Review of True Romance: Director`s Cut

Introduction

The mind is good at playing tricks on you. I`ve not watched this film for about 4 or 5 years. Something must have changed in that time as I reacted differently to the last time I watched it. Admittedly a few scenes have been restored since the last viewing, and these scenes can alter your perception of one of the characters, but it was the overall film which seemed to be different.

Let`s put a few details down. The script was written by Quentin Tarantino, but then he kind of "sold" it on to finance other projects. It`s directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun amongst others). And there`s an all-star cast - Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson - need I go on ?

Video

An anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer, which is good on the whole, but which lets itself down in places, with some film grain showing through. Still the best transfer in any region though.

Audio

A DD5.1 mix is presented here, but isn`t really used to the full. There`s a lot of music in the film, some great songs, and a lot of Xylophone atmospheric music. You`ll recognise a few of the pieces (one from a recent TV advertising campaign) too.

So the music sounds good, but the rears don`t get much action, and what action they do doesn`t sound quite right. It doesn`t distract too much from the film though.

Features

None, nothing, nada, zip.

Conclusion

I mentioned earlier that I reacted differently to this film since the last time I watched it. Let me explain. This film is nowhere near as good as I remembered it to be.

It`s a Tarantino script, and you can tell that in several places in this film, as there are "classic" Tarantino hallmarks - the Elvis thing (Pulp Fiction), the deconstruction of a film or song (the "Like a Virgin" scene from Reservoir Dogs) and Samuel L. Jackson`s character (Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown). The Hopper and Walken scene is probably the best scene in the film. It does seem to borrow from Badlands a bit too (even down to the Xylophone music).

But for all these parts, there`s a lot about the story that doesn`t sit right, and I think I can see why Tarantino wasn`t worried about selling this script on and letting someone else direct it. It is supposed to have gone through quite a few re-writes, but if it did, they weren`t worth the effort. Apparently Tarantino`s original script is better.

There`s a lot of violence in this film (and more than was in the original cinema print). The restored scenes do cast a slightly different light on the character who features in them, but you still don`t really feel for these characters. They don`t want to be seen as "trailer park trash" but essentially they are.

If you`re a Tarantino fan, you`ll probably like this film, but for me it`s nowhere near as good as I remembered it. There are too many things wrong with it in my opinion to give it a good score.