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Pulp Fiction (1994): 9/10

Poster (c) Miramax Films

Controversy is usually good for movies. It’s helped push movies to box office success just to see how bad they actually were, and I think that that is one of the ways Pulp Fiction has become so immensely popular. I’ve heard multiple people musing about the excessive violence, the drug use, the language, and more. So I really wanted to see Pulp Fiction beforehand, but curiosity piqued my interest. I have to say that all of the hype didn’t really add anything. It wasn’t very violent (or it could be that I’m just desensitized to violence, but besides one scene, I’ve seen worse on TV), the language just seemed to flow normally (or maybe it was because I had seen Bad Santa the day before and it had about the same concentration of language), and the drug use…well, I expected it for it is a movie about drug abusers.

Pulp Fiction is less a complete movie than a series of interrelated stories, the most interesting of which is Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) as two gangsters who often have pointless conversations. Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) is a boxer who accidentally kills his opponent in the ring and then he realizes the thrill of killing people. Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) pays Butch to throw that fight, but when he kills the guy, Marcellus gets Jules and Vincent to whack him. Along the way, Vincent has to take Marcellus’s wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out, and along the way she OD’s. Got all that?

There is one thing that Tarantino can do that no one else I’ve seen can do efficiently. He can work with time so well that you don’t even notice it. Christopher Nolan first tried it in Following, unsuccessfully, and then executed well in Memento. However, there, he held our hand throw it, while Tarantino just lets it rip and hopes we can figure it out for ourselves, which we can do. That adds to the already thick layer of coolness that is in Pulp Fiction. Each character is memorable, especially Jules, who quotes from the Bible right before killing someone. It’s just a very hip experience.

Pulp Fiction cheerfully takes clichés, chews them up, and spits them out in a whole new vein. Like what Kill Bill did in the beginning, with the retro opening to set the mood, Pulp Fiction is halfway between an homage to gangster films and parody. Also, it’s a trendsetter. The classic dance scene between Vincent and Mia at Jack Rabbit Slim’s (which is a parody of all of those stupid throwback restaurants) has been parodied itself, as has the scene where Vincent and Jules are talking about McDonalds’ Quarter Pounders.

In addition to the layer of coolness, Pulp Fiction also has a lot of humor in it, much of it at times when you know you shouldn’t laugh but you do, and also out of situations that you wouldn’t laugh at usually. I’m sure some of the parts I laughed at were just because I wasn’t expecting something to happen, or maybe I just have a morbid mind, but a lot of the humor came out of the violence.

Everyone in the cast had amazing chemistry with each other, which added believability to a somewhat unbelievable story. The only reason that Pulp Fiction did not get a perfect score is that one scene with Butch and a cab driver went on for too long and did little to service the plot. Knowing me, though, I’ll soon change the rating, but it can still be said that Pulp Fiction is one of the most influential movies of the 1990’s.

Rated R for strong graphic violence and drug use, pervasive strong language and some sexuality.

Review Date: December 2, 2003