Quentin Tarantino Talks “True Romance”

True Romance doesn’t get enough love.  Tarantino’s script.  Directed by Tony Scott.  And look at that cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Bronson Pinchot, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport, Saul Rubinek, Conchata Ferrell, James Gandolfini, Chris Penn and Tom Sizemore!!!

Rob Hunter at Film School Rejects posted 30 Things We Learned from Quentin Tarantino’s ‘True Romance’ Commentary.  Before you click over, here are three of my favorites and some thoughts on each…

It wasn’t specified in the script that Elvis (Val Kilmer) would never really be seen all that clearly, and he was worried that the actor would be upset by Scott’s choice. He heard later that Kilmer loved it. (This was an interesting choice that many actor’s wouldn’t have liked. Credit to Val Kilmer for seeing the merit in playing it that way. – Craig)

He (Tarantino) is a huge fan of Scott’s Revenge (1990) which is the correct response to that film.  (I am a huge fan of Revenge.  It is probably Tony Scott and Kevin Costner’s most underrated film. – Craig)

He credits Scott with doing what a director should with the adaptation and make it their own. Clarence dying in the script makes sense to Tarantino, but Scott’s film is far more successful as a fairy tale of sorts meaning Clarence needed to live. “If I had made the movie he would have died. It would have been the same script but it would have been different. And in mine I think it would have worked. But in his, no, in his I think he was right.”  (In Scott’s film Clarence lives, in Tarantino’s script Clarence dies.  Both endings could work, but I’m glad Tony Scott stuck to his guns.  Like him, I wanted to see them get away. – Craig)