A friend had introduced me to “Reservoir Dogs” soon after it came out on video and I quickly became a Tarantino junkie. When I found out that “True Romance“, a movie he’d written but not directed was coming out, I was pretty pumped to go see it.
The release of this movie happened to coincide with me being introduced to a rather nice young woman by mutual friends. As these things go, I asked her to a movie but somewhat selfishly, decided that I really wanted to see “True Romance” so I suggested that this be the movie we go see. She hadn’t heard of the film or Tarantino or “Reservoir Dogs” so agreed. I mean, to her the title had “Romance” in it and it started Christian Slater who’d been in “The Legend of Billie Jean” and “Young Guns II” – how bad could it be?
I picked her up and while waiting for her to get ready, checked out her movie collection. She had a VHS copy of every Disney movie ever released and really, not much else. “Oh-oh” I remember thinking. But I was *really* excited to see the Tarantino film and the thought of doing a quick switch to a different film didn’t even cross my mind.
Well, you can imagine how things went. The film about a young couple (one a comic store loser, one a hooker who his boss hires for him as a birthday present) who accidentally end up in possession of a suitcase full of cocaine. It contains all the elements of the best (you may choose to put that word in quotes, depending on your personal taste – I know she would’ve) elements of a Tarantino movie – violence, dark humour, pop culture references, a wicked soundtrack. One scene where a mobster ends up beating the hooker (who’d been left in the room while her boyfriend goes to get ice cream!
) was so disturbing that I was cringing in my seat (and not just because I was on a first date with a Disney chick sitting beside me!)The movie ended, I took her home and we parted ways. Believe it or not, I think we may have seen each other a few more times after that although honestly, I think the magic was gone about two minutes into the movie where it became clear that this movie wasn’t anywhere near “The Lady and The Tramp” but would be a really intense version of “The Loser and The Tramp”.
TL;DR: For a first date, I took a huge Disney Fangirl to a Movie That Ranks Near The Top of “Films That Most Frequently Use The Word ‘Fuck‘” right up there with “Eddie Murphy: Raw” and “The Departed”.
Oh, and the movie also features perhaps the greatest scene of dialogue in the history of film between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper…
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