August 19, 2007...8:13 am

true romance

without a doubt, “true romance” is in my top ten favorite movies of all time.

it was the first movie script that quentin tarentino ever wrote, and in my opinon, one of his best. i believe he created it while still nickel and diming it as a video store clerk, just trying to get by. “natural born killers“, which was also originally written by tarentino, had just been picked up by oliver stone. stone took the original story and changed way too much for tarentino’s liking. so much so that tarentino actually wanted his name removed from the final cut of the film.

after that, it was quite clear to tarentino that if he wanted to see his own “vision” for his films, he would have to direct himself.

tarentino wanted to direct both “romance” and his other script at the time, ”reservoir dogs“, but realized that he would need a good chunk of cash to bankroll the films.

that was when he met action director tony scott.

tarentino was admittedly a huge fan of scott’s and adored the buddy cop action classic, “the last boy scout“. scott let tarentino know that he loved the scripts for both “romance” and “dogs”, and wanted to direct both. tarentino, however, was still stinging from stone’s hack job of his”killers” script, and wanted “dogs” for himself. he finally ended up caving and sold scott the script for “romance” and then went and used the money he earned from both “killers” and ”romance” as the bank for “dogs”.

the rest, shall we say, is history.

why do i enjoy “romance” so much you ask? there’s just something about scott’s visual action style that i feel blends well with the ultra violence of a tarentino script. that and the fact that every star ever was in this movie.

check out the cast list:

christian slater, patrica arqutte, gary oldman, dennis hopper, christopher walken, brad pitt, balki from perfect strangers, chris penn, tom sizemore, samuel jackson, michael rapaport, val kilmer, and a noticably slim james gandolfini.

pretty crazy huh.

the story follows slater’s clarence worley and arquette’s alabama whitman, two young newlyweds who end up trying to start a new life for themselves by selling the gigantic case of uncut cocaine that is mistakenly taken from alabama’s former pimp, oldman.

we follow the couple’s adventures as they go from the cold, snowy shores of the east coast to sunny california in an attempt to unload the coke on a big holloywood producer, with the help clarence’s wannabe actor buddy, rapaport.

what they don’t realize is that they’ve already been id’d by the mob, the true owners of the coke, and they are hot on their tail and anxious to retain their product.

the bad

there’s not very much that i can point out as being wrong in this one. some of scott’s direction seems a little too boring during the more slower, loving moments of the flick.

for some reason, when tarentino makes his hyperactive movies, they work. i think the reason for this is because he never slows his pace. his movies are right out of the gate and they don’t let up until the closing scene. he doesn’t try to show you why they are in love, they just are and your along for the ride. where as in the case of scott’s direction, he trys to give you a glimpse of where that love is born from and in doing so, slows the movie in some points (i.e. the billboard scene, the airport scene, etc) these scenes seem to weigh down what is otherwise a super fast moving script.

the good

so many points to make here. slater’s turn as a slightly psychotic husband. arquette’s slutty but cute go as the friendly neighbourhood prostitute. brad pitt’s hilarious portrayal of a washed up stoner. gandolfini’s violent hitman.

i could go on forever about the merits of this film but really, it only comes down to one scene. the famous “sicilian scene” with hopper and walken. watching the scene, you have to think to yourself that it completely improvised because of it’s natural feel, but as dennis hopper has said in the past, the only improvised part is when they call each other eggplant and canteloupe. i don’t want to give to much away if you haven’t seen it, but it’s a contender for the best back and forth scene in film history. don’t believe me? have a look…..

in the end

as i said at the top, this is a top ten movie for me. the weak moments in the script are saved by the better moments. every actor brings a uniqueness to their roles that is seldom seen in a film with a cast this big. the action comes fast and violent and does not apologize for itself. i think another reason i love it so much is because it was written by a person who wasn’t involved in hollywood at that point of his life. it was created by a person who loved action movies, pure and simple. watching it now, all these years later, i can still imagine a young tarentino sitting in that video store writing what would go on to bring him all the success he now has.