A word of caution to you squirmers: Pulp Fiction has a good amount of profane language, lewd subjects, drug use, violence and gore. If all that makes you a little uncomfortable, I understand, but Pulp Fiction is still one of the best films of the nineties, hands down.
How do you describe a Quentin Tarantino film? Bloody. Lots of memorable dialogue. Great soundtrack. Even better scene transitions. Quirky and foulmouthed characters. With Tarantino’s warped mind and huge chin he can’t be tethered down to make your grandma’s movies. Many grandma’s would be horrified by his films.
Which brings us to Pulp Fiction, one of the most influential films of the nineties that sadly, many people my age didn’t discover until late high school or early college. I wonder today if our parents worried about us getting our hands on this film too early, or worse, too late. I doubt my folks got a babysitter and saw this, they seemed to place an odd taboo on the night they went out to see The Birdcage. In college, when I first started to get into Tarantino films, this and Reservoir Dogs, I was afraid I had missed the boat. Thankfully, Grindhouse and Inglorious Bastards have made up for what I was too young to see in theaters.
Anyway, enough of this idle babble. Pulp Fiction is the stories of interconnected people. There’s two stories about Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta), two mob men working for Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), going around town with guns doing his dirty work. There’s a tale about Vincent taking Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), Marsell’s wife out to dinner. A couple at a coffee shop planning to rob the place. And Butch Coolige (Bruce Willis) is a boxer paid by Wallace to throw a fight, back in his motel room is a sweet little lady named Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) who brings out the sweet side of the boxer.
Now, before you get confused, the story is not told in chronological order. Instead, the film seems to build up to most amount of blood and greatest story of redemption. If you keep that in mind, it may not seem like so much pulp.
One of the best scenes is at the fifties themed restaurant Jack Rabbit Slim’s. Mia has Vincent take her there on their night out. The waiters are dead rock and roll legends, they sit in classic convertibles and drink a five dollar milkshake. As Vincent describes, “it’s like a wax museum with a pulse.” The setting is only icing on the cake. Mia is an odd person, she and Vincent talk but refuse to go on with the typical idle bull. Their conversation is intriguing, engaging and it’s all topped off by Mia entering them in the twist contest. Tarantino knows where to dig for gold, putting Travolta on the dance floor again reminds us of and nearly rivals his moves in Saturday Night Fever.
So who would love this movie? In the beginning paragraph, you can tell who would not love this movie. I don’t think you have to be a diehard Tarantino fanboy to love this, you don’t even have to like any of the actors. The film itself is a little odd, quirky, and unconventional in a very cool way. If you’re not sure, just try it. And don’t watch Pulp Fiction on AMC, seems to be playing twice a day there lately. I understand they need to edit it, but why not just play it late at night when the kiddies should be in bed and us cheap adults who don’t want to pay for Netflix can enjoy the movie as it’s supposed to be: bloody, violent and full of profanity. That’s where you get the best lines.
“Does he look like a bitch? No! Then why you tryin’ to fuck him like a bitch?”
The Best Picture Project 