Quentin Tarantino even now is still able to
whip up a hard edged and very violent film with well written characters and with
interesting intertwining story lines along the way.
His first attempt at this was with True Romance. So impressive was this script that
a truckload of "names" nabbed all the main roles, Christian Slater, Dennis
Hopper, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt. The list goes on. It's not
every day you can score such a cast. The premise of
the story is surprisingly simple and at first glance you'd think who the hell would care
about a film like this
Clarence Worley(Christian Slater) works in a comic book store is obsessed with Elvis
(layed here as his ghostly mentor (Val Kilmer) and on every birthday goes to the movies to
watch his favourite kung-fu movies. As fate would have it, a southern gal by the
name of Alabama(sexy Patricia Arquette) literally bumps into him at the theatre. The
two proceed to a diner and have some pie as they spill their live stories to one and
other, they then go back to Clarence's place, where they instantly fall in love with each
other (well actually after they have a root:).
Alabama feeling guilty, drops the charade and tells Clarence she's a call girl (his third
client) and that she's in love with him just the same. Clarence tells her he loves
her also, so the next day they get married.
Alabama's pimp Dryxel (Gary Oldman) a white man who thinks he's a black man is none too
impressed with the disappearance of His beloved callgirl Alabama, and is killed by
Clarence when Clarence confronts him at Dryxel's nightclub. Clarence mistakenly
grabs a suitcase thought to be Bama's but it turns out to be a nice fat bag of uncut
cocaine.
Wanting to get away from the Detroit Scene, the two lovers
hike it to LA where an actor friend of Clarence's lives.
The plan is to get Clarence's friend to hook him up with his movie buddies to flog off the
cocaine at a cheap price so he and Bama can got live in Mexico.
Plans don't always go 'according to plan' though do they.
So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
Like the USA release this is the Director's cut of True Romance, yet unlike the USA
version ours is anamorphic!!!!
Presented in the original theatrical aspect of 2.35:1, this transfer is quite good, though
shows some grain and lacks detail in a few spots here and there.
The look of the film is a little inconsistent throughout, some scenes are very well lit
and very sharp, yet others are dark, and often soft in focus. At any rate, the film
looks appropriately gritty, not in anyway glossy and prettied up.......
Having access to the region 1 version showed our region 4 version to be quite superior in
picture quality. Though apparently taken from a 4x3 letterboxed transfer and bumped
upped for 16:9 Enhancement, there is still quite an improvement. Overall there is
less grain (faces look a lot smoother), the image is sharper, better colour saturation,
and the black level is a bit higher, (so you can see a little more detail). Our
region 4 version simply looks more filmlike...not perfect, but better than the NTSC
release at any rate.
Video Highlights
Ch 6 13:33 - 14:04 - Bama's confession
Ch 15 61:43 - 62:05 Elliot and Clarence talk business
Ch 23 106:53 - 107:40 bloody eye
As for the Audio, this was released theatrically in Dolby
SR, and given this analogue based, is very dynamic. The front soundstage is nice and
open, and the music simply kicks arse throughout (a great music selection on offer
here!!). You'll notice a nice amount of the mix is sent to the surrounds, nothing
heavy, but not at all flat sounding. I did find the region 1 mix to be a touch more
forward with a little more aggression and.Being an older mix, I found myself increasing
the volume up a few notches (plus the quirky caribeen beat Hans Zimmer has mixed in with
his music sounds even better this way)
Audio Highlights
Ch 2 5:52 - 6:11 Clap of thunder in cinema
Ch 6 17:36 - 17:42 getting a tatoo
Ch 23 105:20 the shootout
There aren't a great deal of extras on offer (then again
everything pales in comparison to The Matrix
goodies :-), the menus all feature music from the film (recorded a bit louder than normal,
but still very clear with no distortion), cast and crew bios, an interview driven
Featurette, theatrical trailer, movie trivia (I like this inclusion a lot), 2 trailers for
other Tarantino films, and the very nice Dolby Temple Trailer (this is the analogue
trailer designed for Dolby SR playback in cinemas). As with the later extras present
on Roadshow DVDs, these are also 16:9 Enhanced and framed (though originally 4x3 framed).
Maybe its me but the look/clarity of these extras appears to be an improvement over
previous attempts at taking a 4x3 framed picture and making it fit a 16:9 image....
Definitely not for the faint hearted, this is still a very
cool film and this region 4 release is the one to go for on DVD
| PICTURE QUALITY |
7/10 a little grain here and there, but
not too bad |
| SOUND QUALITY |
7/10 very dynamic for a stereo surround
mix |
| FEATURES |
6/10 a few goodies here |
Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717 (using RGB outputs)
Receiver: Marantz SR870 & Sony SDP-EP9ES
Speakers:-
Fronts: B&W 602
Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
Rears: Jamo Magic 14
Subby: M&K V125
- Reviewed 6th December 1999
|
