Pulp Fiction (1994)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Film Review

"Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things" - Robert Browning's wry observation might well serve as Quentin Tarantino's mission statement.  After making a splash with his stylish debut feature Reservoir Dogs (1992), Tarantino engineered something of a cultural tsunami with his next film, Pulp Fiction, the landmark thriller that was to prove the most influential film of the decade.  As its title implies, the film has its roots in lurid popular crime fiction of the past (most visibly the 1960s and '70s), but instead of simply rehashing the old gangster plots and stereotypes it gives these a new twist to create something excitingly fresh and original.  Pulp Fiction performs a similarly post-modern re-evaluation of the classic gangster film which French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard undertook with his films À bout de souffle (1960) and Pierrot le fou (1965), but whereas Godard's intention was to deconstruct the genre, Tarantino seems to be more interested in developing its limiting conventions, to come up with something that is more pertinent to our own era, an era which has become almost totally desensitised to violence and has increasing difficulty distinguishing right from wrong.

On its first release, Pulp Fiction was especially noted for its extremely graphic portrayal of physical violence, but whilst there is certainly plenty of blood letting this is far nearer to Grand Guignol theatre than realist drama.  What is perhaps more shocking is the film's perverse streak of black humour, and the fact that, in spite of the film's near-the-knuckle brutality, it is hard not to find it hilariously funny.  The smart, punchy dialogue sprays the audience like a hail of bullets from a 1930s gangster film, and once you have got over the shock of the first grisly execution sequence it is nigh on impossible for you to break free of the vicelike hold it exerts over you for the next two hours and fifteen minutes.  Tarantino's masterstroke was to abandon the conventional linear narrative approach and instead present the events making up the three main story strands out of chronological order, ending the film where it begins, like a serpent swallowing its own tail.  Pulp Fiction proves conclusively that a story can make more sense, and have far greater impact, if its events are not related in the way in which they occurred.  (Unfortunately, a lot of copycat filmmakers tried to follow Tarantino's example, and merely ended up proving the exact opposite.)

Pulp Fiction film wasn't only good for Tarantino, instantly making him one of the hottest film directors on the planet, it also salvaged the reputations of two if its lead actors, John Travolta and Bruce Willis, at a time when both were taking a seemingly irreversible career nosedive. Travolta was only cast in the film after Tarantino's first choice for the part of Vincent, Michael Madsen, declined the role and producer Harvey Weinstein was unable to get his first choice, Daniel Day-Lewis.  The star of Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) was so keen to appear in the film that he offered his services for a derisory fee (in the region of 100 thousand dollars) - a wise investment as it turned out.  Pulp Fiction not only changed John Travolta's image, it immediately catapulted him back up to the higher echelons of Hollywood stardom and allowed him to be taken far more seriously as an actor.

Bruce Willis's own career enjoyed a similar boost through this film - deservedly so, as his performance here is one of his finest.  The film's other standout performance is provided by Samuel L. Jackson, who is irreplaceable as the Bible-quoting hitman who experiences a bizarre Damascene transformation and thereby steals the film in its gripping final sequence.  With such a talented trio of lead actors and a stunning supporting cast (a remarkable ensemble that includes Tim Roth, Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer and Harvey Keitel - all excellent), Tarantino could hardly have failed to deliver an out-and-out winner.  Travolta, Jackson and Thurman were all nominated for Oscars for their performances in this film, and it is not too hard to see why.  Perhaps more than anything, it is the buddy rapport between Travolta and Jackson (served by some incredibly bananas dialogue) that has given the film its classic status.

Since Pulp Fiction blazed its way onto our cinema screens in the mid-1990s, innumerable other filmmakers have sought to emulate its stylish mix of comicbook ultra-violence and jet black humour, but few have come close to matching Tarantino's unwavering panache, both as a writer and film director.  What makes Pulp Fiction stand out is that, beneath the detritus of gore-splattered excess and sick humour, there is an old fashioned story of redemption struggling to get out.  The protagonists are not the usual two-dimensional psychopathic hoodlums who revel in brutality for its own sake; they are mostly ordinary human beings who are desperate to escape from the nightmarish dog-eat-dog world in which they have allowed themselves to become trapped.  Pulp Fiction may revolve around petty underworld vendettas, but this is not what the film is about.  It is about individuals finding the courage to make the choices that will improve their lives for the better.  There is always a way out, if you know where to look.

Not only was Pulp Fiction a massive hit at the box office (it grossed over 200 million dollars, a good return on its modest budget of 8 million dollars), it also met with almost universal acclaim from the critics.  It took the coveted Palme d'or when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 (a rare achievement for a genre film) and was nominated for seven Oscars in categories that included Best Director and Best Picture, winning the award for Best Original Screenplay.  Hailed as an instant classic on its first release, Pulp Fiction is now considered one of the most important films of the 1990s, a seminal work in the development of the modern gangster film and a watershed in cinema's depiction of violence.  And it is funny - killingly funny...

Film Synopsis

When a group of drugs dealing college kids attempt to double cross him, Los Angeles gangster boss Marsellus Wallace sends two of his henchmen, Jules and Vincent, to pay them a house call and collect a mysterious briefcase.  Jules and Vincent take their job seriously, which is too bad for the college kids, and even worse for the pour soul who has to clean up the mess.  Having delivered the briefcase, Vincent goes off to buy some high-grade heroin, before taking his boss's wife Mia out for a night on the town.  The evening nearly ends in disaster when Mia overdoses on Vincent's drugs and Vincent is driven into a panic as he tries to save her.  Aware that his career as a prizefighter is over, Butch Coolidge accepts a bribe from Marsellus to take a dive in his next fight.  Against the odds, Coolidge wins the match but soon realises that his life is in peril.  Marsellus is not a man who likes to lose a bet.  Coolidge is about to leave town when his girlfriend tells him she forgot to pack his treasured gold watch, given to him by his father when he was a boy.  The prizefighter has no choice but to return to his apartment and collect the watch, knowing that by doing so he risks almost certain death.  Sure enough, Vincent is waiting for him...