True Romance: On-This-Day Thursday
Every Thursday, an older film released on this opening weekend years ago will be reviewed. They can be classics, or simply popular films that happened to be released to the world on the same date.
For September 10th, we are going to have a look at True Romance.
What feels like Quentin Tarantino’s most personal screenplay (well, until something like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in a more figurative sense) gets turned into something completely different with Tony Scott’s interpretation. This was back when Tarantino was more comfortable shopping his writing, off the success of Reservoir Dogs. So, naturally, True Romance has Tarantino’s spirit throughout, but it almost feels as though only Tarantino himself can fully grab the essence of what he’s trying to get at out of his screenplays. Scott does his best, and it shows with his best film of his entire career (which was sadly cut short). Still, something about more tender camera shots, sentimental lighting, and a Hans Zimmer score (back when he was making more conventional stuff) is just so… un-Tarantino. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, as if Scott is somehow making a Tarantino bloodbath more endearing (which, still, is barely a heartwarming film at all, even if you include a father’s sacrifice for his estranged son, and what lovers will do to survive and all of that).
In ways, all of this seems to help — what I would argue is — one of Tarantino’s weaker screenplays. You have a comedic relief character who is borderline useless (Brad Pitt’s famous interpretation of this role as a loveable stoner, Honey Bear bong and all), stuff that happens on a whim, and early signs of what Tarantino dialogue exhausted sounds like (particularly the Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken showdown, saved by Scott’s direction; this reminds me of the excessive monologue in The Hateful Eight). In ways, Scott ripped out the soul of what makes Tarantino films as explosive as they are, but he put in his own, and for this time it worked pretty decently. While having a film of this nature feel completely unhinged would have been unique, it would have also exposed the gaffs in the writing that a young Tarantino didn’t clean up, so maybe it was for the best after all.
Clarence and Alabama: a true romance indeed.
What we’re really getting is a series of oddball characters in relation two the two oddest of all: Elvis and film obsessive Clarence, and his birthday present Alabama. Otherwise, the film is almost a look-and-find of recognizable faces doing weird stuff (including Gary Oldman in one of his more metamorphic performances ever). I mean, for a crime film that’s kind of strange, considering it doesn’t leave us a hell of a lot of time to get into the minds of these eccentrics, but it works well enough in a setting like this, where maybe a young Tarantino couldn’t have had these massive names like Scott could (he easily could now, though). Between director and writer — of which both voices are so drastically different — True Romance isn’t quite a true romance, but a strong-enough partnership that provides some fun for a little while. Dangerous dialogue, dark humour and tension included, True Romance is great for that first watch just to see what it’s all about. Its staying power is through one liners being quoted, specific scenes surviving on YouTube, and our memories of the role call from hell (including Elvis Presley’s ghost gives us life advice via a hallucination).
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.