"True West" is the story of two brothers who attempt to work out the details of their sibling rivalry while drinking an astronomical amount of alcohol in their mother's kitchen. John Malkovich and Gary Sinise's performances are amazing. They both exude just the right amounts of personality into their characters to make their characters ten times more believable. Besides the fact that the budget for the production of "True West" seems to have been utterly sparse, Malkovich and Sinise use the resources they have available to them and make the audience almost forget that many of the scenes take place in a poorly lit kitchen that becomes symbolically even more dirty each seen. The background changes only once where they go outside momentarily but it is hardly any better than the kitchen. Malkovich's character remains static throughout the whole play. .
Austin, played by Sinise, portrays the younger brother who is far more mature, but is confused by his aspirations and what is driving him towards them. The audience really gets a feeling of hard work and success from Sinise as well as an impressive showing of insecurity and uncertainty. Sinise wears glasses the entire production as if to show that he did not even know which direction his life was going throughout the play. .
Malkovich plays the brother of Austin, Lee. Lee the older of the two brothers is a flamboyant, free thinker who would go into the desert for awhile then shows up at his mother's house for more drinks. Malkovich represents Lee to his fullest as a self- centered, mislead, bum who is more concerned with where his next drink might be coming from rather than the people around him. Lee as a person remains the same and it is not him, but everyone around him that changes. It is not Lee who changes when he steals Austin's idea for a movie script; it is Austin that changes. Lee is flamboyant and filled with energy throughout the movie.
