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Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, True Romance is hilarious, violent and strangely moving. It's part homage to Terence Malick's Badlands, part autobiography, part nerdy male fantasy--and it's Tarantino's first and, some say, finest work. Although it fared poorly at the box office at the time it soon became an established cult classic, with a supporting cast that beggars belief: Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, Val Kilmer, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L Jackson and Gary Oldman all play minor roles, all to devastating effect.

Christian Slater stars as Clarence, the video-store clerk who's set up with Patricia Arquette's hooker Alabama on his birthday. They fall in love for real but have to hit the road when Clarence, egged on by the ghost of Elvis, kills Alabama's pimp Drexl (Oldman) and makes off with a consignment of neat cocaine, mistaking it for a suitcase of Alabama's clothes. Now both the police and the mafia are after them. Two among many great sequences stand out. The first is when cop Dennis Hopper, refusing to give up son Clarence to Christopher Walken's mafiosi, makes his famous "The Sicilians were spawned by niggers" speech. In context, it's actually not racist--it's a gesture of great courage and love from dad to son, while also calculated to mock the uptight racial sensibilities of the mafia. The second is when Alabama turns the tables on James Gandolfini's mafia henchman at the motel in a prolonged and brutal sequence which nonetheless emphasises the glowing, pink heart-shaped message at the centre of the film--that true love conquers all, albeit here in a hail of bullets that leaves practically everyone dead.

On the DVD: True Romance is excellently reproduced on disc and there is an abundance of extras for this Special Edition. These include a number of mostly superfluous deleted and extended scenes, though the one in which Samuel L Jackson offers his views on the merits of "pussy-eating" is worth catching, as is the "alternate ending", which Tarantino had intended in his script. There is also access to the director's storyboards as well as commentaries from many of the cast, director Scott and from Tarantino himself, who, given his usual reluctance to provide such commentaries, is informative and chatty here. This is a superb package, although this "director's cut" is identical to the previous DVD edition. --David Stubbs

Release Date: Feb 24, 2003

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It was directed with energetic skill by Top Gun Tony Scott, but t his breathtaking 1993 thriller (think of it as an adolescent crime fantasy on steroids) has Quentin Tarantino written all over it. True Romance is really part of a loose trilogy that includes Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, with a crackling Tarantino screenplay that rides a fine line between raucous comedy and violent excess. Christian Slater plays Clarence, the comic-book lover who meets a beguiling prostitute named Alabama (Patricia Arquette), confronts her vicious pimp (Gary Oldman), and embarks on a cross-country odyssey with $5 million worth of Mafia cocaine. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a favourite Tarantino climax--the "Mexican standoff"--in which a roomful of guys are pointing guns at each other, waiting to see who shoots first. Brutal, profane, and totally outrageous, True Romance is not for everyone, but with a supporting cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, and Val Kilmer (as the ghost of Elvis!), you can be sure this movie will never be boring. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Release Date: May 15, 2000
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