#53: PULP FICTION (1994)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, several times, the first time in university, probably around 2005

BEST SEQUENCE

There's no right or wrong answer here; ask me on a different day and I might give you a different response, and I really couldn't fault anyone for choosing any part of this movie. However, on this viewing, I'm going to go with the Jack Rabbit Slim's sequence, and Jules and Vincent's meeting with Brett is close runner-up

BEST LINE

Again, no wrong answer, and on a different day, different choice. This time, though, it's "Aw, man, I shot Marvin in the face." Travolta's delivery is absolutely hysterical, I laughed out loud even though I knew it was coming

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

92%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Injecting its compendium of crime tales with the patois of everyday conversation, Pulp Fiction is a cinematic shot of adrenaline that cements writer-director Quentin Tarantino as an audacious purveyor of killer kino."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption."

DIRECTOR

Quentin Tarantino

MAIN CAST

John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken

THOUGHTS

• Pulp Fiction has been around for such a long time that it may be easy to forget what an impact it had. Hugely influential, the recipient of seven Oscar nominations (winning Best Original Screenplay), it was an absolute trendsetter for mid-90s cinema. A few times in these reviews I've been underwhelmed by the influential films, movies like Planet of the Apes or The Day the Earth Stood Still, finding them to be greatly surpassed by what came after, but that is not the case for Pulp Fiction. Still tremendously entertaining and quotable as all get out, it's pretty damn rewatchable
• Pulp Fiction is the only Tarantino movie on the AFI list (which means that only Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown got snubbed, since the list was finalized in 2001). Furthermore, Tarantino is the only director I can think of whose entire filmography I've seen - some only once, and some a long time ago, and some only once a long time ago (for example, I saw Death Proof, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight all in the theatre, and I haven't seen them again since). And I have to say, I've had some good times with Pulp Fiction, and I enjoyed it again on this rewatch, and it certainly is a very good representation of Tarantino's oeuvre, but of his filmography I think it barely cracks the top 5, and that might even change if I were to rewatch some of the others. I think I would put Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds and Jackie Brown all above Pulp Fiction, and chances are I would put Reservoir Dogs above it as well
• In fact, I almost did another poll to see if there were any other Tarantino movies that I should watch and review, but I just did that for M. Night Shyamalan and I didn't feel like stretching this out too much more. So you'll have to take the above point as a loose idea of how I feel about some of his other movies
• As a point of comparison, I hate to slam you one more time, M. Night, but having recently struggled with Shyamalan's terrible stilted dialogue really made me appreciate Tarantino's skill as a screenwriter on this viewing. Tarantino's characters don't talk like real people, their lines are clever and idiosyncratic and unnatural, but man do they pull you in. For a movie with a fair amount of death and violence, it's noteworthy that some of the most enjoyable and memorable scenes are the ones that just depict two characters talking bullshit to each other ("They call it a Royale with cheese") or intimidating other people with wordplay ("What ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What?!")
• He really, really does throw around the N-Word a lot, though, and it is legitimately jarring in a way that pulls you out of the movie and makes you think about the justification for it. I'm certainly not the first to criticize this, and Tarantino has defended himself, as have some of his actors (including frequent collaborator Samuel L. Jackson, from this very movie, and Jamie Foxx from Django Unchained), but I do consider it a difficult thing to grapple with these days (and other filmmakers have also criticized this aspect of his films, including Spike Lee)
• And to be honest, I think we're pretty much coming to the end here! In a way I feel like I didn't do a whole lot of talking about the movie itself, but I also think that's a risk of the vignette-style, non-chronological movie. There are many memorable sequences, and something to love in nearly every one of them, but then things pretty much boil down to cool things that happened and great lines that were spoken, and that's largely what my notes consisted of. The acting is great across the board (Travolta, Jackson and Thurman were all nominated for Oscars, and it was seen as a huge career comeback for Travolta and star-making roles for Jackson and Thurman), the dialogue crackles, and the soundtrack is maybe one of the best ever. However, as I feel like I've barely skimmed the surface of moments and lines that are worth mentioning, please, I implore you, add your favourites to the comments 

Up next: Another movie that was something of an unexpected Oscar darling, it's Rocky from 1972