While he is currently riding high tides of fame (and also criticism, somehow) for his tremendous contribution to the Western genre, Kevin Costner is also incredibly famous for starring in some of the best action thrillers of all time. One of these – although critics would argue its being even considered anything close to good – was his 1990 thriller-action by Tony Scott, Revenge.
Though it was met with mixed reviews from both fans and critics and may not be regarded as one of Costner’s best pieces to date – except by his dedicated fanbase – the film felt like a darker version of the 1986 masterpiece Top Gun nonetheless. That’s not all; it even went ahead to inspire what is regarded as Quentin Tarantino’s best movie: 1993’s crime-romance True Romance.
Kevin Costner’s Revenge – A Darker Version of Top Gun
Back in 1990, Kevin Costner undertook a project that wasn’t his usual type but was still an interesting piece of work nonetheless. This project was Revenge, an action thriller featuring the story of Costner’s Michael J. “Jay” Cochran, a cocky American fighter pilot, who falls in love with his Mexican crime lord friend’s wife (Madeleine Stowe), obviously landing themselves in trouble.
This film was received with mixed critical reviews and couldn’t even fare its budget back from its box office run. But that didn’t stop it from getting deemed by many as what felt like a darker version of Top Gun. This is because Jay shares a lot of features with Tony Scott‘s 1986 film’s protagonist, who is quite literally defined in the early lines of the film by one of his superiors as:
Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.
Just like Maverick, Jay also comes off as an egoistical pilot in the background of a movie that feels like a sports film in disguise, who progresses his love & lust affair with his friend’s wife despite the deafening warning bells ringing in his conscience.
Of course, not paying attention to all the warnings issued to him doesn’t end well, neither for Costner’s character nor for Stowe’s Miryea.
But amidst all these similarities in their personalities, there were differences as well. Like, unlike Maverick, who ends up with more of a personal victory despite not winning the Top Gun trophy, Jay is left for the dead in the end – perhaps something that stemmed from Scott’s moral responsibility of allowing Maverick’s recklessness to be acceptable from his previous movie.
All of this being said, of course, this film didn’t hesitate to portray its protagonist as what felt like a brazen yet doomed version of Maverick, whose story doesn’t get any less tragic with each passing minute from the moment he decides to let his love and lust take over his senses. At the same time, while critics panned this piece, it ended up inspiring Quentin Tarantino‘s best work.
How This Darker Version of Top Gun Inspired True Romance
On Rotten Tomatoes alone, the 1990 film holds a rotten 30% critical rating on the Tomatometer coupled with a 54% audience score on the Popcornmeter. And yet, Tarantino was among the part of the fanbase that actually liked the piece for the dark take that it was. That’s not all; the filmmaker also confessed he brought Scott on board to helm True Romance for the very same reason!
According to what the Inglorious Basterds director confessed in a 2003 interview with the Tampa Bay Times:
I’m a huge fan of that movie. In fact, that was the reason I was supportive and really tried to make it happen that Tony directed True Romance. I was like, I want the man who did Revenge to do my movie.
That was that, and Tony Scott was brought forward to tame Tarantino’s crime-romance from 1993. The rest, after that, was history, as the film went on to become a massive critical success with an equally shining 93% rating on both critics’ consensus as well as fans’ scores on Rotten Tomatoes. To date, the masterpiece ranks as one of both Tarantino and Scott’s best works of all time.
Both Revenge and True Romance can currently be streamed on Prime Video.
