This American classic explores alternatives that might spring from the demented terrain of the California landscape. Sons of a desert-dwelling alcoholic and a suburban wanderer clash over a film script. Austin, the achiever, is working on a script he has sold to producer Sal Kimmer when Lee, a demented petty thief, drops in. He pitches his own idea for a movie to Kimmer, who then wants Austin to junk his bleak, modern love story and write Lee's trashy Western tale.

“True West has... arguably become Shepard's signature piece, the leanest, most pointed of his full-length works.” – David Krasner, A Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama.

“Shepard's masterwork... It tells us a truth, as glimpsed by a 37-year-old genius.” – New York Post

“It's clear, funny, naturalistic. It's also opaque, terrifying, surrealistic. If that sounds contradictory, you're on to one aspect of Shepard's winning genius; the ability to make you think you're watching one thing while at the same time he's presenting another.” – San Francisco Chronicle