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Alabama is content to simply watch karate flicks with Clarence, but he is determined to wreak revenge on her pimp, a wanna-be black named Drexl (Gary Oldman). Clarence takes out Drexl and his bodyguard (Samuel L. Jackson), but makes the mistake of also taking a suitcase of cocaine.
Soon the Mafia is after Clarence, led by kingpin Christopher Walken. They follow Clarence's trail, which includes a visit to his estranged father (Dennis Hopper). Now in Los Angeles and newlywed to Alabama, Clarence tries to sell the cocaine to Saul Rubinek via Bronson Pinchot. But Pinchot is pinched by the cops, which brings Chris Penn into the story. The police and the mob converge on Rubinek's hotel room, where the big drug deal is going down.
Small roles have big names behind them. Brad Pitt is a stoner, James Gandolfini is a mobster, Michael Rappaport is a struggling actor, and Tom Sizemore is a policeman.
How others will see it. Although the director is action blockbuster specialist Tony Scott, Tarantino is given sole credit for the screenplay, and the movie has a feel similar to Pulp Fiction. That is, it has retro pop culture humor, lots of R-rated trash talk, and sudden bursts of extreme violence.
Although True Romance was ignored by Oscar and the festival circuit, the movie receives high imdb.com user ratings, particularly from young males. Older viewers are slightly less supportive, probably because of the violence, which culminates in a hotel room massacre. Older viewers may also be suspicious of an ending in which several cops are killed but our two 'heroic' lovers get away with the loot.
How I felt about it. Alas, I too am old enough to be suspicious of endings in which everybody dies except for two people who are 'only' guilty of self defense murder and the theft of half a million dollars worth of cocaine. I also put it to you that the 200K in cash that Clarence and Alabama received will not allow them to enjoy a Cancun beach paradise forever, especially after Clarence pays his hospital bills.
Despite various reservations which make the film a bit less fun than the Tarantino-directed films of the era, I have to admit that True Romance has a fine cast. In fact, some of the cast also appeared in Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs (Walken, Jackson, Penn). Bronson Pinchot, normally an egregious over-actor, is spot-on as the cowardly Elliot Blitzer (no, not a reference to Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced New York governor).
Tarantino's dialogue is also often entertaining in its outrageous, over the line race-mongering, particularly when Hopper is explaining to Walken why he might have African ancestors. Alabama says 'Persians' are a turn-off. Well, maybe only when they are unshaved and wear turbans.