Great cast, script, and direction. Tarantino's early writing is really impressive. The overall flaw of each the characters adds a lot of depth and interest in the story. No One is innocent in this story, but we certainly know who to root for.
What did you think?
The one Tarantino movie I’m glad he didn’t direct, Tony Scott did a great job with it, and I prefer the lighter ending over Tarantino's darker vision. Amazing performances all round, especially from Oldman, Hopper, Walken and Patricia Arquette!
shareWalken and Hopper were great.
shareTotally agree, Rio!
shareIt is excellent but there are a couple of niggles for me.
Clarence suddenly goes from a geeky low-status nice guy to an aggressive badass who can handle himself in any situation. There is no explanation for this and Alabama doesn’t seem to notice the personality 180 in the guy she’s just married. I wonder if Tarantino’s scripted version went deeper into Clarence’s psychology.
The film peaks with Walken-Hopper and the second half is not as strong as the first. With Hopper dead and Clarence now a callous criminal there’s nobody really to root for, and the final shootout doesn’t have much dramatic tension, you’re just watching various assholes wipe each other out.
I guess there’s enough residual warmth toward Clarence and Alabama that it’s nice he survives and things end well for them. Again, it would be fascinating to see how Tarantino’s version would have portrayed Clarence, who dies in the script,
well the alternate ending has Alabama cursing Clarence as an asshole for dying, winds up hitchhiking, and i presume falls in love with some other random asshole she just met.
i see Clarence as a wannabe action hero inspired by his love of comics & movies. he just finally has a reason to play into the "hero" role
one deleted scene i liked was Clarence saying "this doesnt feel right, lets leave" (before entering the Donowitz building)... and everyone agrees, turns around to leave..... then he turns back again for the money.
I like the sound of that deleted scene, but again it features a greedy badass criminal Clarence who is unrecognisable from the sweet natured geek we met earlier, and whom Alabama fell in love with.
I increasingly wonder if Tarantino intended for us to loathe/marvel at Clarence & Alabama as we do Mickey & Mallory in Natural Born Killers. Not to the same extent, but to see them as a couple of youths twisted by a perverse culture into a pair of hedonistic maniacs.
Tarantino’s script condemned the pair, but Tony Scott cheers them on 🤦🏻♂️
yeah i hear you. essentially, scarface gets the money, the girl, and family on the beach in Scott's TR. i think thats why clarence needed to die.... and if alabama falls in "love" with another guy that picks her up and calls him "you're so cool". it would show her "true romance" is just superficial.
well lets remember Roger Avary is also a co-writer. i think the closer similar movie is Avary's Killing Zoe. as both are essentially anti-hero hooker love stories. though Zed is a career criminal and allows the insanity of his "friends" with no real push back even when Eric is killing innocent people. Zoe/Zed's relationship is almost a ptsd companionship of saving each other.
the deleted scene was short but:
clarence says something like... im worried about this, i dont want to go to jail, this is our last chance to turn around and alabama says the money would be fun, but we dont need it, lets leave.
i think that scene was a necessity in some self reflection (not just Elvis) and slowing them down from the Charlie Bronson badass-ism that he's pretending to be. it was still probably too little, too late.
Reading about Natural Born Killers it sounds like Oliver Stone also retooled a Tarantino script and made the criminal lovers into more sympathetic characters. Sure, they’re mass murderers but the film takes pains to make them ‘victims’ of an even more despicable system.
It seems directors didn’t have the balls to cast scathing moral judgements on their protagonists the way Tarantino does.
There is no explanation for thisUhhh yes there is. His talks with Elvis. share
This is what I mean though - Alabama falls in love with a sweet natured comics geek, then they get married and suddenly he’s having hallucinations in which Elvis appears and tells him to murder people, which he then does with extreme ruthlessness.
His sudden transformation into a psycho badass isn’t plausible. It needed more setting up, and some kind of reaction from his wife.
I think the whole story is an elaborate daydream Clarence has when he zones out at the comic shop.
shareI agree I love this movie and have seen it several times.
shareyes this is one of my favorite Tarantino films even tho it isnt an official one since he didnt direct it. Pulp Fiction had more action and was bigger movie but this ones story and characters really made this such a treasure. Tarantino is probably my favorite director and this is my favorite piece of art he made
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