True Romance
Director: Tony Scott
Written by: Quentin Tarantino
Photography: Jeffrey L. Kimball
Starring: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper.
Year: 1993
Country: USA, France.
We all know by now, I'm sure, that last month director Tony Scott died tragically. It dawned me as the initial shock and sadness faded that I hadn't seen one of the late Mr. Scott's most critically acclaimed films, True Romance. Browsing in a cheap second-hand DVD and Games store, I saw a copy of True Romance and decided to pick it up.
For clearance, this is the original cut of the film, not the later Tarantino Cut (Sometimes known as the Director's Cut) which I understand has a darker ending and has a non-liner narrative.
Tarantino gets the right to get his own cut because he wrote the screenplay (long before he made Reservoir Dogs, and it's apparent from scene one that it's a QT screenplay. True Romance is much more a Quentin Tarantino film than it is a Tony Scott film, sorry auteur theory. Any time the male lead, Clarence, is talking about cinema or music, it's just Quentin talking vicariously through Christian Slater.
Clarence Worley is a Elvis Presley and Sonny Chiba obsessed, law-abiding, 20-something guy who works in comic-book store and seems to repel members of the opposite sex, until he meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette), a sweet talking call-girl who shares many of his interests. While freshening up in the bathroom, he's visited my his mentor (who only Clarence can see) played by Val Kilmer. He's never referred to by name and is credited only as Mentor, but he is clearly meant to be Elvis. He couldn't be credited as such because of legal reasons. Elvi-The Mentor persuades Clarence to kill Alabama's pimp, Drexl. After he kills him, Clarence finds a suitcase full of cocaine. Clarence and Alabama drive down to L.A to try and sell on the cocaine to a movie producer and use to money to start a new life together.
True Romance has a fantastic supporting cast; Dennis Hooper play's Clarence's Dad, Gary Oldman is like he often is, unrecognisable, as Drexl the pimp, Brad Pitt in an early role for him playing a stoner, Saul Rubinek playing a movie producer supposedly based on both Joel Silver and Oliver Stone. And Christopher Walken who, like in Pulp Fiction, is only in one scene but it's the most memorable scene in the film.
The film, being from '93, is in Scott's original recognizable style (long lenses and smoke diffusion), before he radically changed it, for the worse in my opinion, in the last decade with Man on Fire and Domino, where he drained a lot of the colour and overused used fast zooms in and out and other camera techniques.
Who'd have thought that one of the best romance movies ever made would be full of drugs, violence and black comedy? Ok, so maybe True Romance isn't one of the best romance films ever made, it certainly doesn't stand with movies like Casablanca, Brief Encounter or Before Sunrise, but it certainly a lot fun and packs a pretty big punch. Thank you Tony, you will be missed.
Score: 3.5/5
The Dark Night Rises
Director: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
Photography: Wally Pfister
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway.
Year: 2012
Country: USA, UK
My expectations going in to The Dark Knight Rises were so high, it was almost destined to disappoint me. But like an unexplained phenomenon, it somehow managed to exceed my hopes.
I want to avoid spoilers as much as possible, so I won't go into too much detail of the story. All I'll say is that The Dark Knight Rises is set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight. Gotham doesn't need The Batman any more and Bruce Wayne has gone into exile.
This is the final chapter is the Batman trilogy. Director Christopher Nolan claims to have no interest in making any more and I believe him. Cinematographer Wally Pfister is retiring from his role as cinematographer for life as a director. The film is also a clear conclusion to Bruce Wayne's story, albeit an ambiguous and subjective one.
It's a shame Wally Pfister is retiring from photography because he's one of the best cinematographers of his generation. It was no exception in The Dark Knight Rises, it's mostly shot underexposed and it has a similar blackness to films like David Fincher's Se7en or The Godfather.
Christopher Nolan and Wally Pfister are both preservers of celluloid, so The Dark Knight Rises was shot on 35mm film and is not in 3D. Which leads me to one of the only grievousness, not with the film, but how it was exhibited. In my local Vue cinema a digital projector was used which made what should have been pitch dark blacks come out as really deep greys. If you can see it projected in 35mm or in an IMAX cinema, do so.
Chris Nolan, who is yet to make a bad film, delivers again. His direction is spot on throughout and delivers a well written and intelligent screenplay in coalition his brother, Jonathan.
Christian Bale's Batman is still somewhat laughable with his 'Get off my lawn' voice, but is otherwise great and think he makes a brilliant Bruce Wayne.
Anne Hathaway as Catwoman I had a lot of trepidation about, she can be a hit or miss. She actually does pretty well In this... and she's sexy, too. She also has a sidekick, played by Juno Temple. Who I think must have had most of her scenes cut out because she's a pointless and rarely seen.
I've been a big Tom Hardy fan for a while and he makes a badass Bane, he begets genuine fear every time he's a screen. A lot of people complain that they couldn't understand him most of the time. I didn't have this problem myself. Some of it could be to do with the sound systems varying cinema but I think most of it is to do with not being able to see his mouth, we don't realise how much we rely on lip movement.
I wont go into every actor because there are so many, but everyone in this film gives their best. New actors include Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. All returning actors are given their due course, no characters are crammed in out of obligation. Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon could finally get the academy he's been due for a long time.
The action scenes are some of the best I've seen in a long time. The first confrontation between Batman and Bane is intensely visceral, I could personally feel every hit Batman took.
It refreshing to see an action film from a filmmaker that understands that great action scenes aren't made with shaky cam (that is the technical term) and fast editing, but from carefully crafted choreography.
The art direction was stunning, I especially liked the design of Bane. In the comics bane wears a full face mask but the decision to show his eyes adds to the horror. The colour scheme is mostly black and other cold colours. This looks great and fits the tone of the film but less so as I said before if you're watching it in digital.
Hans Zimmer's score is faultless, I would say better than his score for Inception in terms of how it fits the movie. But the film also knows when not to use music at all. In Batman's fight with Bane and in an emotional speech by Alfred from Michael Caine, no music is used which adds to the emotion. Although it does makes the crunching of crisps and popcorn clearer.
The film is full of the wildly imaginative set pieces, which use a mixture of CGI and practical effects the two of which blend together nicely.
The film is on the long side at almost three hours. I honestly didn't feel this and I could have carried on watching for at least another half an hour.
My only complaints are that some things aren't explained that I would have liked to have been. I can't go any further without spoiling the film, but they're not major plot holes, so nothing that will take you out of the experience.
I think it's important to state that I don't think this film is suitable for children. It might be a 12A here in the UK and a PG-13 in the US, but the long dialogue scene, bleak persona, dark cinematography and colossal run-time will bore your under twelves. And although the violence may not be bloody it's definitely brutal. Don't risk it, take them to see The Amazing Spider-Man instead. That has the bright coloured, wise cracking, pantomime villain fitting stuff they like. There were several children in the screening I was in and they all talked, cried, climbed and eventually left before the end.
I still need to watch Moonrise Kingdom and there are many movies ahead of us including The Master, but The Dark Knight Rises has the potential to be my movie of the year. It's everything you want in a Blockbuster and more. It's a must watch, go see it (unless you have kids)
Score 5/5
