True Romance

If you didn’t live through it, the “Tarantino Effect” might be hard to understand.  The success of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction unleashed an avalanche of copycat indie films full of self-aware characters spouting pop culture references while firing guns at each other.  There were so many it’s a shame Mel Brooks never got around to making a spoof.  But the maestro himself was still just a struggling screenwriter in the early ‘90s when all his old material was snapped up by producers eager to catch some of the buzz.  

True Romance (1993) was directed by the late Tony Scott, but it’s hard to imagine a more faithful adaptation of the Tarantino aesthetic not directed by the man himself.  It’s got a film obsessed nerd (Christian Slater) who falls for a quirky call girl (Patricia Arquette) and goes on the run with a bag full of stolen drugs with most of the Detroit mafia (apparently that’s a thing) hot on his trail.  

 

Of course, this being a Tarantino script, most of the plot is an excuse for cleverly offensive wordplay and kung fu homages; which would be fine if True Romance had anything really interesting to say.  It doesn’t.  Despite having his dialogue read by some of the best actors in the industry (Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper and James Gandolfini all make stellar appearances), this is Tarantino at his most predictably self-indulgent and repetitive.

 

True Romance’s fanbase is huge, but, besides the aforementioned actors and slick photography by Tony Scott, it’s a film that has also aged remarkably poorly. Take its most memorable scene: a tete-a-tete between Walken’s mafia Don and Hopper’s blue-collar ex-cop.  In typical Tarantino fashion the interrogation goes down a rabbit hole of racist jargon designed to get a reaction from Walken’s character and the audience.  There’s no denying it’s compelling…but it’s cancel-worthy in 2022.  Same with Gary Oldman’s wannabe pimp, a character written by Tarantino who ridiculously co-opts black culture in the same embarrassingly arrogant fashion he does.

 

While it might not be fair to judge any film by modern standards, even without the politically-incorrect moments, True Romance is just a warm up for Tarantino’s later, better efforts.  But for those who disagree, Arrow Video has a 2-disc deluxe limited edition 4K Ultra-HD + Blu-ray Steelbook that should be the last word for physical media.  The new 4K restoration includes both the Theatrical and Director’s Cut and beautifully captures Scott’s intentionally smeary cinematography.  Extras include scads of new interviews, four (count ‘em..four!) audio commentaries, clever postcards and poster reproductions and a 60-page collector’s booklet.  

 

 

 

 

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