In 1993, the world got to see the first completed script penned by Quentin Tarantino, in the form of the Tony (brother of Ridley) Scott film True Romance. As one would expect, this is not your typical romance, true or otherwise.

True Romance is the saga of Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette). Clarence is an Elvis loving, Kung-Fu movie junkie blue-collar kind of guy who sells comic books for a living. Alabama is a hooker. She also provides the voice over narration for the movie. The two meet when Alabama is hired by Clarence’s boss to show him a good time on his birthday (apparently he doesn’t get out much). As a result, she shows up at the Kung-Fu movies, uses pretense to talk to him, and they do indeed have a good time. They see the movies, have pie (can’t go wrong with pie), visit Clarence’s workplace, and have some sex. A job well done! Except that Alabama decides that she is in love with Clarence, and he with her, so they proceed to get married.

Such a fairy tale, what could possibly go wrong? Why, everything, of course! Clarence feels the absolute need to deal with Alabama’s pimp, Drexl (a barely recognizable Gary Oldman) who is a white guy who seems to actually believe that he’s a black guy. Clarence works up the guts to do this with the help of his imaginary Elvis mentor (Val Kilmer) who pops up occasionally throughout the film to help Clarence rationalize his excessively stupid ideas. We only see Mr. Kilmer from the neck down in the reflection of bathroom mirrors. Well, all does not go smoothly with Drexl (imagine!) and Clarence ends up shooting him, taking a suitcase full of cocaine accidentally, and, yes, leaving his driver’s license in the clutches of the dead man. Is it becoming clear that Clarence may not be the sharpest crayon in the box?

Clarence and Alabama proceed to go see his estranged father (Dennis Hopper), an ex-cop, and ask him to check with his old buddies to see if Clarence is a suspect in the slaying. Dad balks, but after Clarence reminds him of what a terrible father he has been, Dad does as asked, and informs Clarence that the police are just assuming this was a drug related murder. Feeling relieved and free, Clarence and Alabama head off to Hollywood to sell their cocaine (never once thinking that someone might be looking for this particular merchandise). What follows is the story of the two miraculously eluding both the drug dealers and the police, both of whom are on their tail. Head counsel for the dealers is Vincenzo Coccotti (Christopher Walken) who, in one of the best scenes in the movie, has an unforgettable confrontation with Dad.

Various other characters come into play during this merry chase, including Clarence’s friend Dick (Michael Rapaport) who is an “actor”, Dick’s roommate Floyd (Brad Pitt) who is a “stoner”, and Elliot (Bronson Pinchot) who is a “weasel”. The story plays out with much violence, loads of people getting shot, and Clarence and Alabama fumbling their way along, basically being both incredibly stupid and incredibly (most of the time) lucky.

Now, I’m not generally too squeamish about some good movie violence. As an adult, I figure I can tell the difference between a movie and reality, and have found some incredibly violent movies greatly entertaining (Fight Club is one of my favorites). In other words, I don’t usually get all grossed out by some good darkly funny violence. This being said, True Romance is just too much. I was doing okay, enjoying the “this is awful but I’m laughing I must be a psychopath” style of the movie, until the scene of Alabama being beaten by a drug goon (James Gandolfini) in her hotel room. This is by far the most prolonged and brutal violence in the film, far outweighing the gunplay in sheer torture. The fact that it is perpetrated on the films only female character, and involves her losing most of her clothes, ended my enjoyment of the movie. Although she is a main character, we learn virtually nothing about Alabama. We learn quite a bit about Clarence throughout the film, but Alabama is a blank. No past or history, just a dumb hooker who is nearly lethally devoted to a man she barely knows. She never has many clothes on, and this beating is a truly grotesque example of mixing brutal violence with some sort of twisted sexuality. There are no scenes in which a male character is beaten to the point of having his rear end hanging out, so why the need to remove Alabama’s shirt, what there is of it, during this scene (Gandolfini remains clothed, which I suppose is a blessing)? To see more of her breasts while she is beaten senseless. Yuck. Not my cup of tea. What had been an enjoyable, albeit sociopathic, film up until that point becomes a stomach turning misogynistic nightmare within these ten minutes. Even with the return after that point to the basic gun happy idiocy with which the film started, that single scene ruined the movie and made all the good stuff moot. Too bad the writer and director couldn’t keep their lurid visions of beating naked women to themselves.

The performances are really very good. Christian Slater is very fun to watch as the basically dumb, but smart enough to get by, protagonist. Patricia Arquette does well with the little she has to work with. The supporting actors are universally outstanding. Christopher Walken is his usual self (good enough for me), and seeing Dennis Hopper as the befuddled good guy Dad turned glutton for punishment is a treat. Bronson Pinchot (from whom I expect very little) is a marvelous weasel, whiny and cowardly. Brad Pitt’s Floyd is just downright hilarious. Val Kilmer, well, he doesn’t have much to do, and doesn’t do much with that.

The score by Hans Zimmer adds to the general feel of weird, twisted silliness with it’s lilting, tropical melodies underlying all the gore. The cinematography is, at times, wonderful. There is a scene in which all the gunplay is accompanied by thousands of feathers from pillows being shot that is truly wild.

As I said earlier, however, that single scene ruined the movie. I’m sure that there are a hundred good reasons to overlook this in favor of the rest of the movie, but I just can’t. And my objection is not about violence against women in movies. Alabama is no saint, and the entire movie is violent. I didn’t expect her to be completely unscathed. I'm also perfectly willing to accept that my perception will be different from others, but I gotta call 'em as I see 'em. The problem is that the violence against her is completely different in tone from the violence that the men perpetrate against each other. There is a teasing, condescending, sexual tone to it. It is also the most prolonged scene of violence against any single individual in the film. While it may be unfair to the movie as a whole, I’m not recommending it, and knocked it down a star, based on that scene. It’s like taking a walk in the park and stepping in dog crap half way through. Nothing is as fun afterward.





Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age