I’m that guy who claims this as their favorite “Tarantino film”. I adore the Hans Zimmer score. The main theme has been used in several trailers for various rom-coms in the years since.
The score and the whole movie of true romance is partly a homage to Terennce Mallicks "Badlands". it uses the exact same song. and has Sissy Spacek's southern drawl narrate over the top of it in the exact same way as Patricia Arquette does here. Instead of Christian Slater its a young Martin Sheen starring in an iconic movie. whenever true romance comes up no one seems to get the huge "badlands" reference running through out the entire movie.
I'd say it's top5 but at the same time, I'm the dude who's like "Hateful 8 is a solid film, but the best thing about it is the landscape shots - that shit was gorgeous." lol
It always surprises me that this film gets so little attention. Glad you found this gem, it's a crazy ride with an insanely good cast. Thanks for the awesome uploads.
I swear, this movie has three of my most favorite scenes of all time. The Clarence (edited-spellcheck error)/Drexel scene, the Sicilian scene, and the Alabama/Virgil fight.
The Sicilian scene is my personal favorite. The Alabama vs. Virgil scene is one of those well choreographed and no holds barred fights ever shot on film. Clarence vs. Drexl was heavily flawed in my opinion. Also their names are not Clearance or Drexel.
The moment in the fight scene in the motel room where Alabama hits James Gandolfini with the toilet cistern lid and it DOESN'T break like movies train you to expect is so brutal.
There is a Tarantino commentary track on the DVD where he reveals that the original script had very Tarantino out-of-order sequencing, but Tony Scott changed it to be more traditional. Originally, the middle section was first and when we meet Dennis Hopper, the audience doesn’t know the context for what’s happening: we’re behind the characters. Then the beginning of the film was next, when we are in step with the main characters. Then in the final act, we are ahead of them and see the conflict coming before they do. Tarantino liked the final movie and thought the only flaw was that Walken and Hopper were so good that they overshadowed act three with their performances.
I don't know if the original timelapse was better or worse, both pulp fiction and reservoir dogs have a non linear timeline and it worked perfectly, i don't see any reasons why True Romance would have suffered from the original script.
One of my all time favorite films. Everybody in it was great. Dennis Hoppers monologue and scene with Christopher Walken is one of the best ever. He know he had to infuriate him so he’d kill him right away and avoid a drawn out torture. Brilliant move.
True Romance was Quentin Tarantino's first script. It was written from a combination of a short film he'd directed in 1986 called 'My Best Friend's Birthday,' and an early script by his friend, Roger Avary, called 'The Open Road.' Tarantino's inspiration for the story was the 1973 film Badlands, starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen. Tarantino ended up having to sell True Romance to Warner Bros. after losing interest in directing the film himself, so that he could finance his directorial debut, 1992's Reservoir Dogs.
Tarantino wrote From Dusk Til Dawn and sold it to Robert Kurtzman, before he wrote True Romance and Natural Born Killers. His first finished screenplay was Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit. After Tarantino made a big splash with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Kurtzman asked him to direct From Dusk Til Dawn. Tarantino said he'd rather act in it, because when he told Robert Rodriguez about the script, during the festival tour of 1992, Rodriguez said that he would love to direct it. Funny how things work out.
@@jimiewilliams7623 Well, I hate to be too critical of Tarantino, but I always saw From Dusk 'Till Dawn as a ripoff of the 1986 film Vamp, with Grace Jones, which had a nearly identical plot.
I love Grace in Vamp, but criticizing Tarantino for stealing from other movies, is like criticizing blues musicians for lifting each other's riffs. We're talking about his first screenplays, not about how original they are. Now, if we're talking about originality, there's nothing original about Tarantino, he's just a crafty director, who can write a compelling script. Hell, not even Cassavetes was original. Cassavetes only created the American version of the French New Wave. it still does not diminish his brilliance. When you're a true cinephile, like Tarantino, you realize that it has been said before.@@44excalibur
8:20 "These two are feeling a bit Bonnie and Clyde" This movie does owe a lot to that first iconic post-Hays Code real-life crime-spree-couple movie, but the one this one references more directly is Terence Malick's "Badlands" (1973) with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, about the Starkweather homicides. The happy steel-drum tune Hans Zimmer uses in the score is a re-arrangement of Carl Orff's arrangement of "Gassenhauer" which was used extensively in the soundtrack to Badlands. (Orrf's arrangement itself was a rearrangement of "Gassenhauer nach" by Hans Neusiedler, composed in 1536)
Gary Oldman is a beast. The first time I watched this I saw his name in the opening credits and promptly forgot all about it, which really isn't surprising with a cast like this. At some point in the film, long after Drexl died, I was like where the hell is Gary Oldman? And I'm not the only person I know who's had this experience.
if you can find it, there’s a great video where he does an interview still in costume and makeup as Drexl, but speaking in his normal voice, but there’s still a little bit of Drexl going on, the guy is an amazing actor
I have always been a huge Christian Slater fan, and this movie is one of my very favorites with him. The scene when Clarence meets Drexl is absolutely amazing, and Gary Oldman is at his finest in it. I just cannot get enough of this movie and just about every scene in it.
In the trivia section, you brought up Roger Avary. I highly recommend checking out 'The Rules of Attraction' (2002), a film directed by Avary. It can be seen as an unofficial sequel to American Psycho, and features James Van Der Beek as Patrick Bateman's younger brother in college. Every aspect of the movie, including the performances, direction, storytelling and soundtrack, deserves more recognition than it has received. I can assure you that watching this film will spark numerous ideas for your screenplays and projects. Hope you add it to the list!
A great early Gary Oldman character is his Irish American mobster character in "State Of Grace" . That movie also has a similarly stacked cast: Sean Penn, Robin Wright, Ed Harris, Oldman & best of all John C Reilly before he became a comic actor and still did dramas. I had no idea who Oldman was at the time and was shocked to findout that he was English when i saw him next.
Personally, of only three directors that have directed a Tarantino script (Oliver Stone with NATURAL BORN KILLRS and Robert Rodriguez's FROM DUSK TIL DAWN), Tony Scott's film feels the most like a Tarantino film; so much of his style works so well with Tarantino's words and characters. Yep, Clarence originally died from the gunshot during the shootout and the film originally ended with Alabama's dialogue (minus the son being named Elvis) before shooting herself in the Cadilliac.
Easily one of my favorite films of the 90’s. I think I was 20 when this came out and I was obsessed. You should definitely watch Natural Born Killers. Thanks for this!
I like NBK very much; but be forewarned. Oliver Stone’s direction is “different”. A lot of people didn’t get the satire and comedy; I think they took it too literally, and glamorized the violence…when the idea was to satirize the violence (and/ot ITS glamorization). Tarantino has famously, disavowed the movie; but I still think it’s worth a watch.
Natural Born Killers is a good social commentary story wrapped in a Tarantino screenplay... not as strong a film but worth the watch sometime along the way.
I watched this in the cinema when it first came out. Nobody had ever seen anything by Tarantino -- he was almost entirely unknown, which is why they wouldn't let him direct. The scene when Alabama said what Clarence did to Drexel, "...is so romantic," my brain melted a little bit and I couldn't stop smiling. It just came out of nowhere and I realized I had *no idea* what was gonna happen in this movie. It's one of my favorites.
And the cinema was almost empty, I'm sure. We saw it at the cinema too and almost NOBODY was there. It was a box office failure, but grew in popularity over the years, thank goodness. It's a classic IMO.
Now you have to check out Natural Born Killers to see the Oliver Stone-directed Quentin Tarrantino movie. I'd put them both at the top of his list, along with Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.
Between this movie and "Natural Born Killers", I prefer this one. For all its violence and wildness, it has a wholesomeness and optimism to it to balance out the craziness. "Natural Born Killers" is just balls to the wall cynical in addition to being violent. Plus the cast, let me drop some names: Christian Slater Patricia Arquette Gary Oldman Samuel L. Jackson Val Kilmer Brad Pitt Michael Rapaport Dennis Hopper Christopher Walken James Gandolfini Saul Rubinek Bronson Pinchot Chris Penn Tom Sizemore Conchata Ferrell Pure gold, this movie. Glad you've watched it. It's a re-watch for me.
Love this movie and, as a fellow movie lover and someone involved in the business, just a heads up in case you didn't know. This film is a homage to maybe one of the top 3 American Films ever made (imo) - Badlands (1973). The Hans Zimmer score is literally a direct ripoff of Carl Orff's earlier soundtrack. The boy and girl vs The World theme (also evinced in Tarantino's Natural Born Killers script.) You should watch Badlands. It would be a hard movie reaction video to "sell" on youtube to the masses, but if you love film, you need to see it.
16:31 This monologue by Dennis Hopper is a case of art imitating life. It was literally told to a young Quentin Tarantino almost verbatim by his mother’s Black boyfriend in the early 1970s, and he never forgot it. He says that if you do the historical research, you’ll find that it’s actually a true story.
Cinematography by Mister Jeffrey L. Kimball using spherical lenses. Other than your comments, there is nothing more significant than this, because the film was excellent with its transitions; from city to desert to LA, interior to exterior, cold to hot, light to dark. Long lenses to wide/close lenses...God-damn cinematographic genius.
Sad to say Tony Scott took his own life when he was diagnosed with cancer.The casting director is played by Conchata Ferrel ,BERTA from Two and a Half Men .
Tarantino didn't direct this himself because he couldn't, or nobody would let him, yet. I can't remember the order of when he wrote this, and when he scraped together the jump change to make "Reservoir Dogs", but this was one of the first things, at least successful things, he did. Basically, he wrote a script and was able to sell it, but at the time, nobody that was putting up their own money was going to let an unknown also direct it, and hey! If you can sell a script that's actually going to get made, with name talent, and directed by Tony Scott, you're doing all right. It's definitely a foot in the door. It wasn't until the success of "Reservoir Dogs", which he made on a super budget with what little he could get, that anyone was going to let him direct anything on their dime. Then after "Pulp Fiction", he could get away with doing whatever he wanted. You know. That's how these things work, or at least how they used to.
The Sicilian scene is hands down one of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema. Dennis Hopper's character knows no matter what is was going to die. He decided not to go through the pain of torture and sacrifice himself for his son. Which is something he felt he owed his son. After failing his son and his family from his addiction to alcohol. On a side note, Shanelle I know that you making a legitimate point about the characters in Quentin Tarantino's films. But Tony Scott committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. I'm really not trying to make you feel bad. Unfortunately there are people that would consider that statement incentive.
Yes!! Been hoping you would react to this,suggested it a while ago,will be my 1st watch when home from work 😁Love this movie and the casting is perfect
Long ago I read Tarantino's orig8nal script. Tony Scott was ONE MILLION PERCENT right to put the pieces back together in order. In the case of TR, the non-linear style TOOK AWAY from the story. Great call! Also a great call to keep Clarence alive. And I love that his reasoning for wanting to change the ending was... he loved them too much. QT is my favorite writer/director. Tony Scott is my favorite director! His catalog is a loooong series of HIGHLY rewatchables!
He didn't direct because, he had been writing this for years and bouncing around in Hollywood a while, before reservoir Dogs, and the studios didn't trust an unknown to direct, plus this big a budget and this many stars.
As well as Saul Rubenik who was in this and another recent reviewed film which was unforgiven as W.W Beauchamp, the girl in the bar with Christian slater at the beginning of this was also in unforgiven as the girl with the cuts on her face.
I believe I read somewhere that the reason Tarintino didn't direct this script was because it was very early in his career and he sold the script to the studio. He later enjoyed enough success to be able to direct and write his own films. I really like this film! The brutality is raw and the dialog is memorable. Great reaction!
This was my favorite movie in college. The happy soundtrack with the ultraviolence and amazing cast was such a hit to me. I played the VHS till it broke.
When I saw this in the theater, Tarrintino was not really known yet. So I went in knowing, and expecting nothing, but only interested in seeing Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette.
I’ll never forget the pleasure of going to see “Darkest Hour” (Gary Oldman’s Oscar-winning turn as Winston Churchill) in the movie theater with my mom and her partner, and then, immediately upon returning home, showing them the scene of Clarence vs. Drexl in “True Romance”…watching their jaws just drop to the floor in amazement, priceless! 🤣
2:04 - So true. Tarantino does have a flair for writing mesmerizing characters. He's much like David Lynch that way. And it's no wonder he's so good, he's italian. And italians do it better. 😁
"They could convince you to jump off a bridge." Yikes. I have to assume you didn't read ahead in Tony Scott's bio. 😬 But yes, I'm so happy you're bringing your awesome movie brain to this film, which is in the pantheon of doomed fugitive romance films like _Bonnie and Clyde_ and _Thelma and Louise_ and _Wild At Heart_ . Clarence and Alabama are adorable and relatable even when they're not. Also, so many great cameos from the likes of Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, James Gandolfini, Gary Oldman, and Brad Pitt as the inimitable Floyd.
Oh, and hey, after this, watch the 1973 movie _Badlands_ with the Carl Orff score and hear the influence of Terrence Malick's film on _True Romance_ . In film, and in art generally, everything comes around again.
Great job, as ever, Shanelle. One of my fave movies: Great script, casting, direction, soundtrack. Yes, Oldman isn't easy to spot, such a versatile actor. I could go on & on & on. There MUST BE a story as to how Tarrantino resisted the temptation to direct. Keep 'em coming Shanelle. 10/10. ; )
Easily my Fave "Tarantino film"! Tony scott did good changing the ending, Clarence and Alabama are to adorable to not get away. Aside from the ending,and change to chronological structure, this is pretty much the dialogue Tarantino wrote (a few trims here and there, but its all his dialogue) I watched this back in the day when it came out, and was excited to see Gary Oldman's name in the credits. Afterwards, I said to my gf at the time "I thought Gary Oldman was in this?," And my jaw dropped when she said "He was the pimp" Absolute masterpiece! Ireally love how the Sicilian speeach has layers, cuz its not somebody being racist, its somebody trying to piss off the gangster, so that he kills him quickly, so that he doesn't have to give up his son. It didn't matter ultimately, but it was a noble way to go out. I love this movie so much, so many great performances, Patricia Arquette in particular, she looked like a primal cavewoman when she kills James Gandolfini. And his performance here is actually what got him the sopranos gig. Also, Brad Pitt as a stoner was awesome! I suspect he may have tackled the role with a "method" approach! 😆
This is in my top 5 of most underwatched unknown movie masterpieces :) Together with "From Paris with Love", "God Bless America", "The Boondock Saints" and "City of the Lost children". All amazing movies no one ever seem to watch and as no one ever watched these masterpieces no one suggest them as reactions xD
I became a real fan of Tony's work posthumously (RIP). I'd seen most of his movies before then, but only in my 30s did I come to appreciate his use of visual tone/color across his work. True Romance follows hot on the heels of his 'warm orange' period (Top Gun - Days of Thunder) and he uses a contrast of warm and cold tones to separate Detroit from California here. I love rewatching his movies with an artist's eye.
He pioneered a lot of shaky-cam/fast edit techniques that many later directors copied with far less success. You can tell guys like Michael Bay are trying so hard to emulate him but just don't have the same level of skill and control.
31:50 Yes!!! The other one who does this so amazingly is Christopher Guest. Get THIS: Even Rob Reiner went through it with Guest-who’s also his good friend!! At the cast party for The Princess Bride, Reiner (the director) came up to Guest like, “Chris!! What a nice surprise! Thanks for coming out to support the film!” Guest had so thoroughly become Count Rugen that Reiner-who had just recently also directed Guest in Spinal Tap-had forgotten Chris Guest was even in the movie. 😆🏆
Saw it in the theatre when it came out. Loved it! I was already on the Tarantino train. Having already seen "Reservoir Dogs". (He sold the script for this to make "Reservoir Dogs".) One of my all time favorite soundtracks. "You're So Cool" by Zimmer and "I Want Your Body" by Nymphomania. (It's the one playing when he fights the pimp) Were regular mix tape staples. I know how you love an angsty teen high-school movie....well then let me recommend two Christian Slater classics. "Pump Up The Volume" and "Heathers".
True Romance originally began as a script by Tarantino's co-worker and collaborator Roger Avary, who worked with Tarantino at Video Archives. Inspired by Martin Scorsese's After Hours, the story revolved around a business man who decides to leave his world for the open road. He ends up picking up a wild hitchhiker and they get into various adventures. Avary struggled to finish the story and at some point Tarantino started to work on it and make changes. The script was named 'The Open Road' and Tarantino ended up changing the business man and hitchhiker into a comic book store worker and a call girl named Clarence and Alabama, inspired by characters from his short film, 'My Best Friend's Birthday.' Clarence begins to write a movie script while the two of them are on the road about a psychotic fantasy version of him and Alabama. The couple are serial killers named Mickey and Mallory. Eventually the story and plot from Clarence's script start to bleed into his and Alabama's life, blurring the lines of fantasy and reality. Tarantino would ultimately remove the Mickey and Mallory sequences from True Romance, which later became the basis for the 1994 Oliver Stone movie, Natural Born Killers.
Better have something to round your corners somewhat if you watch natural born killers😊 (It's what the expression: "wtf!" Was invented for.) I do like the Zimmer/ Scott combo in this one, as it sweetens the Tarantino deal somewhat, and makes it, besides the usual awesomeness of a Tarantino movie, hold a special place in my heart, as well as my head. It only remains to be said Shanelle "You're so cool... You're so cool..." 🤘
Was going down the alphabetical list of my Favourite Reactors when I thought "I wonder if anyone really cool put up something really awesome in the last couple hours?..." My curiosity has been rewarded by a Personal Favourite. (Mostly) written by Tarantino, directed by Tony Scott, and featuring a mind-blowing cast giving World-Class Performances (and Christian Slater was my favourite actor from the late-80s to the late 90s).
3:45 The theme music by Hans Zimmer very intentionally mimics the score from Terrence Malick’s iconic 1973 film BADLANDS, which also depicts two doomed star-crossed lovers.
4:56 This movie theater is in Hollywood and was built in 1923. It just recently reopened after a long refurbishment by its new owner: Quentin Tarantino. This is the second movie theater in Los Angeles that he owns (the other is the New Beverly Cinema, which regularly programs not just his movies but occasionally shows his personal 35mm film prints)!
Love this film, it's definitely a classic! I've seen Natural Born Killers twice 20 years apart and I just can't get invested in it, but I'm in the minority because tons of people love it, it definitely has a unique style and and it is original though.. and Kill Bill Vol. 1 is my favorite Tarantino bloodbath..
Aside from the A listers, there's so many other recognizable faces/names... Gandolfini and Sizemore.... plus Bronson Pinchot, Michael Rappaport, Chris Penn, Kevin Corrigan, Ed Lauter
The "Nicholson and me" followed by "Nicholson and I" is my favorite Tarrantino joke, not just a moment of always having to be right. "Nicholson and me" is correct. The grammar cop (and actual cop) is "correcting" grammar that's already correct. I'm that big a nerd. Also a grammar cop myself, so I caught it even the first time through.
Fun fact: Slater is a Elvis fan in this, and he impersonates Elvis in two films: "3000 Miles To Graceland", and "Guns, Girls, And Gambling". And, you REALLY need to see "Jackie Brown", if you haven't yet.
The score reminds me of the film 'Badlands' (1973), Terence Malek's first film starring Sissy Spacek ('Carrie') and Martin Sheen ('Apocalypse Now'). A really great film
Val Kilmer's first film was the comedy "Top Secret" (same people made "Airplane!"). He was told he'd be playing an Elvis-esqe character so he bought a gold lame' jacket for the audition. The jacket wasn't used in the film. When Val was Cast in "True Romance" he used the same gold lame' jacket instead of the wardrobe the crew originally had for him 😯
Fun fact about the marimba theme ("You're So Cool") by Hans Zimmer: He was inspired by "Gassenhauer" from Carl Orff's "Schulwerk", wich was used in the soundtrack of Terence Malick's 1973 "Badlands" - a movie that inspired Tarantino while writing this one. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P_ud9_MMvvc.htmlfeature=shared
for an interesting coda to this story, watch THE 1975's video "Robbers" as it incorporates lines and situations from _True Romance_ (which is my most fave movie ever next to _The Last Boy Scout_ - another tony scott film~~RIP Tony).
I love True Romance. Saw it at the cinema and have it in my collection.........completely underrated, and often overlooked. Great reaction as always......xxooxx
R.I.P To Some Of The Actor's Who We're In This Movie, Are No Longer With Us, Still Miss You All & R.I.P To A Great Director Tony Scott, Still Miss You Always 😢
