True Romance Scene versus a Taxi Driver Scene

Okay Didn’t notice this first time around, but still worth noting:

Taxi Driver: Robert DeNiro is in the Diner with Odie Foster’s Character and she puts a huge amount of sugar on her jelly toast and does it very blatantly.



True Romance: Clarence in a diner with Alabama and he proceeds to pour a massive amount of sugar in his coffee and does it very noticably

Just a thought because QT has mentioned his love of Taxi Driver

[quote]Okay Didn’t notice this first time around, but still worth noting:

Taxi Driver: Robert DeNiro is in the Diner with Odie Foster’s Character and she puts a huge amount of sugar on her jelly toast and does it very blatantly.



True Romance: Clarence in a diner with Alabama and he proceeds to pour a massive amount of sugar in his coffee and does it very noticably

Just a thought because QT has mentioned his love of Taxi Driver[/quote]

I think True Romance was definitely inspired by Taxi Driver. The whole Clarence going to kill Drexl part is like Travis going to kill Iris’ pimps in Taxi Driver. Clarence even wears a army jacket just like Travis in Taxi Driver.

Yeah, there’s definitely something there. I always thought of Clarence as how Travis would be if he wasn’t such a crazy motherfucker, and maybe hooked up with Betsy. Well, as far as the relationship angle of the story is concerned. Just a normal, somewhat shy guy in love. Later.



M.W.



P.S. Taxi Driver is my favorite movie of all time. What’s my #2? True Romance.

yeah the army jacket, definitely

[quote]


I think True Romance was definitely inspired by Taxi Driver. The whole Clarence going to kill Drexl part is like Travis going to kill Iris’ pimps in Taxi Driver. Clarence even wears a army jacket just like Travis in Taxi Driver.

[/quote]

Holy crap. How come I never thought of that ? Taxi Driver is one of my all time favorites. I dig this new knowledge.

I noticed this a while back but never posted it. It’s an extremely small connection, but it’s interesting nonetheless. In the original script to “True Romance”, as Clarence segways (sp?) into the “CLARENCE & ALABAMA” sequence, Clarence asks Dick if he “remembers the Lyric”. The Lyric movie theater is the theater where Clarence watches the Sonny Chiba triple feature. It is also the name of the theater Travis takes Betsy to on their date (the whole porn movie fiasco). Later.



M.W.



P.S. As a side note, in “Taxi Driver”, Iris’ dad’s name is Burt Steensma (as indicated by the letter Iris’ family sends to Travis in gratitude of his actions toward their daughter). This is also the name of the would-have-been judge in “Natural Born Killers”. That is, if Oliver Stone hadn’t fucked with the script. You can still read the original. Tarantino’s Judge Burt Steinsma appears during the “American Maniacs” sequence.



P.S.S. An even more vague referece: In Jim McBride’s remake of Jean Luc Godard’s “Breathless” (starring Richard Gere), one of the crew members’ name is MICKEY KNOX. I don’t know if this is where QT got this name from, but I know McBride’s “Breathless” was a huge influence on “True Romance”, which, as we all know, started as a huge script called “The Open Road”, whoch featured elements of all of QT’s earliest scripts. I know it’s not lifted from “My Best Friend’s Wedding”, because, from what I’ve read, Mickey’s last name in that film was Burnett or Burkett. That’s all.

[quote]  ÂÂ



P.S.S. An even more vague referece: In Jim McBride’s remake of Jean Luc Godard’s “Breathless” (starring Richard Gere), one of the crew members’ name is MICKEY KNOX.  I don’t know if this is where QT got this name from, but I know McBride’s “Breathless” was a huge influence on “True Romance”, which, as we all know, started as a huge script called “The Open Road”, whoch featured elements of all of QT’s earliest scripts.  I know it’s not lifted from “My Best Friend’s Wedding”, because, from what I’ve read, Mickey’s last name in that film was Burnett or Burkett.  That’s all.[/quote]

Now that you mention it, Ive seen Mickey Knox’s name on several films.

I think its fair to say Taxi Driver was a huge influence on this film. QT always draws some from his favorite, such as Badlands for NBK. I would be surprised if it didn’t come from Taxi Driver.





Spoiler:



On Mickey, a notable reference is in Scream, where one of the Killers is named Mickey and thinks he can get away with murder by blaming it on the media.

I just watched “Taxi Driver” for the umpteenth time last night and noticed that Travis tells the Secret Service agent that his last name in Krinkle. “Krinkle” is the name of the police captain in “True Romance” (Nicholson [Tom Sizemore] and Dimes’ [Chris Penn] boss). The connections keep comin’!



M.W.

the whole movie is a hommage to taxi driver. dozens of such clues

Speaking of Tarantino/Scorsese influences, look at the similarities between these…







I know QT probably had nothing to do with the cover for this but do you think it’s a coincidence?

[quote]Speaking of Tarantino/Scorsese influences, look at the similarities between these…

I know QT probably had nothing to do with the cover for this but do you think it’s a coincidence?[/quote]

  1. This is about the similarities between TRUE ROMANCE and TAXI DRIVER
  2. Natural Born Killers isnt a QT film, its an Oliver Stone piece of shit film based on QT’s original story.
  3. Comparing Taxi Driver to Natural Born Killers is like comparing Champagne to Piss. It dont belong together.

jeez sorry

Maybe Mr. Brown was off topic, but the two posters are big time similar tho! I haven’t noticed it!

yeah it’s a cool similiarity there.



would’ve been cool if the TR DVD would’ve looked like the Taxi Driver one

Maybe it’s a hommage from Oliver Stone to his teacher and mentor Martin Scorsese. Too bad he cannot stand up to the best of the best!

true romance is a huge homage/reference to taxi driver.

besides the similarities with some names and the army jacket, the plotline relates to that of taxi driver.



a guy makes it his mission to protect a prostitute (or call girl) by killing her pimp. in both films that guy gets pretty beaten up by his targets, takes out a fat supporting character in the process, and is thanked for his actions later on.



where this happens at the end of taxi driver, it pretty much opens the story up for true romance. the two are extremely similar

If QT had directed True Romance, what do you think the odds would have been of him casting Harvey Keitel as Drexl instead of Gary Oldman?



But yah, I love both movies. Too bad Clarence’s transformation from relatively shy, awkward protagonist to protector and hero wasn’t a fraction as deep as DeNiro’s transformation. Of course, its ultimately forgivable since QT was trying to tell a much grander story.

i agree. this movie, unlike taxi driver, wasn’t about the transformation, it was about the result of the transfromation. They both worked well for what they were trying to say. :’(

in the TRue Romance script I believe Clarence has a vision of Drexl trying to sell Alabama to a john, and in the script Drexl says the SAME exact thing Harvey Keitel says to DeNiro in Taxi Driver…something the ways of, “You can cum in her mouth, you can cum in her ass, you can cum all over her” or something.