Pulp Fiction

If there was ever a movie that defined a generation, it was Pulp Fiction. Made in 1994 from then up-and-coming director Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction became a pop culture legend right from the get-go, and it hasn't lost steam at all in the 13 years since it's release (my god, has it really been that long???). I first saw Pulp Fiction during my sophomore year at Penn State. One of my buddies from my dorm lent it to me one night, utterly shocked that I hadn't seen it yet. So I popped it into the VCR (sorry, DVD players hadn't become the rage quite yet) and sat back with Jules, Vincent, Marcellus, Mia, Butch, and the gang.

Featuring some of the wittiest and sharpest dialogue ever (maybe Quentin could take on a job as George Lucas's dialogue coach), I think it goes without saying that Pulp Fiction is the most fun you can ever have watching a movie! But what struck me the most about Pulp Fiction was the starpower: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolra, Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Harvey Keitel, even Quentin Tarantino himself! What I didn't quite grasp on first viewing was that most of these stars had little screen time, because Pulp Fiction is more like a series of short stories than a feature-length plot.

The films starts out with not one but two preludes: the first features Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) as they eat breakfast, two lovers/bank robbers discussing their future in robbery, and on the spur of the moment, they decide to rob the coffee shop where they're having breakfast; the second prelude features Jules (Samuel L. Jackson, sporting an afro that's about 20 years too late) and Vincent (John Travolta), two hitmen for Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) discussing the differences between U.S. and Dutch culture while on their way to a morning hit and to retrieve a suitcase that belongs to Marcellus. (It's long been speculated that the suitcase contained Marcellus Wallace's soul, given a) the combination of the suitcase, and b) the Band-Aid on the back of Marcellus's neck.)

After these two preludes, we move into the first story, entitled, "Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace's Wife." In this story, Vincent is tasked with taking Mia, Marcellus's young wife who's played by a dark-haired Uma Thurman, out on the town while Marcellus is away. Vincent is naturally nervous, because it's his boss's wife and he knows that he has to keep himself restrained; despite everyone's jokes, he's constantly proclaiming, "It's not a date!" So he takes Mia to a 1950s restaurant called Jack Rabbit Slim's (an absolutely marvelous recreation of the '50s by Tarantino, I might add!), where they enter into a twist contest. Much has been made of John Travolta's dance scene with Uma, recalling his glory days of Grease and Saturday Night Fever during the '70s—though to be honest, I wasn't too impressed with it. But for all the fun that Vincent and Mia have, the night almost ends disastrously when Mia stumbles upon Vincent's stash.

The second story is entitled, "The Gold Watch," and is preceded by a flashback to the youth of Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), an aging boxer who's been paid by Marcellus Wallace to take a dive; naturally, Butch does things his own way, and ends up killing his opponent in the ring. But before I get too into his storyline, I want to talk about his flashback first, because it introduces the audience to the very centerpiece, if not talisman, of this story: the gold watch that has been passed down the Coolidge generations, surviving wars and terrible atrocities in order to get to Butch. As a young child, Butch receives this watch from his late father's war buddy, Captain Koons, played by none other than the man himself—Christopher Walken, in what is the most memorable scene of the entire movie. I think I'd be remiss if I didn't post the video clip.



In the present day, after Butch flees the ring, his learns that his girlfriend (with whom he was going to run from Marcellus) accidentally left his gold watch at their apartment. So against all common sense, Butch bravely runs back to the apartment to retrieve his father's watch—and ends up walking into a war of his own.

Following this story is "The Bonnie Situation", which chronologically takes place before "The Gold Watch" story—taking us back to both of our initial preludes, starting with Jules and Vincent's morning hit (the one they were driving to early that morning). After they successfully dispose of Brett (Frank Whaley) and repossess the suitcase of Marcellus, Jules and Vincent get a little surprise: there was a fourth man in the apartment, hiding out in the bathroom, and when he thinks the time is right, he busts out on them with guns blazing . . . but misses every shot! (Though neither Jules nor Vincent miss when they shoot.) The shock of their not being hit once by the fourth man's bullets prompts a spiritual awakening in Jules, believing that it was divine intervention that caused them to survive. So on the drive back to Marcellus's, Jules tells Vincent that he's going to retire, but Vincent isn't so willing to accept Jules's interpretation of events. Vincent even asks Marvin (the lone survivor of the hit in the apartment) his own opinion of what happened back there—and accidentally shoots him in the face, splattering the back of their car (not to mention Jules and Vincent) in blood and guts. Bear in mind, they're driving down a busy street in broad daylight. Suffice it to say, they need to detour off the road fast, so they enlist the help of Jules's former partner, Jimmy (Quentin Tarantino's cameo in this film), as well as Marcellus's main man, Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel).

For as a young and amateur a filmmaker as Tarantino was at the time, it's utterly amazing how well made this film is! Packed to the gill with references to countless other films (references that only the most hardcore movie fan will notice), Pulp Fiction can almost be construed as a gigantic homage to all of Tarantino's favorite films. Even down to the littlest props—think of the samurai sword (a reference to Sonny Chiba films) that Butch uses on Maynard (a reference to the back-woods rapists in Deliverance), or the gun fired on Jules and Vincent (a reference to Dirty Harry's weaponry).

And who can forget the soundtrack that afforded us such scenes as John Travolta dancing again? Or Uma getting ready for her date with Vincent to the strains of "Son of a Preacher Man"? I think my favorite is when Butch is driving that little Honda away from his apartment and singing along to "Flowers on the Wall". The camerawork and editing is superlative, as well! (Though I must confess, I never quite saw the point to the glamorous depiction of Vincent shooting up just before he goes to Mia's house.)

Pulp Fiction only won one Oscar at the 1994 ceremony, for Best Original Screenplay. It got six other nominations, too, mostly for acting, and lost Best Picture to Forrest Gump. I know I'm largely in the minority on this, but I can accept that loss, because Forrest Gump was the better picture that year—though only by a hair. I feel, though, that Quentin Tarantino should have won Best Director instead of Robert Zemeckis, because Pulp Fiction was such a remarkably well-made movie, with direction that was nothing short of stellar. Samuel L. Jackson garnered a Best Supporting Actor nomination, too (losing to Martin Landau for Ed Wood), and I have to say, Jackson was absolutely marvelous as the ruthless killer-turned-prophet Jules. I think his shining moment came in the diner scene at the end of the film, when he talks down Pumpkin and Honey Bunny during their robbery.



And I always get a slight chuckle out of the final scene, when Jules and Vincent exit the coffee shop—simultaneously sticking their guns under their belts and walking out the door together, like two modern cowboys walking off into the sunset.

There was also a great sense of gritty realism, too, that Tarantino imparted to the film. For example, during Mia's overdosing scene, when Vincent brings her to Lance's house, the panic is so real that I still feel it every time I see it. And the way it's filmed, in one long tracking shot, is utterly fantastic. But for all the realism and the grittiness, there is a theme of redemption that permeates all three stories. These are characters that you don't necessarily have to like, nor do you have to like their choice of lifestyle, but when disaster strikes, they're still human enough to deserve a chance to redeem themselves.

10 out of 10. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to McDonald's for a royale with cheese.