Critical Analysis of True romance

True Romance

True Romance(1993) directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino is an extremely entertaining and funny movie full of action. The cast is full of big stars which works because each of their roles really fit into the story and it's not just persuading the audience to watch it. Tarantino gave Tony Scott a choice in which film he wanted to direct and Tarantino would direct the other. He gave him the scripts for True Romance and Reservoir Dogs and he read them quite quickly and told him he liked the idea of True Romance. Although the script for true romance was originally non-linear, Tony Scott changed it to make it linear.  

Genre

Genres can become too predictable and unimaginative which doesn't come across exciting and fun for the audience. Stale genres can be revived by being less predictable and more imaginative for example True romance was a great success by showing the audience love doesn't just come from a perfect wealthy life but a true romance can come from being in the middle of life and death. A hybrid genre is a combination of two or more genres that the writer attempts to merge them together. True Romance is a hybrid genre, it includes the genres action, romance, drama and crime. As audiences want some familiarity and difference the writes are able to use locations and characters that are easily recognisable to the audience. Then again the audience also want plot twists, variations and hybrid developments to keep the audience interested. recently film makers are mixing elements of several genres to appeal to a wider audience range.
 The typical codes and conventions of a romance film
They are usually aimed at the female audience because it's known that females are more emotional in a relationship than men. There also tends to be a hero which is men most of the time, likewise there are hints throughout the films suggesting that they may be a good ''love match'' and that there will be a happy ending. Some of the time the storyline will actually link to the audiences emotions. 
The typical codes and conventions of an action film 
These are often hybridised with adventure, romance or Sci Fi and include fast paced editing. They usually have a predictable chain of events and use a lot of dramatic non diegetic sound throughout the film. The binary oppositions are always very clear and sometimes have humorous dialogue. The continuous themes and styles are gangsters, strong women, drugs/alcohol/smoking, violence/blood, music, long shots, famous actors and stunts.
The audience expectations

For a romance film the audience would expect a cute couple and maybe a wedding for them towards the end. Sometimes they might expect another character that gets in the way of the two main ones. The continuous themes they would expect are: Roses, friends, parents, children and sometimes famous actors. Whereas for an action film the audience would expect gangsters, drugs, alcohol, smoking, violence, blood, fast music, stunts and most of the time famous actors. The audiences expectations of True Romance would be a very strong romance with serious dramatic moments and a happy ending. They wouldn't expect the film to include drugs, fighting and gangsters.

Content

Mise-en-scene and Cinematography
True Romance is a modern classic movie set in the middle of a drug culture environment. Settings and locations are very important in film making and are not just backgrounds. Sets can sometimes be built from scratch or can take a lot of time to find a setting that already exists. The typical setting and props you can find in a crime film are: streets, alley ways, city, knives, guns and bats. The lighting in True Romance helps the audience feel what kind of  people the characters are especially in one scene which is known as the Sicilian scene.

Lighting and colour can be used to highlight important characters or objects within the frame and make the character look mysterious by shading sections of the face and body. In this particular scene the light shines down on Dennis Hopper showing his full facial features while another light shines at the back of Christopher Walken to darken his face giving the audience the feel that he is the villain. Although there are other characters in the scene, our eyes continue to focus on the two that are shown in light, not only because of the lighting key but also because of the staging and positioning of the characters. This scene is set in the rule of thirds for are eyes to shift from one character to the other without any distraction. Positioning within a frame can draw our attention to an important character or object. A film maker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people. In ant film colour carries certain connotations which may add meaning to a scene by giving it a look or feel.


Narrative

Structure
From Todorov's theory the equilibrium in this film is at the start when Clarence (Christian Slater) meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette) and finds out she is a call girl but falls in love with her anyway. The recognition is later on when Clarence decides to pick up some of Alabama's clothes but instead kills the pimp and accidentally takes a suitcase full of drugs. The repair, when the two travel to see Clarence's friend Dick to ask him to help them get rid of the drugs by selling it and when there is a massive shooting and Alabama thinks Clarence has died but they both escape. Finally the last scene shows them happy with their own family, the re-equilibrium.
Character types
True Romance shows the 8 character types from Propp's theory. Vincenzo would be the villain as he struggles with the hero which would be Clarence as he reacts to the donor, Elvis who speaks to him and tells him what he should do. Elvis would also be the dispatcher as he sends Clarence in directions to help him. Vincenzo would also be the false hero as he claims and thinks he is the hero. The helper would be Clarence's friend dick as he aids Clarence and tries to help him get out of trouble. Finally Alabama would be the princess and they are in love and eventually get married.