"I'm the Antichrist. You got me in a vendetta kind of mood."-Coccotti
Once upon a time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino and the late Tony Scott worked together on a movie called True Romance.
Twenty-five years ago, a movie that took audiences by storm and threw critics for a loop (only a 57 on Metascore!) holds up better than most films from that decade, and that's because it had the best ingredients the land of make-believe had to offer. Scott was one of the hottest directors in the early 1990's and Tarantino was about to explode with Pulp Fiction in 1994, so it was a match made in heaven for film addicts. The cast was one of the best groups ever assembled on a call sheet, where each actor was born to play that particular role.
The pulpy tale of a lonely comic book and movie geek with an Elvis crush who meets the girl of his dreams one night in Detroit, only to find out that she has some dangerous baggage dragging behind her; soulmates on the run from the mob. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette will never be thought of as world class actors, but they were perfect as Clarence and Alabama, who gave theaters an updated version of Bonnie and Clyde with more color and edge.
Tarantino's crackerjack dialogue fit Scott's kinetic style of shooting films. Ridley Scott's brother made movies that pulled all-nighters on a combination of red bull, vodka, and pure cinematic ecstasy. The camera had an attitude and the actors had to keep up or be lost in the visual wizardry. Ridley will go down as the more Academy-favored filmmaker, but Tony made movies that had heart, wild cool, and appealed to a larger audience. Tony Scott never made a bomb like Kingdom of Heaven. True Romance lived in the same world as Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise.
It was the movie where Gary Oldman delivered one of the most sadistic bad guys inside ONE scene! The late James Gandolfini and Arquette made hotel rooms look breakable, especially if fire and wine bottle openers are involved. I'm talking dirty bra straps, loaded .357 Magnums, and irrelevance for the way women were depicted on screen.
Christopher Walken and the late Dennis Hopper gave us one of the best scenes of all time. I'm talking about a well-lit room, two chairs, and a score that crept up on you. Two guys on opposite sides of the law going toe to toe with one destination over a man's son, missing "merchandise," and some nasty depiction of one's ancestry. If you could only get a great actor for a scene, what would you give them? Scott took Tarantino's script and went Halloween candy shopping for the actors who made the material sing louder than anybody else.
Val Kilmer may have played Jim Morrison to a tee, but he also inhabited Elvis Presley for a single scene with Slater, and it launched the rapidly entertaining third act of the film. Michael Rappaport and Brad Pitt played the unlikeliest of roommates, one of which hated to be talked down to. Tom Sizemore and the late Chris Penn played cops, Saul Rubinek played a doomed Hollywood producer, and the invaluable Paul Ben-Victor appeared as well.
In case you haven't been paying attention, it's a bittersweet film due to all the people associated with it who have died since the release. Scott took his own life when he jumped off a bridge back in 2012. Hopper, Penn, Gandolfini all passed away from diseases and unfortunate causes too soon, robbing the movie world of great character actors who invested themselves in the script instead of merely cashing a check.
There's something comfortably numb about watching this movie that isn't lost today. You put it on and the rest of the world turns off. You are suddenly in the backseat with a couple lovebirds driving across the country with deadly people on their trail, and it's as fresh as the first time you saw it at the Wehrenberg theater back in the day.
Otherworldly cool, True Romance wasn't ahead of its time, but the start of something big. It was a movie that revealed Tarantino's writing to the world while reminding you how unique of a filmmaker Scott was. A little gem of a movie that collected the best actors and gave them signature roles that often revolved around a single scene.
I wish I could wipe my memory of seeing it countless times over the past 25 years, but classic movies never die. The great thing about movies are they are a playground that remains open to the public. They never close or take a leave of absence. You pull them off the shelf decades later and relive the action as if it never happened. I can sit back in that seat at Kenrick 8 off Watson road and just sink back into Scott's abyss.
True Romance was brutally violent, utterly charming and derived from one of the best minds the film world will ever get to spend time with. I believe Tarantino modeled Clarence after himself, the video store clerk who yearned for some adventure and found it behind a camera. Scott was the guy who gave him the keys before his career truly took off.
When I look back on the underrated and misunderstood movies in my life that never get old and possibly get better, True Romance ranks near the top of the list. It's a movie that didn't even make back its budget in theaters, grossing $12.2 million on a $13 million budget, but if you ask anyone these days about it, they will suddenly become a poet in describing it.
As Alabama said in the film, "and all I could think was...you're so cool."
Exactly.
