Drexl Spivey: The Savage Animal of 1993's TRUE ROMANCE

During the motel scene, Drexl begins the conversation with a vulgar comment, showing his and his company’s topic of choice as they eat Chinese food and make a drug deal. Only Tarantino could write dialogue about going down on a chick like he does.  

He actually wrote the screenplay with the motel scene to appear right after the opening credits. Director Tony Scott reorganized the story when he became involved. Similar to Reservoir Dogs intro about Madonna and her song, Like a Virgin, which Mr. Brown, played by Tarantino himself, alleges its lyrics are about a man with a big penis who stretches out a whore, Drexl, and the others were to begin the movie here in the same fashion. Pulp Fiction broke that streak with Pumpkin and Honey Bunny’s diner conversation about race and robbery. 

True Romance 1993

But sex comes up later just before Jules and Vincent enter the apartment to get the briefcase. Much of Tarantino’s early filmography uses similar themes and scenes, and dialogue because he wrote them around the same time. And it’s safe to say that sex was surely on his mind. 

Here, Drexl uses the sex talk to fool one of the drug dealers into letting his guard down. And this is when we not only see Oldman’s fluidity as an actor but also of Drexl’s scheming as a character. He quickly dispatches both dealers, one of whom is Sam Jackson in a brief cameo, and a dog, too. Only in the director’s cut do we see the dog, though.  

Drexl’s strategy to take advantage of the situation is important because we’ll see him do this again during the party scene, and then we’ll see Clarence incorporate his own scheming throughout the story. But I’ll get into that in the next section.  

Along with being violent, Drexl is arrogant and a strategist, a manipulator of everyone around him. If he can deceive coke dealers, then he can easily scheme against a comic book nerd on his own turf. Or so he thinks. 

I know fans of True Romance typically point out the Sicilian scene with Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken as their favorite. My favorite is the party scene with Drexl. It allows for Drexl’s character to shine through Oldman's great acting and Tarantino’s excellent dialogue.  

Before Clarence enters the house, the audience knows something is rotten in Denmark because of the red lights shining through the windows. It’s a whore house run by drug-dealing pimps, and they’re not afraid to highlight it. They even have hookers dancing and offering their services to passers-by. There’s a pimp wearing a mink coat there to make sure his hoes do their jobs. 

So, there’s certainly a braggadocios vibe going on here. They’re flashing their lifestyle to the world. They’re untouchable. At least they think they are. That is, until the trick who just married a prostitute after knowing her for one day shows up to avenge her honor. This guy literally wife’d up a whore, and now he’s gonna kill for her. 

True Romance 1993

When we first see Drexl in this scene, he’s eating Chinese food alone on a tiger print couch. The story symbolizes him as an apex predator. His robe is a leopard print. He wears two necklaces: one with a single, large talon and the other with several smaller talons. Talons, of course, are from birds of prey, like hawks or eagles, and are used to grab and stab their live food. 

His massive scar tells of a past horrible scuffle. It left him disfigured with a badly damaged eye. He’s been around the block, this guy. He’s likely done prison time and hurt people along the way. So, Clarence is about to confront, on a turf not his own, not just a pimp who sells women for cash, but a violent, battle-hardened psychopath.  

When Marty brings Clarence before Drexl, Drexl refers to Alabama as a bitch and goes further with his insult by implying that knowing Alabama makes them family, which is a slick dig that he had known her sexually, and is also another symbolic moment that suggests Drexl and Clarence’s connection as characters. 

After Clarence refuses to sit and eat with Drexl, Drexl turns up the aggression. Drexl takes the rejection as a rightful insult and immediately calls out Clarence for his obvious disrespect towards Drexl’s hospitality in sharing the Chinese food with him.

He tells of his ability to sniff out the weak, of which he assumes Clarence is. And the playful throwing of the ceiling light towards Clarence is just the start of Drexl’s violence towards Clarence.  

But what Drexl didn’t expect was Clarence’s smartass ways, too. Like Drexl, Clarence plays a game before he intends to unleash his anger at Drexl. He gives him an empty envelope. Now, with that insult, Drexl knows what his next step must be. They fight brutally, with Drexl and Marty winning, for a moment. Drexl sits atop Clarence in dominance and laughingly suggests he’ll keep Clarence sexually busy while Marty returns with Alabama.  

Drexl represents more than just a Detroit pimp. He's really the most savage villain of Tarantino's entire repertoire.

The Creative Genius of Wes Craven's NEW NIGHTMARE

Audiences just weren't ready for New Nightmare when it was released in 1994.

Viewers had expected a beat-by-beat continuation of the Nightmare saga like they had seen many times before. Sometimes that worked, but many times it didn't. 

Wes Craven's New Nightmare 1994

After a while, you realize that killing off Freddy doesn't work, which makes the series redundant and an overall insult to your intelligence. 

It can't help but tire itself out. That's why they chose Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare as a title in one entry. New Line Cinema was smart in that regard. They knew the Elm Street saga was hanging on to dear life, and it was time to mercy kill it.

But obvious now, in retrospect, that Craven's intention from the beginning was to treat the Elm Street movies as a one-off. They were never meant to go that way. That was just pure corporatism milking the franchise to make money and pay the bills.

That philosophy worked in the 1980s because slashers were huge back then. 

But again, according to the only person that matters in this conversation--WES CRAVEN--the goal was to end the Freddy story with Nancy in the 1984 film. Craven knew that Freddy's return would only dilute his presence. 

The only way to bring back Freddy in a realistic way, without the tropes and dullness that sequels bring, was to go full META.

That's ingenious on Craven's part. I know fans respect and adore Craven for his talents as a filmmaker, but Craven really was a creative genius storyteller. Expert-level writers and directors like him don't just grow on trees. They're one in a million. Craven was that one.

But there's a problem with meta--it only works once. 

Metafiction is unique because it provides a perspective that's unusual for the viewer. Audiences aren't accustomed to experiencing a story that acknowledges itself as the story is being told to the viewer. Meta can be a thrill ride if it's done correctly. But once it's performed, any sequels will be forced to increase the meta level or abandon it. 

Craven knows meta only works once. That's why his involvement with the Elm Street series was limited, as compared to the Scream series. He knew the Scream series was more bankable because it was light meta. It was more understandable meta. It wasn't as complicated to follow as New Nightmare. 

Craven learned from New Nightmare's lack of box office success that he shouldn't overdo the self-awareness of Scream, which worked, and allowed for the series to thrive as a massive franchise.

Wes Craven

Craven's intentions with the Elm Street saga were to end it quickly with no sequels.

New Nightmare comments on the effects of horror movies on it's audiences. There's a blatant message in New Nightmare. Scream's message is more diluted. Not as strong or obvious, and because of its watered-down subtext, Scream actually prospers for it. 

New Nightmare is the end of the Freddy story. The film trades the Freddy character for the overall message of the film. That's why the Freddy character is hardly in the film. He's a backdrop for what Craven wants to say about horror movies. That message was his true intention from the onset.

The real problem that awaits the Elm Street saga is what story will they do next? 

Every possible angle has been used and analyzed. Will studios go the meta route or not? Craven boxed everyone else out of the Elm Street saga with New Nightmare. He excluded them from continuing the Freddy character in any way other than just simple routine stories.