True Romance – The Quentin Tarantino Cut

Maybe not the slickest fan-edit out there but I've been waiting to watch True Romance in its proper, originally written sequence ever since reading about how Tony Scott altered the screenplay, and this version plays out events much more tantalizingly, as per QT's wonted way. Filling in the narrative blanks to involve the audience in the plot is half the fun now, and this sits much better next to the rest of Tarantino's early oeuvre. The one thing I'll say in Scott's defense -- he was right about the ending, this one is a stone cold bummer and I wanted to see our heroes go off to their island paradise. (Maybe a future editing project for some ambitious fellow optimist?)

The original was great and this edit brings an interesting take closer to the original script which, for me, makes it a must-watch for any Taratino fan. True, the quality of the deleted scenes is not of the best but the edit flows perfectly, the cut uses an alternative ending that was on the script, and the fact that the shot it gives you enough clues of how different the two movies really are. In order to match the downwards tone, perhaps this cut would have benefit of some alternative soundtrack.

I thought this edit was alright. I prefer the cinema cut as I don't see why we need an out-of-order structure, as it works better chronologically. The deleted scenes were obvious due to the audio quality and the alternate ending sucks (even Tarantino said it was for the better that they changed it)! As for if you should watch it, it depends. If you want the good ending, then don't watch it. If you want the bad ending, then watch it.

I am a big fan of the original. This was a cool way of seeing it in a new light. The deleted scenes are not of the highest quality but I did not find it to be a big deal. Very enjoyable take on a great movie.

Review by joebshmoe — April 1, 2009 @ 1:55 pm

(regarding the DVD…)

Enjoyable. Not an improvement to the original, but a great fanedit idea. It was fun to see the movie as Quentin intended, but I like the chronological unrated version.

Also, I think this could have been executed a bit better (cuts, fades, a video anomaly as Alabama runs to Clarence after the shootout).

I will disagree with Boon on most of his quality comments, tho. Reading his review would lead one to believe that this is riddled with errors, when I was only distracted a few times by editing and not a single time by audio issues. Of course, when using deleted scenes, quality is not expected to be perfect. Also, I can sit through a VHS workprint happily, so perhaps my standards are too low, LOL

This edit succeeds in its goal of preserving Quentin’s screenplay and is a good watch. I would, however, rather have a chronological extended version of “True Romance” – or perhaps a true fanedit ;)

Thank you, blueyoda!

entertainment 7/10
fanediting 8/10
video 8/10
audio 8/10
original 8/10
fanedit 8/10 (perhaps slightly less than the original…)

total 8/10