True Romance is a 1993 American action romantic crime film directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It is very entertaining, and it has a freshness that has reached even Tarantino’s taste. He declared at a moment that he wouldn’t have directed it better than Tony Scott. It is his second screenplay written for an important movie, the other one being his first low budget hit, Reservoir Dogs. I’m glad I have finally watched this movie, after noticing it on Empire Magazine’s 2008 list of “The Greatest 500 Movies of All Time”, on the 157’th position.

[source: all pictures are from imdb.com]

It has a great distribution, all of them act with gusto, and the dialogues just spark, very specific for the already famous Quentin. It stars: Christian Slater as “Clarence Worley”, Patricia Arquette as “Alabama Whitman”, Dennis Hopper as “Clifford Worley” (Clarence’s father), Val Kilmer as Mentor/”Elvis Priestley” (it appears like Clarence’s imaginary friend), Gary Oldman as “Drexl Spivey” (the violent Alabama’s pimp), Brad Pitt as “Floyd” (Dick’s Roommate), Christopher Walken as “Don Vincenzo Coccotti” (a Mafia Don from Detroit, he is actually the second in command of a character who, if Scott decided him to appear, would have been played by Robert De Niro), Bronson Pinchot as “Elliot Blitzer” (a “contact”, a friend of Dick), Samuel L. Jackson as “Big Don” (some drug trafficker), Michael Rapaport as “Dick Ritchie” (Clarence’s friend from LA, an aspiring actor), Saul Rubinek as “Lee Donowitz” (an action movies producer), Conchata Ferrell as “Mary Louise Ravencroft” (a casting director), James Gandolfini as “Virgil” (one of Don Cocotti’s thugs), Chris Penn as “Nicky Dimes” (an LAPD policeman), Tom Sizemore as “Cody Nicholson” (another LAPD policeman).

It is violent, but it’s funny at the same time. I don’t like scenes when a female is hit or tortured, but here, Patricia Arquette has exceeded herself. She’s very fresh. Christian Slater is much better than in other movies, Gary Oldman impressed a great part of world’s film critics with his performance as well. Actually, I never knew he is so good until I’ve watched Sid and Nancy (1986). I’ve noticed him for the first time in Dracula (1992) and after that in Léon: The Professional (1994), but nothing stirred then. I also like Michael Rapaport quite a lot, I know that soon I’ll publish a review for Woody Allen‘s Small Time Crooks (2000), another favorite of mine, where Rapaport is pretty important.

You know that I don’t like to offer spoilers in my reviews, and I hope I’ll keep the rule. Anyway, on short, it’s a violent love story, connected with Tarantino’s obsessions: lots of blood, a passion for martial arts movies, cult movies, old movies, sparkling dialogues with a very unorthodox language, a remarkable Cadillac. I think that “Drexl Spivey” (Gary Oldman) and “Don Vincenzo Coccotti” (Christopher Walken) had both cataract, or at least eyes related diseases, but I’m not sure. I’m sure of Oldman’s character that he sports a cataract. Here you have one of his two scenes in the movie, so you can judge by yourselves.

If you haven’t watched it yet, I hope you’ll enjoy it. Good luck with the blood.

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