I checked out True Romance after watching that scene as I wasn't familiar with the movie and am a late arriving but now fervent fan of Mafia movies (loved The Sopranos). I went to Wikipedia to read about it, and sure enoughQuentin Tarantinoand the director of the movie areaccused of "racism":
The Sicilian scene
Clarence's father, Clifford Worley (Dennis Hopper), is paid an unwelcome visit by Vincent Coccotti (Christopher Walken),
consigliere to a Mafia boss named "Blue" Lou Boyle. Coccotti questions Worley as to the whereabouts of Clarence and the missing narcotics. Clifford realizes during the interrogation that he will be tortured until he gives the information. Apparently to deliberately provoke and enrage Coccotti, ensure a quick death, and protect his son, Worley distorts
Sicilians' background as there was never a Negro invasion of Europe. Worley distorts history on the claim of Sicilian people having
black people's ancestry through the actually caucasion
Moors This speech is the precursor to Worley's death.
According to many film critics, the scene uses exaggerated racist remarks spoken through the charactors, which exposes Tarantino and director Tony Scott of their latent racism.
This scene has been nominated by Tarantino himself (on the
True Romance Unrated Director's Cut DVD commentary) as one of his proudest moments.
"I had heard that whole speech about the Sicilians a long time ago, from a black guy living in my house. One day I was talking with a friend who was Sicilian and I just started telling that speech. And I thought: "Wow, that is a great scene, I gotta remember that."
In an interview with
Mojo magazine in September 2006, Walken commented on his genuine friendship with Hopper implying that this helped create the warmth that exists between the otherwise antipathetic characters. "We really like each other, but I kill him anyway." He also expressed admiration for the Tarantino dialogue which was too good to improvise around, instead being delivered meticulously as scripted.
On an episode of
Inside the Actors Studio, Hopper was questioned by one of the film students if "the Sicilian scene" was scripted or
improvised. After laughing for a moment, Hopper replied that the scene was mostly done as scripted, and the only part that was improvised was the "eggplant" and "cantaloupe" remarks.
This scene has been
colloquially named
the Sicilian scene and become a cult favorite - and is included in Tarantino's original script.<SUP =reference id=cite_ref-5>
[6]</SUP> The dialogue from the scene can be found in
wikiquote.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Romance