TRUE ROMANCE
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1993 Ken Johnson
2:01, Action/Comedy, 1993 MPAA rating: R (female nudity, graphic violence, explicit language, adult situations) Rating: five (on a scale of zero to five) Director: Tony Scott Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Samuel L. Jackson, Saul Rubinek, Conchata Ferrell, Paul Bates, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, (and Ed Lauter uncredited?)
Christian Slater has no life, so his boss hires call girl Patricia Arquette to give him him a good time on his birthday. Slater and Arquette fall in love and get married. Slater goes to rub out Arquette's pimp Gary Oldman and ends up with a few million dollars of cocaine. They try to get rid of the cocaine while the people to whom the cocaine belongs try to get rid of Slater and Arquette.
TRUE ROMANCE is the newest film out by writer Quentin Tarantino (RESERVOIR DOGS). It is full of comedy and more bloody corpses than I can count on my hands and feet, so how can you go wrong with this film? The answer is you can't! This is one hell of a good film. TRUE ROMANCE is the best film that I have seen so far this year, and is one of the best films that I have ever seen. I highly recommend that you go out and see this film, preferably while it is in the theaters. It is a must see movie that is definitely worth full ticket price. If you hadn't gathered, this is not a sicky sweet date movie like BENNY AND JOON.
This film is excellently written. The film moves along quickly and never gets boring. The two hours that TRUE ROMANCE runs seem like they get over immediately and leave the viewer asking for more, wishing the film wasn't over yet, possibly even compelled to get a ticket for the next showing. This film is an excellent combination of brutal violence and comedy, that should please fans of both. The plot is well done and not filled with Hollywood cliches. Tarantino seems to be a very promising Hollywood writer who could initiate a change in Hollywood movie standards.
The characters, for the most part, are very well developed and do not leave the impressions of just being light particles being projected through a piece of celluloid and hitting a giant silver screen in a darkened room. Instead they come alive on the screen and leave the viewer with the impression that they could actually exist somewhere at this current time. There are a few characters that don't get developed very well, such as those of Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson, but since those characters are only minor and aren't around much, it doesn't do great harm to TRUE ROMANCE. Other minor characters though, like Dennis Hopper's, are well developed even though they don't play a major role in the film. Some characters, like Brad Pitt's, are just around for comic relief.
The acting in this film is well done. Christian Slater (UNTAMED HEART, PUMP UP THE VOLUME), who seems to always do a good job with his role, is in particularly high form here. His character is believable at all points through the film. Patricia Arquette (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: THE DREAM WARRIORS, PRETTY SMART) also does a great job in carrying this film. I think that this is her best acting work to date. Dennis Hopper (RIVER'S EDGE, SUPER MARIO BROS.) does a very good job with his character making it look realistic for the short time he is on screen. Gary Oldman (BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD), who did such a good job in DRACULA, is not in top form here, which is unfortunate because he could have done a great job with that character. Brad Pitt (JOHNNY SUEDE, COOL WORLD) is excellent. His character isn't an overly dramatic or important one, but Pitt has fun with it anyway. Christopher Walken (BATMAN RETURNS, A VIEW TO A KILL) does an excellent evil slimeball. He makes his character look ruthless and very dark. Bronson Pinchot (BLAME IT ON THE BELLBOY, "The Trouble with Larry"), surprisingly, did a great job with his character. I didn't expect him to be good in this film considering the kind of character he has played in the past, but he pleasantly surprised me and brought much to the scenes he is in. Tom Sizemore and Chris Penn (RESERVOIR DOGS, LEATHER JACKETS) are great as a team of cops and react well off of each other.
*Minor Spoilers Ahead*
Some of the imagery in the film is extremely well thought out and filmed very well. One of those is the love scene between Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. Minimal nudity was seen and a filtered blue light was the lighting of choice. The end result is instead of a scene that looked like it was just put in for mindless titillation it showed that it had a purpose for showing how the romance between Slater and Arquette started.
*Extreme Spoiler Alert*
*If you haven't seen the film you probably shouldn't be reading this*
*You have been warned*
Another scene that I thought was the highlight of the film visually was the climactic shoot out in the hotel room with Slater and company, the police, and the evil drug goons. The way the bodies were falling into the flying feathers stuck me as a really beautiful sight. The parts of this scene where Arquette was crawling to Slater through the feathers and the black cop was slowly buried by the feathers as he died were extremely well done.
-------- Ken Johnson blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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