True Romance

When I think of Quentin Tarantino, I usually think of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill—gritty crime dramas (kung-fu/western in the latter's case) that pushed the limits of the genre way past the envelope. Suffice it to say, you may not think a romance would be in Tarantino's vocabulary, let alone his filmography. But during the mid to late '80s, Tarantino did in fact write a romance script . . . or at least how he defined a romance! To wit, a kind of Bonnie & Clyde story for the present day, a shoot-'em-up, man-woman-on-the-lam story named True Romance. Suffice it to say, Danielle Steel this ain't, and when I was first shown True Romance, I was sufficiently intrigued to see how Tarantino would deliver.

The story of True Romance revolves around a comic book salesman in Detroit named Clarence Worley, as played by Christian Slater. He's a huge Elvis fan, and while he has his passions to give his life fulfillment (i.e., comic books and Elvis), he's still kinda lonely—as evidenced by his attempts to pick up the prostitute in the film's opening scenes by inviting her to watch a kung-fu triple feature with him. (And his line about their common interests in this scene has to be among the craziest pick-up lines ever.) So he goes to the movies by himself, and in walks a girl named Alabama (Patricia Arquette in her soft, Southern-girl persona), who sits behind him, spills popcorn on him, apologizes profusely, asks him to fill her in on the story . . . Long story short, they hit it off that night in the theaters—and immediately afterwards. And after they're finished having sex, she makes a confession to him—that she's actually a call girl who was paid to go to bed with him on his birthday. The only thing is, she thinks she's developed actual feelings for him after their one night together—and vice versa with Clarence. So to cut another long story short, they decide to get married and live happily ever after.

Only it isn't so happily ever after for Clarence, because he can't shake the fact that she was a call girl, and he wants very badly to take her away from that life. So to give himself peace of mind, he decides to be a renegade and confront her pimp, Drexel (a hilariously dreadlocked Gary Oldman), telling him that she's with him now, that she's out of Drexel’s life and the call-girl business, etc. But that isn't enough for Clarence. His unease is so strong that he feels the only way to save Alabama is to kill Drexel—in keeping with advice given him by the ghost of Elvis, who kind of serves as Clarence's guardian angel. Naturally, Clarence's actual confrontation with Drexel goes off differently than anticipated. He does end up killing Drexel, but when he tries to gather Alabama's things, he accidentally takes a suitcase full of Drexel's cocaine rather than Alabama's belongings. So now energized by Clarence's killing of Drexel and by their newfound freedom, Clarence and Alabama decide to hit the road for California and team up with an old friend of Clarence's, Dick Ritchie (hell of a name, I might add!)—taking Drexel's coke with them and hoping to sell it for a quick million.

There's only one little problem, though. Clarence accidentally left his wallet at Drexel's, thus giving the mob his name for when they come after him to recover their lost drugs. And come after him they do, culminating in a monster shootout that had to do Tarantino proud. And it's one of the best shootouts I've ever seen, too. The "Mexican standoff", as it's called, has become one of Tarantino's trademark denouements. Basically, it's several people in a room all pointing guns at each other. As a reference point, think of the climax in Reservoir Dogs, with Nice Guy Eddie, Joe Cabot, and Mr. White all angrily pointing guns at each other, with the viewer on the edge of their seat wondering who's going to shoot first. In True Romance, you basically have several bodyguards, a whole team of cops, and the mob all busting into one hotel room with heavy artillery, maybe 10 or 12 people in all—and for just a few seconds, each person in that room is stunned silent, looking around at all the guns pointed every which way, and all you can do is stare at the screen and say, "Holy shit!" in pure nail-biting anticipation at the carnage that could potentially unfold.

Yes, folks, this is Quentin Tarantino's idea of a romance. But as corny as that may sound, True Romance is still a fun movie! The characters of Clarence and Alabama are just so smooth that you can't help but love them.

The casting of True Romance is surprisingly star-studded, too, but in all honesty, it basically amounts to several cameos. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette are the real stars, but co-star brevity notwithstanding, these are spectacular cameos we have here! Gary Oldman does a hilarious turn as a pimp wannabe who makes his first appearance by blasting Samuel L. Jackson all to hell (and I swear that was Snoop Dogg who also went down with him). Brad Pitt has an offbeat cameo as the stoner roommate of Dick Ritchie. Val Kilmer is listed in the credits, but when I first watched True Romance, I realized about halfway through that I hadn't yet seen him on screen at all. Then it occurred to me—Val Kilmer was playing the ghost of Elvis, who's only ever seen from a torso shot, with the audience never seeing his face! (You can recognize Val by his voice, though.) James Gandolfini, pre-Sopranos, appears as a mob hitman who has a hell of a showdown with Alabama. Christopher Walken, just before Tarantino cast him gloriously in Pulp Fiction, filled in as the mob boss who's ultimately the man Clarence and Alabama are running from. Dennis Hopper plays Clarence's father, and his shining moment in the film . . . unfortunately, I can't post the YouTube clip of it. If you've seen True Romance, you know which scene I mean—the sit-down with Christopher Walken where they examine Sicilian heritage. God, that's such a marvelous scene! But for obvious reasons, I can't post the video clip. Sorry, folks!

True Romance, while written by Tarantino, is one of the two films he wrote that he didn't direct (the other being Natural Born Killers). Tony Scott directed this film, and as expected, took a few liberties with the story. I read the screenplay online a few years ago, having already familiarized myself with the movie, and the differences between Scott's version and Tarantino's version are pretty basic, yet profound:

• Scott defies all Tarantino logic by telling the story in chronological order. In Tarantino's original script, the first few scenes are the same as the movie, but Tarantino tells the story of Clarence meeting Alabama, up to the point where Clarence kills Drexel, all in flashback. Scott just inverted the first two acts of the screenplay to progress things in chronological order. And while I enjoy True Romance in chronological order, I must admit, another part of me wants to see it in the order originally envisioned by Quentin.
• In the script, the scene where Elliott is introduced to Clarence and Alabama takes place at the zoo, not on roller coasters at an amusement park.
• The original ending that Tarantino envisioned was discarded. Originally, Clarence was to have died during the shootout at the hotel, and in her grief, Alabama was to have gone off to Mexico, where the movie would have ended with her being bitter that he got himself killed. Scott, however, wanted them both to get away, basically because he enjoyed the characters so much that he wanted to give them a happy ending. The DVD actually has both endings, and I have to confess, while I prefer Scott's ending, there is a certain completion brought by Tarantino's original ending, because Clarence would have fulfilled his desire stated at the beginning of the film: to live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse. Thus, the story would have been a romance in the classical sense.

I give True Romance a 9 out of 10. And even though directed superbly by Tony Scott, part of me still yearns to see how Quentin himself would have brought this movie to life.