FILM NUMBER FOUR: Pulp Fiction (1994)
Ever since the birth of storytelling, cultures have always tried to dictate what English, theater, film, and art professors label a story's "form and content." In fact, during the ancient fifth century B.C. in Athens, Greece, Aristotle, in his iconic work, Poetics, explicitly and inflexibly detailed a number of different instructions for creating a well-told story (in the only way he knew how)-- among many other things: the three-part structure, the gravity and catharsis of tragedy, and the absolute taboo it was to show a flawless hero remaining a flawless hero, a villain remaining a villain, and/or a villain changing into a hero. From Aristotle's time onward, every Western country and culture, from the Franks and the Visigoths in the medieval world to the United States in the 21st century, haven't swayed far from his example. However, there also have been those who have. For anyone who's ever been acquainted with the works of Luis Buñuel, Jean-Paul Sartre, or Eugene Ionesco, it can undoubtedly be concluded that stories need not be conventional in order to sell an audience. Similarly, in terms of their structures, they need not be linear. Some start in the middle and and then jump to the beginning or end, others start at the end and move in reverse, some take place entirely within a flashback, some even parallel two different events or present a single event from multiple perspectives, etc., etc. In the case of Quentin Tarantino's brilliant gangster drama/comedy, Pulp Fiction (1994), the story unfolds in a non-linear, fragmented, chapter-oriented way.
Known for his wild and prolific taste in music and movies (and the abundant use of and allusions to both throughout his series of films), his remorseless taste for gruesome, campy violence, and his ensemble casts, Tarantino, whose film before Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs (1992), was his debut work, has risen to the top tiers of Hollywood throughout the past 19 years. His archive of eccentric, self-referential action/crime movies, from the Kill Bill series to Inglorious Basterds, have outlandishly amused audiences. However, all of the creative glory he's achieved over those years is due mainly to Pulp Fiction, his watershed, tour-de-force masterpiece.
Pulp Fiction, which engages the audience with flippant and snappy, hip dialogue, is the story of three stories. Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are suave, tuxedo-wearing assassins sent to retrieve the briefcase (the cryptically-conceiled contents of which emit an enrapturing golden glow) that belongs to as Los Angeles crime lord, Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). While Vincent is dealing with the jitters of taking out Marcellus' wife, Mia (Uma Thurman), for the evening (upon Marcellus' request) and Jules is obsessively dealing with a religious wake-up call, two other stories unfold. One concerns Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), a brash, hot-headed boxer--paid to take a dive in a match--who's devoted towards the protection of a special golden watch, and the other concerns two foul-mouthed, cockney-accented bandits, Ringo (Tim Roth), A.K.A. "Pumpkin," and Yolanda (Amanda Plummer), A.K.A. "Honey Boney," fixed on sticking up a diner. The cast also includes a number of other prominent actors, including (but not limited to) Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, Rosanna Arquette, and Quentin Tarantino himself, and their characters are just as unique and memorable as the main ones.
The movie, which has remained a ubiquitous source for pop culture references, parodies, and college-campus poster sales since its release seventeen years ago, is revered mostly for its lively, imaginative dialogue and meta-cinematic allusions. Most people probably have heard dozens of friends or acquaintances reference the infamous "breakfast" scene, in which Jules discusses hamburgers and the metric system, and then recites the a passage-- Ezekiel 25:17-- from the Bible before executing a man. Likewise, an earlier scene, in which Jules and Vincent casually banter about the frivolous differences between European and American fast-food restaurants, has become a memorable moment in cinematic history and American pop culture.
However, the film is also known for its plethora of witty, subtle allusions to films of any and all genres (especially Western, Martial-Arts, and Classic Hollywood). The opening sequence, in which Pumpkin and Honey Bunny devise a scheme to rob patrons directly, pays homage to Edward S. Porter's 1903 short, The Great Train Robbery. In another scene, Vincent blows Mia a kiss a la Jimmy Stewart's character--George Bailey--in Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life (1946), and, in reference to Alfred Hitchcock's famous horror film, Psycho (1960), there is one scene in the movie when two characters--one walking along a crosswalk and the other driving up to it--exchange incredulous looks (before the latter slams into the former with his car). The list of homages goes on and on, and if you have ever heard of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963), Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), Elia Kazan's On The Waterfront (1954), Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1967), or Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver (1976), you can rest assured those films probably inspired or were referenced in Pulp Fiction as well. In addition to cinematic allusions, Tarantino also makes great use of an eclectic soundtrack, including such diverse hits as Dick Dale and the Del Tones' "Misirlou" (which memorably begins the opening credits of the film), Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," and Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon."
One of the final strengths of Pulp Fiction is its use of absorbingly off-color humor. During one sequence of the movie, a woman who experiences a heroin overdose is in quick need of an adrenaline shot. Although she could almost die (and the panic-striken date of this woman is frighteningly aware of that) when he finally rushes her--not to an emergency room--but a friend's home, everyone is clueless, scrambling around the cluttered home looking for a syringe like it's a lost set of car keys, and then casually arguing about how many times you need to "stab" the victim in the chest to revive her. During another sequence, two characters accidentally blow off a guy's head, and hilariousness ensues as they must find a way to clean the blood and gore out of the vehicle in time.
Pulp Fiction, an inventive, original, and superbly entertaining hit, deserves its place in the ranks of great American works of art. Although it is more stylized and less tame and conventional than the traditional works of Hollywood, it still conforms to the genius of that particular industry.
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