Quentin Tarantino discusses his only “romantic” movie
It’s fair to say that throughout his extraordinary career spanning three decades of excellence, Quentin Tarantino has never shied away from on-screen violence and has, in fact, made blood and gore and acts of barbarous depravity part of his entire narrative and aesthetic.
Tarantino simply loves violence, and he loves to depict it on-screen even more, leading to criticism of over-gratuitousness coming his way over the years. Whether in the iconic cutting of the ear scene in Reservoir Dogs, the severing of limbs in Kill Bill, or the scalping of Nazi soldiers in Inglorious Basterds, one thing has always been certain with Tarantino, he champions brutality in the most artistic of means.
While Tarantino’s movies certainly include some of the most shockingly violent moments of contemporary cinema, the director himself believes that he has a soft spot. Tarantino famously admitted to loving the romantic comedy genre, and he once pointed out the fact that he himself had made a love story.
“I have done love stories; they’ve just been in my other movies,” Tarantino once told MTV. “True Romance’s title was not ironic. Sure, James Gandolfini almost beats Patricia Arquette to death, and she has to blow him away with a shotgun, but that doesn’t mean it’s not romantic. It just has to be done my way, and I think people want me to do it my way.”
True Romance was released in 1993, written by Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater play a pair of newlyweds as they evade the mafia after stealing a shipment of drugs. While True Romance definitely toys with romance, as the title suggests, one could extend the sentiment to Natural Born Killers, which Tarantino also wrote and sees a criminal romantic relationship blossom.
While Tarantino certainly thinks he’s taken on the romantic genre at least once, he believes that pretty much his entire filmography could be placed in the comedy category. “All of my movies are really funny,” he once told Entertainment Tonight. “I’ll put my comedies against anybody’s out there laugh-for-laugh.”
He added, “I think they’re really funny. You mean, like, Pulp Fiction, which belongs in the comedy section? I mean, there’s not really a dramatic moment in Pulp Fiction. They’re a little dramatic, but they’re more outrageous. And I still think they’re funny anyway, with comedy elements in it.”
Check out the trailer for True Romance below.
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