Film Focus: True Romance

For those of us who came of age in the nineties the love story of Clarence and Alabama was totally irresistible. Patricia Arquette played the call girl with the big heart, syrupy Southern drawl, and, in my teenage brain, seriously enviable wardrobe, and the decade’s teen dream himself, Christian Slater, was Clarence. A killer script dreamt up by Quentin Tarantino, and appearances by a slew of big screen heavyweights, Gary Oldman (with a glass eye and dreads that pre-dated and outshined James Franco’s Spring Breakers look), Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper among them, rounded out this modern Bonnie and Clyde tale. Besides being Clarence’s favorite meal (it’s what he chows down on after offing Alabama’s pimp) the burger is truly classic Americana fare, so we couldn’t think of a more emblematic recipe for True Romance in the current issue of Gather than a big, bloody one doused with homemade spicy ketchup.