True Romance

SCRIBEY'S LIL OL REEE-VIEW:

This is it. The one. The movie. The film whose narrative structure influenced, some may say "corrupted," my approach to writing and made me a devotee of Quentin Tarrantino's long before most people knew who the bloomin' onion he was.

When this film was released in 1992, it was being advertised as a Gen-X Bonnie & Clyde, and never again was an ad campaign more on the money!

Introducing us to Tarrantino's now trademark brand of damaged characters with impossibly erudite observances on the human condition, True Romance ushered in the Nineties with a bang...well, a series of bangs. Tony Scott helmed the director's chair; a wise choice considering audiences weren't quite ready for Tarrantino's retro style of shooting and were still stuck in that glossy Eighties mentality of film making. But Scott's direction merely enhances this tale of a lonely Detroit movie-house projectionist and his reformed prostitute girlfriend on the run from the mob, drug dealers, the police, and Hollywood. The film is a harsh indictment of the film industry in general and directors like Francis Ford Coppola in particular who was so obviously living off past glories by the time this film was released.

True Romance features some of the best performances from known actors ever put on film. Christian Slater is at his charming best, Patricia Arquette never again found a forum for her weirdness that matched her negligible talents. Christopher Walken's suave mobster underestimating Dennis Hopper's retired cop's love for his son is one of the greatest moments in the film. Other notables include Bronson Pinchot as a cracked-out director's assistant and Tom Sizemore as a cop who loves his job way too much. Even James Gandolfini drops by as a sado-masochistic wiseguy.

In case you're wondering about the plot, it's secondary to the dialogue and situations. The deus ex machina involving Slater's acquisition of the cocaine is merely a means to an end to create the road trip we all know is coming. But look for the scene where Slater gets the drugs when he goes to free his girlfriend from her pimp, played with evil glee by Gary Oldman, who was never again this good in anything else. For Michiganders, his performance should have special relevance as he is almost an exact clone of White Boy Rick, the notorious white drug dealer of the Eighties.

I can't say enough about this film. It created a monster (me) and unleashed a great filmmaker on the world.

****** out of *****

GREEN'S MORE SOBER APPRAISAL OF THIS FILM:

Surprise, surprise, surprise! I'm going to disagree with the Scribester.

Yes, I did enjoy this film, but it certainly was not the sheeee-it that Scribe-o-rama makes it out to be. I enjoyed it more for the sheer idiocy and ridiculousness of the situations the characters were put in and had to deal with than for any other reason. The romantic storyline between Slater and Arquette is extremely contrived and quite cheeseball-ish. The whole drug thing sets up the road trip, but the whole premise of it is disappointingly unoriginal.

Sure, Christian Slater was good (as he is more often than not) and Patricia Arquette was.... weird. The supporting cast was excellent in the brief cameo scenes that each enjoyed. With the exception of Slater, Arquette, and three (?) other actors, everyone else gets killed off by the end of the film.

Christopher Walken was comically brilliant in his one scene but then his character is sadly never heard from again. You'd think that he'd have made another appearance when his "boys" followed Slater/Arquette out to LA. There's a neat/nice foreshadowing of James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano-like character in this film. I thought that the most amusing character was the perpetually stoned Floyd, played by some then-unknown schmoe named Brad Pitt.

It took me awhile to place the actor and which other movie I remembered him from, due to the excessive weight he put on in the nine years that elapsed between that film and this one. But place him I did. That actor is the late Chris Penn. Can you name the other movie I'm thinking about (without going to look it up)?

Anyway, I digress.

This certainly was a quirky and odd film, typical of Quentin Tarantino fare. It's only a great movie if you like excessive violence, profanity and characters that manage to weasel out of improbable situation after improbable situation. Extremely average otherwise, writing and directing included.

**2/3 out of *****