Tarantino's early work

Rating: 6/10 (10 November 2010)

It was great to see the humble beginnings of Quentin Tarantino. True Romance was the first script he sold. He wanted to direct it himself but no one was willing to give him the chance so Tony Scott got the job. I haven't heard much about Tony Scott but I think with Tarantino directing it would have been a better movie. It lacks that goofy feel that pervades through Tarantino's movies. The love for movies and just plain fun that is so integral to a Tarantino movie is missing in True Romance. Still, True Romance is a good movie. Stylistically influenced by Terence Malick's 1973 film Badlands it also stands as a movie in its own right. Who knew Tarantino was such a sap and could right halfway decent romantic dialogue? The voice-over narration and the background score is where it heavily borrows from Badlands and of course the serial killers on the run. But Alabama and Clarence aren't serial killers on the run. They are just people wanting to start over and try to live a better life, a happier life. But Tarantino will not let them do it easily. There are gangsters, Hollywood movie producers, old friends, drugs, policeman and guys with wires. More often than not Tarantino's movies have a variety of different plot that collide and all hell breaks loose. We witness this again and have a Mexican standoff. I guess that is where the problem lies. Tony Scott just directed the movie and I guess he didn't care so much about the characters and the Mexican standoff became very predictable in the last half hour of the movie and the action scenes were a little too cheesy.
The supporting cast features some of the biggest stars of today. Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini to name a few. Back then I guess they were just starting out. It is great fun to see a young James Gandolfini a couple of years before he played Tony Soprano doing what he does best. It's surprising how Michael Rappaport frequently plays the old friend of the lead character. He plays the same character in Beautiful Girls and some Schwarzenegger movie. I guess this was the movie that made him typecast in that role. The cast is decent. I never really like Christian Slater that much. His voice always irritates me but he's done a decent job in the film. The female decent is quite good actually. She is very pretty and plays her role with aplomb. True Romance is about well a True Romance. How two people meet and realize they are perfect for each other. It is about innocence and losing, grabbing chances and trying to struggle for something better. A better future. Because mostly things go wrong. But sometimes they go the other way too . . . . . . The other way too . . . . . . . . . . . .