Pulp Fiction

While Quentin Tarantino as a director has become pretty iconic for creating several popular films that have stood the test of time both for their allusions to classic cinema tropes, and for his own unique style, Pulp Fiction usually stays at the top of everybody’s list as their favourite. Even though he had drawn attention to himself with his previous film, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction (despite only being his second film) proved that he would be a game-changing director, mixing grisly realistic violence with overly comical styles of silliness, while also being a talented, interesting, and well-crafted film. Told out of chronological order, the film connects four stories that all involving various crazy individuals trying to obtain something desirable which seems to the be the content of a specific briefcase. One follows two mob hit men named Vincent and Jules (played by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson) that are trying to take said briefcase to their boss, another follows a threatening mysterious mob boss named Marsellus Wallace (played by Ving Rhames) and an insane aggressive boxer named Butch Coolidge (played by Bruce Willis) who have been kidnapped by a crazed shop owner and his gimp, a seductive coke-head spouse of Marsellus named Mia Wallace (played by Uma Thurman) needs to be saved by Vincent after suffering an overdose, and two diner bandits named Ringo and Yolanda (played by Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer) try to shoot up a diner in order to obtain the briefcase from the two hit men. The stories escalate as the situations get even more violent, scarier, and especially more ridiculous, involving mess-ups like hostile interrogations, violent hostage situations involving sex trades, and a full-on convenient store hold-up all for the contents of said illusive briefcase. Being a critical and commercial success that got a lot of nominations at the Academy Awards (including Best Picture), Pulp Fiction cemented Tarantino’s style, tone, and attitude for the rest of his work, all the while showcasing one of his best films.

Being a movie that is meant to refer to pulp magazines and hardboilded crime novellas of the era that featured extreme graphic violence and punchy dialogue, Tarantino packed the film full of quirks and oddities that would later become commonplace in his films, allowing it to act as a culmination of all the great qualities of his work. While Reservoir Dogs gave a hint to his style, it didn’t have the same electric personality that this film does. It honestly makes for a really engaging experienced where the balancing of tones makes it hard to determine whether or not you have to laugh, scream or both and all those options feel perfectly valid. The tone is delightfully insane and comical, but also bloody and dripping in realistic intensity, and due to the nonlinear nature of the narrative, you have zero idea what to expect. The film is very well paced between each section, having the perfect amount for each story line and each is cleverly connected between the cast members occasionally popping up between each portion, which results in this anthology-like film operating like a strong novel with diverging and altering perspectives while stilling taking place in one moment in time.  At times, it can be a little too illusive and leave certain things up in the air when some context would’ve been appreciated, but for the most part, that isn’t an issue and everything around the handling of the briefcase is the perfect dose of unknown. Acting as the McGuffin of the film, even though it’s never shown what it contains, how much people pine after it is a strong enough indicator for audiences to know how important it is. The only time the nonlinear storytelling and vagueness of the narrative is a problem is with the film’s ending. Without giving anything away, an earlier scene establishes an outcome that people are expecting to have paid off come the end of the film, but when that scene comes to pass, nothing happens, and that earlier outcome is downright disregarded. Whether it’s up for interpretation or not, it just feels like the movie pulls a 180, but not in a clever way that makes the scene have a different perspective or any deeper meaning, rather it just decides to not do what it said it was going to do. It doesn’t ruin anything, but it is the one time its out-of-box story presentation feels a little wonky. Also, the segment involving kidnapping the mob boss and the boxer, while having a great opening, great acting all around, and a strong ending, isn’t as good as the other storylines. It feels more dragged out and is not as humorous or as bizarre as the other stories, leading to an experience that feels different than the others, and not in the best kind of way.

The whole film makes it clear from the start that the focus isn’t on the story itself, but rather the characters and the relationships that are shared between them. This whole film seems to like the dynamic of duos, coupling two or more people in every new scene to watch the interactions, see how they can strike a chord and develop a relationship in only a few minutes, and this leads to a lot of great lines, great acting moments, and all-around memorable scenes. Each actor is perfectly cast for this film, every character is portrayed exactly how they should be portrayed for the exact amount of time necessary, and it results in a lot of memorable and iconic moments that allows each actor the chance to shine. It helped to escalate a lot of careers of the people that were featured in this movies and allowed them to essentially run loose with their comedic talents and showcase how they can be equally as threatening and crazed as they can be pretty funny Travolta’s does a good job as essentially the main lead for the film, Samuel L Jackson has become legendary for his portion of the story with his lines and exaggerated delivery, and both he and Travolta have very solid chemistry together and have the ability to make even rambling dialogue sound perfectly acceptable within the context of the story, Harvey Keitel gets some entertaining moments as this ”cleaner” who assists people with dumping and covering up certain killings, Christopher Walken’s bit-part is amazing and despite being relatively pointless, stands as one of the most memorable parts of the film, Uma Thurman does great in the little time she has, Bruce Willis comes off as both cool and psychotic like he usually does in most of his roles, Ving Rhames is both domineering and entertaining; they all have their own moments to shine equally in this film as there is no true main character which allows for more variations and it stops the film very ever getting dull.

The soundtrack gives a lot of personality to the film, giving the environment a sense of surfer-style and bombastic atmosphere to the world that the film inhabits, and it has fun with that by creating a world that feels as equally timeless as it is seeped in postmodernism. It never becomes a serious crime story or thriller as the film would lose the audience when it features something ridiculous, but it never goes to goofy either to the point that it takes people out of the more serious moments. It does what Tarantino does best and blends the strange and off-beat with cruel reality expertly that might not be the deepest or complex but doesn’t feel like its plain madness either. The film is shot very intimately by Andrzej Sekuła, having various examples of personal shots, getting us closer to the characters, making you feel the intensity or hilarity of the scene you are in even more. It brings an almost independent vibe to the story that assists the almost exploitative violence, deranged characters, and off-the-walls dialogue, but it doesn’t feel cheap or mindless, everything feels like an intentional choice. It never tries to show off, it knows that the rest of the movie will be enough. The script is very fast and energetic, always moving from one conversation to another in quick succession, allowing the actor’s charm to come through with how realistically and passionately they say their lines. Assisted by Roger Avery when writing the story that originally started as a short, the movie could’ve function well in that format but thankfully isn’t lacking in content, so it doesn’t feel like an extended short in any way. Going through the film, many lines and entire scenes can be cut from this film as not many take time to develop the main issues or story, but they are so full of personality and flow so well into conversations that you just want to keep listening to them.

Pulp Fiction has all the attributes of Tarantino’s masterpieces, and this was a masterful way at evolving his unique style of filmmaking with the perfect mixture of tones and concepts. The black comedic tone fits well with the constantly moving and fast-paced world, the characters are all engaging and effective, pushing forward the story piece by piece, the soundtrack creates some surreal moments of bliss one moment, then rushed heart-beating intensity the next, no piece of dialogue is wasted, and it is packed with great performance from everyone. It might not be able to reach everybody as some sections aren’t as strong and the ending isn’t going to leave you feeling satisfied, but if you like Tarantino, you’ll like this film plain and simple. Quotable as anything, but also stylish and gritty, this one is a real royal treat.