and Dennis Hopper have the famous scene in the entire film; The Sicilian Scene.

This is a pretty violent film. The first hour isn't so bad, but there comes a point during the scene where Gandolfini meets up with Arquette, it becomes quite the body bag of a film. That scene in particular is very hard, for me at least, to watch. Arquette gets beaten to hell, with every punch and kick thrown at her becoming more wince inducing then the last. She does get her revenge by setting him ablaze and pulling the trigger on his shotgun on him until it goes click. The climax is also quite bloody for that matter, but no specific details will be revealed here.

I have to talk about the awesome screenplay by my favorite film director of all time, Quentin Tarantino. To date, he has only written 3 films. This, "Natural Born Killers" and "From Dusk Till Dawn". All of them are quite brilliant but I think that "True Romance" is the best film he has ever written. It feels like a Tarantino film but was directed by the late great Tony Scott. Along with "Domino", this is the finest film he has directed.



Out of the hundreds of films that I have watched so far this year, "True Romance" is the best film I have watched of those hundreds. It has invigorating characters, fantastic action and such wonderful, wonderful performances. Christian Slater can act, contrary to popular belief, and Patricia Arquette is a sweetheart as Alabama. I wish more movies like this would get made today. Instead, we have 2 or 3 more "Paranormal Activity" films on the way. Ain't that a kick in the male anatomy?