True Romance is a 1993 American romantic (romance film) crime film written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. It stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette with an ensemble cast.

The title and plot is a play on the titles (list of romance comics) of romance comic (Romance comics in the United States (1946-1975)) books with their overwrought love stories?very popular in earlier decades?such as "True Life Secrets," "True Stories of Romance", "Romance Tales," "Untamed Love" and "Strange Love."

True Romance was a breakthrough of sorts for Tarantino. It was his first screenplay for a major motion picture. He had hoped to direct the film himself, but ended up selling the script.

Also notable is the films score by Hans Zimmer with a theme based on Gassenhauer from Carl Orffs Schulwerk. This theme combined with a voiceover spoken by Arquette is Tarantinos homage to Terrence Malicks 1973 crime movie Badlands (Badlands (film)), in which Sissy Spacek speaks the voiceover, and that also shares similar dramatic motifs.