Plot: What’s it about?
During the opening weekend of “The Fugitive”, there were many trailers showcasing the slate of fall movies coming soon. One of which stuck out that featured a young man in Elvis sunglasses, an attractive female dressed in light blue and action set to the tune of Aerosmith’s “The Other Side”. After that trailer, this viewer looked with a vengeance to find out which weekend that film was opening up. It wouldn’t be until a few months later that I got to view this film for that it came and went and did very little and came onto video, which was a shame being that the movie was filmed wide and pan and scan hurt the film. At the same time, the writer of this film was heavy on working on his next project, a little known film called Pulp Fiction which would go on to be one of the most important films of the last fifteen years of cinema. His name is Quentin Tarantino and that movie that came and went was his first screenplay, a tale of surprises, crime, many characters and True Romance.
Clarence (Christian Slater) is a kid who loves fun. He loves Elvis and he uses that one night in a bar to woo special ladies to come watch three kung fu films on the night of his birthday. Although being shot down by his approach, he goes it alone. Later during this fest, a girl named Alabama (Patricia Arquette) comes sitting with him and enjoy’s Clarence’s company. Things go well, they connect wonderfully over some pie and some comics. Later on, Alabama tells him the truth that she’s a call girl and she was hired by his boss to show him a good time on his birthday. Little does Clarence realize with his connection with Alabama and how far his love for her will go, even if it leads him to shady individuals coming at him at every turn for one suitcase, believed to have been Alabama’s clothes but turns out to be more than he bargained for.
Time is an interesting thing. On first viewing, I was not much of a fan considering everything was so much and it had moments but it didn’t win me over entirely almost being the case with the trailer being better than the movie.
A few years went by and every once in a while, cable would play a movie many times and there is the urge to be locked in and that’s what happened with me on this case. It seems on first viewing that the expectation was somewhere else and on the second my mind was fresh and ready. When it was all over, it was truly one hell of a ride thanks to the huge ensemble cast, the solid script by Tarantino and the direction of Tony Scott.
With all the Tarantino written-directed films, this has the flavor of a film directed by Tarantino with the glossy multi-color look and the Panavision feel. I’ll always mistaken it for a Tarantino directed film but in this case, Scott brings his widescreen film style mixing with the screenplay complete with a Tony Scott bar scene, a multitude of excitement combined with a solid score inspired by Terrence Malick’s Badlands and the flow of Tarantino’s dialogue. With most of the films that have had Tarantino’s direction and/or involvement, a common thing about his dialogue is that it makes scenes that normally would plod down a movie into something that in the case of action, less is more and the words along with the acting keep the wheels in motion without letting up
With this cast, not one performance is wasted and every character, minor and major, is key. From the innocence of Clarence to the loving but dangerous way of Alabama along with the desperate but firm father in Cliff along with “The Mentor” guiding Clarence in the right path in the only encouraging way The King can and the messed up environment of Drexl and the powerful hand of Vincent that for one scene explains everything and backs up his showing with vicious action. With all of those I cannot forget Dick Ritchie and Floyd being two roommates with a hopeful career and a stoner who feels more comfortable hanging around in the hills of California. I know there are a few that I left out but all are key and everyone does a solid job.
Tony Scott brings his glossy multi-colored, high lit style to Tarantino’s material and in many ways it works and the audience is drawn to the story from start to finish. With that in mind, True Romance is truly so cool film.
Video: How does it look?
This is the second release for this edition of the film (the previous being a single disc with trailer release) and the results are a major improvement. The colors pop out wonderfully both in the menus on both discs to the look of the film without any major print flaws, specklage or dirt. The print is clean with very little bleeding of colors and oversaturation. The previous disc suffered from being a bit dark and times and not having a consistancy of a solid picture. With this newer edition, that part is covered with the best clarity and it makes for a solid transfer.
Audio: How does it sound?
Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and the DTS 5.1 are almost identical in track and that’s not a bad thing. The music coming from Drexl’s place along with the ride of the roller coaster in California rock the channels both on the sides and in the middle for which the majority of effects and dialogue come out crisp and with very little hissing and popping. Along with the echoes in the bathroom with Clarence contemplating with The King along with the gunshots, they ring out all channels and combine to make for two solid tracks. This disc also has English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
While the previous release only had the trailer that was mentioned earlier as an extra, this Special Edition goes to the hilt for this title with a “bounty of EXPLOSIVE EXTRAS” and it starts off with three commentary tracks.
The first of which is from stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. It’s obvious the two have not seen the film in quite some time and they don’t share much other than audience reactions while watching the movie as well as little tidbits once in a while. It’s not a terrible track as it’s good to enjoy the film along with them, but it’s just not that informative.
The next commentary is by director Tony Scott and he does fill in some blanks about casting, about some scenes and his choices along with working with Quentin and informing us on some more tidbits about shooting and the final results of the film. He does keep his reputation as a Scott director for he, as well as his brother Ridley, is an entertaining listen and a well read commentator on DVD
If that commentary was good, that was nothing compared to the final commentary track by writer Quentin Tarantino. With only a handful of commentary credits, he comes into this track with his point of view on the characters as well as the collaboration with Scott and the struggle in his life as a screenwriter and his views on this movie had it been in his hands in terms of some music and he structure. The track is wildly entertaining and Tarantino is always a pleasure to listen to when he talks about his work and the work that has inspired him as a writer and as a filmmaker.
With all that in mind, they do save the best for #3 and it makes for a great combination of commentaries from all the different points of view of the film. There’s also a most interesting feature-length storyboard track that shows how different scenes filmed and resulted at the same time.
That could’ve been enough along with the fun menus with the blue and red bright light look. On top of that there is a second disc and the extras and the commentaries don’t end there.
On Disc 2, there are four individual “selective commentaries” with more of the cast. They are Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt and Michael Rapaport. All four comment on the clip reel of scenes with themselves in the movie. Hopper is interesting at points, Kilmer is fun channelling Elvis and Rapaport, in the longest commentary, is great and remembers a bit but the track that stands out is Brad Pitt. As shown on the Se7en and Fight Club DVDs, he can be a very interesting listen chatting away and is no stranger to commentary tracks and with this being one of his small roles, he gives it all with an entertaining listen to add to the other 3 entertaining listens. A great section.
After that, there are eleven deleted and extended scenes and they can be viewed with commentary by Scott. There are some interesting extensions but nothing to add or take away the already established scenes. One interesting addition is a scene with Christopher Walken’s character that is a brief snippet in the trailer but nowhere to be found in the feature film. It’s a short little piece and could’ve been useful but in the long run it could’ve ruined the collaboration between Tarantino and Walken being their effectiveness of writer and actor in one scene and only the one scene.
Then there is the alternate ending which can be viewed with commentary by either Scott or Tarantino (from excerpts of the tracks on Disc 1). The alternate ending (not fully shot and partially storyboarded as well) is another way the movie could’ve ended but in the long run, this viewer agrees with Scott’s decision being that it wouldn’t have worked had it ended this way. A good addition to see how it could’ve ended up.
There is also the standard yet accurate cast and crew bios covering all players.
Also, there are two featurettes, one that shows some interesting yet short on-the-set footage with the actors and the other found in the publicity gallery that is merely a fluff piece of the time.
In that publicity gallery, there are two TV Spots and the aformentioned theatrical trailer that gets better with every viewing and upon retrospect, seemed to market for a more mainstream film which this is not. Either way, it’s a fun trailer that makes great use of the music from the movie, which all pieces are included. (There was no shot of Slater in the film pointing the gun at the mirror which is also not on the extended scenes..curious)
Lastly, there is an animated photo gallery showing publicity stills, production photos and posters (where are the pics that Alabama took in the film from that disposable camera??) and there are trailers of other Morgan Creek titles such as Young Guns 2, Chill Factor, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, American Outlaws, The In Crowd and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
After a little more than ten years since it’s first release in theaters and even less than it’s first DVD incarnation, True Romance is given some due justice the second time around thanks to the wonderful job done on the two-disc special edition complete with remasterings, solid extras, the great tattoed on black cover and a film that holds up very well in the wonderful worlds of Tarantinoland and the Tony Scott Universe.
