Review: Pulp Fiction

There are many impossible tasks in this world. Climbing Everest with no supporting gear, driving a car with no wheels, watching the whole first season of 24 in one day. But my friends, one of the hardest tasks that anyone can face is trying to categorize Pulp Fiction, it fits so many different genres that the closest you can get is a Gangland Black Comedy Neo-Noir Thriller and that just sounds silly. With no real story, no-one you can call a main character, every character being morally grey with the exception of a couple of creepy store-owners and a heavily stylised direction with some of the hippest dialogue ever written, Pulp Fiction is a film that when you look at it, shouldn’t work.

But by God does it.

Set in a couple of days in L.A., the film follows three stories with recurring characters and events in each one. Set out of chronological order the stories involve a hit-man taking his boss’s wife out for dinner, a boxer on the run returning home to pick up his father’s gold watch and two hit-men that face a problem when they accidentally end up with a dead guy in the back of their car.

Strange as it might seem the stories are actually quite engaging and feature a lot more than what I’m giving them. They hark back to the Pulpy crime stories of the 40s and 50s - which is what the whole film is referencing - and they feature some deep themes of religion, fate, chance and what is right and wrong in a world where right and wrong are the same thing.

The characters all make the movie in their own way, all well-written and brilliantly performed, this is an ensemble piece and everyone brings their A-Game. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson play the cool as frozen hell hit-men Vincent and Jules and the two work brilliantly well together. Vincent appears to be the more laid-back of the two, not really caring much about anything - mostly due to his drug use. Despite his chilled persona Vincent does take things personally and has a strict code about how he thinks things should happen and gets pissed when they don’t happen that way. His partner Jules on the other hand, while less laid-back, is more in tune with the world and is more open to things happening, case in point when he and Vincent survive an attack he believes it to be an act of God. The main thing about Jules is that he just does not give a fuck, he’s cold, he’s collected, he can kill a man without blinking which means when he gets angry and vengeful you know shit’s about to get fucked up.

In the main female role we have Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace, wife to the kingpin. Mia is used to getting what she wants all the time and never having trouble with men listening to her because of her husband, when she meets Vincent she’s surprised at the way he’s unafraid to ask questions no-one else would ask and the two of them hit if off in their own odd way. Her husband, Marcellus Wallace, played by Ving Rhames in the role that secured him as a bad motherfucker, is not one to mess with, even before we see his face we get to know he’s someone that will easily fuck you up if you step out of line. He’s fair though, stay on his good side and he’ll reward you, but you cross that line and you’ll be thrown out a window into a greenhouse.

Lastly we have Butch, played by Bruce Willis. Butch is a boxer who’s told to go down during his fight but instead he decides to fuck over his boss and make a huge winning on himself. Strange as it may seem to say this about Bruce Willis and especially about a boxer but you do underestimate Butch, he is essentially the straight man of the film and yet he does some of the most violent stuff in the film.

There are several smaller roles in the film, the two robbers at the start of the film raise some good points about the career of thieving, Harvey Keitel’s Wolf is one of the coolest motherfuckers in a film filled with cool motherfuckers. Everyone is great in their role, some better than others I admit but this was a strong film performance wise.

Tarantino’s direction is something to be admired, especially in today’s day and age where it’s difficult to find a shot that lasts longer than five seconds, here all the shots seem to linger on the characters fgor quite some time, since this film is about the characters it only makes sense to have them as the centrepiece of the film. As a result the film features several long-takes and moments where the camera stays on the conversations of the characters for extended periods of time, much like the Pulp crime novels the film is homage to, it stays with the characters rather than being all over the place.

What’s funny about this is that most of the conversations don’t mean shit, you could cut out most of the dialogue in this film and lose nothing plot-wise, most of the conversations are about meaningless shit, like at the beginning of the film, Jules and Vincent have a good ten minute conversation that goes from the burger names in Paris to wondering if massaging a woman’s feet is in the same ballpark as eating her out. It serves no purpose but the fact that it’s there means a lot more than if it wasn’t, it’s those little moments of humour in the conversations that makes the sudden violence on screen so much more, and it helps the film with it’s trademark mix of ironic humour and violence that makes it stand out much more than any other film. Case in point the sudden gear change in Butch’s storyline once the two store-owners come into play, it comes out of nowhere and is actually quite shocking but it somehow fits the storyline and gives a darkly funny resolution to the conflict between Butch and Marcellus.

I could get into the self-referential style and the homage’s to the films that helped the film seem unique while also not being but to be honest you’d be much better reading a review or an essay that knows what they’re talking about. What I will mention however is the bathroom scenes, you’ve heard this before but fuck you it’s my review, you never see people go to the bathroom in movies so Tarantino references this by having Vincent go to the bathroom three times and each time he comes out something bad happens.

Quick mention of the soundtrack, it’s brilliant, just as good if not better than Dogs. You got the classic Miserlou for the opening credits which turns (in a genius move using a radio tuner) into Jungle Boogie, the iconic tines of Son Of A Preacher Man, You Never Can Tell and Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon during the Vincent and Mia storyline which, much like the couple, fit in their own strange way. What makes it work is the fact that there’s no score which means that scenes can be quiet - like the infamous pop-tart scene - to raise the tension but when the mood need to change - like Vincent’s drug trip or Butch’s weapon choosing - it can do so without spoiling the film.

Fuck, this is turning out to be a long review I’ve ever written and I haven’t even touched upon a lot of what I was planning to talk about - I haven’t even mentioned the briefcase or the million things that could be inside (for reference, the soul theory is the one I agree with the most). Put simply Pulp Fiction is not only one the coolest, most iconic films ever made, it’s also one of the most important and one you need to see. I went into this review set on giving this film and 9.5 but fuck if I haven’t changed my own mind.

10/10