True Romance (1993)

True Romance arrived in 1993 at a particular crossroads in American genre filmmaking, when crime movies were being pulled in brasher, more self-aware directions and Hollywood was producing a run of films that wore their pop-culture obsessions right on their sleeve. The screenplay was written by Quentin Tarantino, at that point a writer whose stock was rising fast, and it has the hallmarks you would expect: long stretches of oddly affectionate dialogue, sudden lurches into violence, and characters who talk about the world around them with a kind of infectious enthusiasm. The story follows Clarence, a comic-book shop worker who falls for Alabama, a woman with a complicated past, and the two of them end up on the run with a suitcase full of cocaine and a remarkable number of dangerous people on their trail. It is, in other words, a road movie and a love story and a crime thriller all at once, with very little concern for keeping any of those things neatly separated.

The director is Tony Scott, whose background was in slick, kinetic commercial cinema (you can read my thoughts on his earlier Top Gun elsewhere on the site). Scott brings his usual eye for movement and colour, and the film has a polished but unremarkable visual style that keeps everything moving at a decent clip without drawing too much attention to itself. It was produced through Morgan Creek Entertainment alongside Davis Films and August Entertainment, with French co-production money also in the mix, and it runs to just over two hours. The lead roles go to Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, who give Clarence and Alabama a certain scrappy warmth that keeps the film grounded even when events spiral into the surreal. Around them, the supporting cast reads like a roll call of people who could each have carried their own film: Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, and Gary Oldman among them. Oldman in particular turns up in a role that has become one of the more talked-about elements of the film, and you can see why the moment he appears on screen. It is the kind of casting that feels almost absurdly ambitious, and yet it works, mostly because everyone involved seems to understand exactly what kind of film they are in. For a point of comparison with other crime-inflected action from the era, my reviews of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Fire in the Sky both touch on what early 1990s genre filmmaking was doing well and less well at the time.

Gary Oldman has a Jamaican accent... I was recommended this film recently and it has a really strong all-star cast including Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman and more. I don't know what I was expecting going into it but knowing Tarantino is involved (I believe he wrote it) I knew it'd be good. I really enjoyed True Romance and I truly struggled to know what was coming next. Definitely a highlight of 90s cinema.

And I think that last point is worth holding onto. The 1990s produced plenty of crime films that tried to chase a similar energy and came up short, settling for attitude without the substance to back it. What makes True Romance stick around in the memory is that combination of a script with genuine wit and surprise, a cast willing to commit fully to even the smallest scene, and just enough heart at the centre to stop the whole thing feeling like an exercise. If you enjoy action with that same kind of unpredictable, slightly chaotic momentum, it is worth checking out my take on The Raid 2 for something that swings hard from a very different direction. True Romance, though, is its own thing: loud, funny, occasionally shocking, and rather difficult to shake once you have seen it.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 1993  | Watched: 2025-04-08

View on Letterboxd →

Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for True Romance (1993) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Sky Go · Now TV Cinema
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Tony Scott: Top Gun (1986)
More from France: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)