True Romance is a 1993 American romance
crime filmCrime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
written by
Quentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
and directed by
Tony ScottAnthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
. The film stars
Christian SlaterChristian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
and
Patricia ArquettePatricia T. Arquette is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series....
with an
ensemble castAn ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
consisting of
Christopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
,
Dennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
,
Gary OldmanGary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
,
Chris PennChristopher Shannon "Chris" Penn was an American film and television actor known for his roles in such films as The Wild Life, Reservoir Dogs, Footloose, Rush Hour, True Romance, All the Right Moves and Pale Rider.-Early life:Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the youngest son of Leo Penn,...
,
Tom SizemoreThomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
,
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
,
Kevin CorriganKevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...
,
James GandolfiniJames J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
and
Brad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
.
Val KilmerVal Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
is heard but not seen (except in silhouette) as an inner-voice to one of the main characters. Although he is never directly referred to as such, it is implied that he is
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
.
True Romance is a 1993 American romance
crime filmCrime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
written by
Quentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
and directed by
Tony ScottAnthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
. The film stars
Christian SlaterChristian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
and
Patricia ArquettePatricia T. Arquette is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series....
with an
ensemble castAn ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
consisting of
Christopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
,
Dennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
,
Gary OldmanGary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
,
Chris PennChristopher Shannon "Chris" Penn was an American film and television actor known for his roles in such films as The Wild Life, Reservoir Dogs, Footloose, Rush Hour, True Romance, All the Right Moves and Pale Rider.-Early life:Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the youngest son of Leo Penn,...
,
Tom SizemoreThomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
,
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
,
Kevin CorriganKevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...
,
James GandolfiniJames J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
and
Brad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
.
Val KilmerVal Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
is heard but not seen (except in silhouette) as an inner-voice to one of the main characters. Although he is never directly referred to as such, it is implied that he is
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
.
Plot
Comic book store clerk and film buff Clarence Worley (
Christian SlaterChristian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
) watches a
Sonny Chiba, also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese actor, singer, film producer, film director and martial artist.Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.- Early life :Born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka,...
triple feature at a Detroit movie theater for his birthday. Here he meets Alabama Whitman (
Patricia ArquettePatricia T. Arquette is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series....
), an attractive young woman. They go to a diner for pie after the theater and engage in flirtatious conversation before heading to Clarence's apartment. After having sex, she tearfully confesses that she is a
call girlA call girl or female escort is a sex worker who is not visible to the general public; nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency...
hired by Clarence's boss as a birthday present. She has fallen in love with Clarence and he with her.
The next day, they marry. Alabama's volatile pimp, Drexl Spivey (
Gary OldmanGary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
), makes Clarence uneasy. An apparition of his idol,
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
(
Val KilmerVal Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
), tells him that killing Drexl will make the world a better place. Clarence stands up to the intimidating Drexl and tells him to leave Alabama alone. Drexl assaults and subdues Clarence and takes his wallet. Clarence draws a gun and kills Drexl and a henchman. He grabs a bag that he assumes belongs to Alabama. When he tells Alabama he killed Drexl, she sobs and finds this "so romantic."
Opening the suitcase, the two find it is full of cocaine, which was stolen by Drexl earlier in the film. Clarence and Alabama decide to leave for California immediately. First they pay a visit to Clarence's father, Clifford Worley (
Dennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
), a security guard and ex-cop. Clarence wants to find out if he is in the clear regarding Drexl's murder. Clifford tells him that the police assume it to be a drug-related killing.
In Los Angeles, the young couple plans to meet Clarence's old friend Dick Ritchie (
Michael RapaportMichael David Rapaport is an American, actor, director and a comedian. He has acted in more than forty films since the early 1990s...
), an aspiring actor. Meanwhile back in Detroit, Clifford is ambushed in his home by gangster
Vincenzo CoccottiVincenzo Coccotti is a fictional character, portrayed by Christopher Walken in Tony Scott's 1993 film True Romance. He is the primary antagonist of the film.- Information :...
(
Christopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
) and his men, who tracked him by using Clarence's wallet. They want the drugs taken from Drexl, their underling. Clifford refuses to reveal where his son has gone. Accepting that he is going to die anyway, he insults Coccotti, who angrily shoots Clifford dead before finding a note on the fridge giving Clarence's whereabouts in L.A.
Clarence plans to use Dick's contacts with an actor named Elliot (
Bronson PinchotBronson Alcott Pinchot is an American actor. He has appeared in several feature films, including Risky Business, Beverly Hills Cop , The First Wives Club, True Romance, Courage Under Fire and It's My Party...
) to sell the drugs to a film producer, Lee Donowitz (
Saul RubinekSaul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
). Elliot, who has some of Clarence's cocaine, is stopped while speeding and is arrested for drug possession. Believing Clarence's story of getting the drugs from a dirty cop, he informs on Donowitz's drug deal to escape prison time.
Alabama is found alone in their hotel room and interrogated by one of Coccotti's henchmen, Virgil (
James GandolfiniJames J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
), who viciously beats her. Alabama fights back and miraculously manages to kill him. She and Clarence talk of moving to
CancúnCancún is a city of international tourism development certified by the UNWTO . Located on the northeast coast of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico, more than 1,700 km from Mexico City, the Project began operations in 1974 as Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR Cancún is a city of...
with the money from the drug deal.
Knowing that Elliot's cocaine was uncut, and with Elliot "confessing" in order to avoid prison, L.A. detectives Nicholson (
Tom SizemoreThomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
) and Dimes (
Chris PennChristopher Shannon "Chris" Penn was an American film and television actor known for his roles in such films as The Wild Life, Reservoir Dogs, Footloose, Rush Hour, True Romance, All the Right Moves and Pale Rider.-Early life:Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the youngest son of Leo Penn,...
) conclude that a sizable drug deal is about to go down. Promising him that he can avoid prison in return for cooperation, the two detectives have Elliot wear a wire to the deal. Coccotti's men learn where the deal is going down from Dick's lazy stoner roommate Floyd (
Brad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
) and they all converge on Lee Donowitz's hotel.
As a fan of his film work, Clarence makes a good impression on Lee. They are then ambushed by both the cops and gangsters who, coincidentally, break in almost at the same time. In the middle of a
Mexican standoffA Mexican standoff is a slang term defined as a stalemate or impasse; a confrontation that neither side can foreseeably win. The term is most often used in lieu of "stalemate" when the confrontational situation is exceptionally dangerous for all parties involved.In popular culture, the Mexican...
, Lee realizes that Elliot is an informant and berates him, throwing a hot pot of coffee on him, causing a massive shootout. Dick abandons the drugs and flees. Clarence is shot in the eye when he exits the bathroom, devastating Alabama. Lee, Elliot, the police, gangsters and bodyguards are all killed.
Clarence, however, revives, only partially blinded (coincidentally in the same eye as Drexl). He and Alabama escape as more police swarm the hotel. They are shown as a happy family on a beach in Cancún, with a son they have named Elvis.
There is an alternative ending (Tarantino's version) where Clarence is killed by the bullet and Alabama is seen hitchhiking on a Mexican road.
Cast
- Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
as Clarence Worley
- Patricia Arquette
Patricia T. Arquette is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series....
as Alabama Whitman
- Michael Rapaport
Michael David Rapaport is an American, actor, director and a comedian. He has acted in more than forty films since the early 1990s...
as Dick Ritchie
- Bronson Pinchot
Bronson Alcott Pinchot is an American actor. He has appeared in several feature films, including Risky Business, Beverly Hills Cop , The First Wives Club, True Romance, Courage Under Fire and It's My Party...
as Elliot Blitzer
- Saul Rubinek
Saul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
as Lee Donowitz
- Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
as Clifford Worley
- James Gandolfini
James J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
as Virgil
- Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
as Drexl Spivey
- Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
as Vincenzo CoccottiVincenzo Coccotti is a fictional character, portrayed by Christopher Walken in Tony Scott's 1993 film True Romance. He is the primary antagonist of the film.- Information :...
- Chris Penn
Christopher Shannon "Chris" Penn was an American film and television actor known for his roles in such films as The Wild Life, Reservoir Dogs, Footloose, Rush Hour, True Romance, All the Right Moves and Pale Rider.-Early life:Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the youngest son of Leo Penn,...
as Nicky Dimes
- Tom Sizemore
Thomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
as Cody Nicholson
- Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
as Floyd
- Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
as Elvis
- Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
as Big Don
- Conchata Ferrell
Conchata Galen Ferrell is an American actress. She is best known for playing Berta the housekeeper in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, for which she received two Emmy Award nominations in 2005 and 2007.-Personal life:...
as Mary Louise Ravencroft
- Anna Thomson
Anna Kluger Levine is an American actress. She has also been credited as Anna Levine Thompson and Anna Thomson.-Filmography:* Desperately Seeking Susan as Crystal* Murphy's Romance as Wanda...
as Lucy
- Paul Bates
Paul Bates is an American actor. He is most known for his minor roles in 8 Mile, True Romance and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.He is also known for playing Oha in the 1988 film Coming to America.-External links:...
as Marty
- Victor Argo
Victor Argo was a Puerto Rican - American actor who usually played the part of a tough bad guy in his movies.-Early years:...
as Lenny
- Frank Adonis
Frank Adonis , sometimes credited as Frank Martin, is an American film and television actor.-Selected filmography:*The French Connection as Bidder*Eyes of Laura Mars as Sal Volpe...
as Frankie (Franco)
- Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...
as Marvin
- Paul Ben-Victor
Paul Ben-Victor is an American actor.Ben-Victor was born Paul Friedman, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Leah Kornfeld, a playwright, and Victor Friedman. Ben-Victor debuted on the small screen in 1987 in the made-for-TV movie Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife and on an episode of Cagney &...
as Luca
- Michael Beach
-Biography:Beach was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, of Cape Verdean descent. He attended the prestigious Noble & Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts on scholarship from ABC . He was introduced to acting when he was sidelined by a lacrosse injury during high school by a classmate...
as Wurlitzer
- Eric Allan Kramer
Eric Allan Kramer is an American actor, perhaps best known as Little John in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, as Thor in The Incredible Hulk Returns, as Whitey van de Bunt in Bob and as Dave Rogers in The Hughleys...
as Boris
Production
The title and plot are a play on the
titles of romance comic books with their overwrought love stories—very popular in earlier decades—such as "True Life Secrets," "True Stories of Romance," "Romance Tales," "Untamed Love" and "Strange Love."
True Romance was a breakthrough of sorts for Tarantino. Released after
Reservoir DogsReservoir Dogs is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and...
, it was his first
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
for a major motion picture, and Tarantino contends that it is his most autobiographical film to date. He had initially hoped to serve as the film's director, however he ended up losing interest in directing and sold the script. According to Tarantino's audio commentary on the DVD release, he was happy with the way it turned out as, apart from changing the nonlinear narrative he wrote to a more conventional linear structure, it was largely faithful to his original screenplay and, although he initially opposed director Tony Scott's decision to change the ending (which Scott maintained was of his own volition, not the studio's, saying "I just fell in love with these two characters and didn’t want to see them die") he realized when seeing the completed film that Scott's happy ending was more appropriate to the film as he had directed it, whereas the originally scripted ending would have been more suited to Tarantino's directorial style.
The film's score by
Hans ZimmerHans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
is a theme based on
GassenhauerGassenhauer is a short piece from Carl Orff's Schulwerk. As the full title indicates, it is either an arrangement of, or inspired by, a much older work by the lutenist Hans Neusiedler from 1536...
from
Carl OrffCarl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
's Schulwerk. This theme combined with a voiceover spoken by Arquette is Tarantino's homage to
Terrence MalickTerrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....
's 1973 crime movie
BadlandsBadlands is a 1973 American crime drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Warren Oates and Ramon Bieri are also featured. Malick has a small speaking part although he does not receive an acting credit...
, in which
Sissy SpacekSissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
speaks the voiceover, and that also shares similar dramatic motifs.
Box office performance
| Film |
Release date |
Box office revenue |
Box office ranking |
Budget |
Reference |
| United States |
United States |
International |
Worldwide |
All time United States |
All time worldwide |
| True Romance |
September 1993 |
$12,281,551 |
N/A |
$12,281,551 |
#3,428 |
N/A |
$13,000,000 |
|
Critical reception
| Film |
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
|
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
|
Entertainment Weekly Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
|
| All Critics |
Top Critics |
Audience |
| True Romance |
91% (44 reviews) |
78% (9 reviews) |
90% (161,589 reviews) |
57/100 (18 reviews) |
B+ |
Reviews for the film were largely positive. Out of the 44 reviews collected on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 40 are positive, giving it an overall "fresh" rating of 91%.
Phil Villarreal of the
Arizona Daily StarThe Arizona Daily Star is the major morning daily newspaper that serves Tucson and surrounding districts of southern Arizona in the United States. The paper was purchased by Pulitzer in 1971; Lee Enterprises bought Pulitzer in 2005....
called it "one of the most dynamic action films of the 1990s."
Peter TraversPeter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
gave it three stars, saying "it's Tarantino's gutter poetry that detonates True Romance. This movie is dynamite."
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film a positive review remarking that "the energy and style of the movie are exhilarating", and that "the supporting cast is superb, a roll call of actors at home in these violent waters:
Christopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
,
Dennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
and
Brad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, for example." A negative review by
The Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
s Richard Harrington claimed the film was "stylistically visceral" yet "aesthetically corrupt".
See also
- 1993 in film
The year 1993 in film involved many significant films, including the blockbuster hits Jurassic Park, The Fugitive and The Firm. -Events:...
- Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
- List of American films of 1993
External links
- "True Romance: 15 Years Later" article at Maxim
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
magazine
- MovieLocationsGuide.com - Maps and directions to True Romance filming locations