{"id":3749,"date":"2009-02-11T23:26:46","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T07:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3749"},"modified":"2009-02-13T16:22:31","modified_gmt":"2009-02-14T00:22:31","slug":"true-romance-tony-scott-1993-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3749","title":{"rendered":"True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by: Collier Grimm<\/a>. Viewed on DVD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Tony Scott\u2019s True Romance<\/a> is not your average boy-meets-girl romance flick. Watching this film is like eating raw fish when you\u2019re used to meatloaf. This is Quentin Tarantino\u2019s writing debut, and thus it is a uniquely Tarantino-esque romance. You can guess that means non-linear storylines, obscenely humorous language, and stylistically excessive violence. Tarantino must be numb from too many viewings of obviously influential films like \u00a0Bonnie and Clyde<\/a> and The Wild Bunch<\/a>. It doesn\u2019t phase a single character to put 15 bullets in a complete stranger’s back. My only issue with this is I find it hard to believe that everyone in the film knows how to fire a pump-action shot gun, pistol, or machine gun. But that tends to be part of Tarantino\u2019s charm.<\/p>\n

True Romance<\/em> boasts an all-star cast including Patricia Arquette, Christian Slater, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, a young James Gandolfini, and, one of my all time favorites, Gary Oldman. Slater plays Clarence Worley, an Elvis-obsessed loner who is set up with call-girl Alabama Whitman (Arquette). After a night watching old Kung Fu films and sharing a slice of pie, the two realize they are soul mates and quickly wed.<\/p>\n

Clarence is troubled by thoughts of Alabama\u2019s pimp, a Rasta-clad Oldman, but sets out to retrieve her things from his house. Clarence, with a pistol in tow, turns the whorehouse into a blood bath, accidentally leaving with a suitcase full of un-cut cocaine instead of Alabama\u2019s belongings. Unknowingly, Clarence leaves behind his driver’s licensee, and soon ruthless gangsters are on his tail in search of their missing drugs. Clarence and Alabama, unaware that they are being hunted down, head to Hollywood to try and sell the drugs they\u2019ve come upon.<\/p>\n

This unconventional love story will have you rooting for a hooker and an Elvis impersonator by the film’s end. The ensemble cast is incredible. The Sicilian scene is pure Tarantino, but it\u2019s hard to imagine audience reception at the time of debut. Roger Ebert gave the film mixed reviews, but said the \u201cenergy and style of the movie are exhilarating.\u201d Pitt\u2019s honey bear bong-toking Floyd is a never before seen side of the actor, and Pitt is in true comedic form. This isn\u2019t your average Valentines Day renter, but you may find that blood and guts go all too well with true romance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by: Collier Grimm. Viewed on DVD.\u00a0 Tony Scott\u2019s True Romance is not your average boy-meets-girl romance flick. Watching this film is like eating raw fish when you\u2019re used to meatloaf. This is Quentin Tarantino\u2019s writing debut, and thus it is a uniquely Tarantino-esque romance. You can guess that means non-linear storylines, obscenely humorous language, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[89],"class_list":["post-3749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films","tag-valentines-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}