Lurid-yes, Talky-sure, Creative-Absolutely, Medieval-Maybe

Rating: 9/10 (24 May 2006)

It's difficult to describe Tarantino's concoction in just one paragraph or even one page - there is a denseness to it all, an intricate weave - and even though I've seen it well over a couple of times, I'm still unsure of what the next scene will be the next time I view it. That's a tribute to the plotting - this isn't a typical script, that fer sure. Many will come away from it recalling all the gabbing done by the characters - this is an indulgence of Tarantino's we are all familiar with. It's unconventional if the goal is to produce a smooth pace; the action begins, then there's a lengthy monologue or debate which should impede everything. Most of the dialog is at least cutesy-clever, but those sections are not my favorite parts of the film. There were a couple of scenes where I thought, jeez-louise I guess Quentin's not into judicious editing when it starts to drag past the 3-minute mark of the same two characters yakking away. The dialog must be sacred to him - OK, I can dig it. And hey, I'm not referring to cutting down Chris Walken's one scene, where it's understood he had to go through an entire history of a certain watch for us to understand its importance.
No, for me, the great thing about all this are the plot turns in the fiction. If you're watching it for the first time, you may think you know where a scene is heading, mostly based on your past experience of watching movies. But this is a pulp novel masquerading as a movie. This isn't the movie you and your father have seen, many times over. This is, to put it mildly, unpredictable. You may think you know where Travolta's and Thurman's characters are heading to on their date, but...no, there's just no way to predict what actually happens. You may think you know what will happen to Willis's character as he returns to his apartment when he shouldn't...well, actually, by this point in the film you may not be so sure. By this point, you're probably wondering what insane twist Tarantino plans to throw at you; and, holy ma-golly, doesn't it really get insane? I don't think this can be conveniently labeled as pulpy lurid fiction, more psychotronic.
This film was a starting point for many things and a turning point in film history. Travolta had his comeback; Jackson was now a made man; Willis showed he wasn't just a Moonlighting/Die Hard bozo; well, hell, the entire cast benefited - including Greene as Zed, a hard-to-forget impression in a small role. For the rest of the nineties, we were besieged by Pulp Fiction wannabee movies trying to capture the spirit of a new film term - Tarantinesque. Of course, none of them did.