Just a thrilling, postmodernist roller coaster through several genres; three stories and one unforgettable experience.

Rating: 10/10 (14 September 2008)

There isn't much that can be added that hasn't already been said when it comes to the modern masterpiece that is Pulp Fiction. I suppose to some it's one of those films that you specifically remember when you first heard about it; when you first saw it; where you were when your first saw it and what the circumstances were at that time. Given it has become so popular and so influential in its own retrospect with so many people having seen it so many times as individuals, it carries that sense of accomplishment and historical significance, perhaps not only on a level of cinema as a whole but to a culture  to a generation of active filmgoers post 1994.
I can remember first seeing Pulp Fiction  the night before Halloween, 2003. I think up until that point I was naïve or immature when it came to cinema. Here was a film that gave me a prod; a wake up call to do with films as a whole. Here was a film that, I suppose, brainwashed me into a realisation that films didn't have to be progressive, linear, big on action and set pieces or of an entertainment value. To have Pulp Fiction take me through a roller-coaster ride of out of sync story telling (something I hadn't experienced in a film up until watching this); dialogue said by characters breaking down images of stereotypes; humour so black it has the power to make you put your hand over your mouth and shake your head in sheer embarrassment that you might find certain content even mildly amusing and just a continual flow of action, reaction and spontaneity that captivated me was a film experience I am wary I may never experience again.
And while 2001: A Space Odyssey came close to delivering that same 'wow' experience about a year ago, you have to spare a thought for today's generation and their experience. Through certain websites that give you unlimited amounts of videos, you can instantly access all of Pulp Fiction's 'best bits' in a fragmented and spontaneous manner. I don't know how popular or well endowed certain video websites were back in late 2003, I didn't use the Internet as much back then, but I went into that initial Pulp Fiction viewing with absolutely no knowledge of any scene I was about to witness and came out someone who was suddenly into films; realised films could be different, almost experimental. I realised films could be influenced by previous ideas and these things called film 'movements' that were around decades before.
So watching Pulp Fiction now recalls that first viewing and not the many after it, all of which were motivated perhaps out of feint hope I might be taken on that same, initial roller-coaster ride. Watching this film recently for the first time in about three years and having learnt and read a great deal more about the film and films that influenced it, it's no real surprise that I do feel it is one of the best ever made. Pulp Fiction taps into cinema of past years but reinvents and updates thus influencing a whole new brand of 'type', something evident in the late nineties but certainly now, in the new century. The manner in which the dialogue is delivered and the dialogue period seems less-so a gimmick with age than it did when it first came out. The manner in which director Tarantino audaciously flips from realism to escapism, often in one shot, is unheard of and best seen with Mia's visual 'square' imitation and the frequent title cards popping up to contradict the urban realism of everyday dialogue and long tracking shots of realistic people making their way through everyday locations.
Pulp Fiction recalls a lot of Tarantino's work prior to Pulp Fiction. It begins in a diner (alá Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers); contains characters whom are young, in love couples that enjoy killing people/robbing places; contains Mexican standoffs (again alá Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers) and carries that popular culture aura that just balances the film on that edge between realism and escapism in a way only Tarantino could at the time. Pulp Fiction is a postmodernist explosion of sorts; combing genres of romance, crime, gangster and comedy into one package. Characters plant seeds of doubt in the audience's minds ranging from a potential date with Mia (Thurman) to the menace that surrounds the character of Marsellus Wallace (Rhames) and what he might do when certain betrayals are made.
One new thing I noticed when re-watching it recently was the manner in which Christopher Walken's character prior to his monologue 'hopes he (a young Butch) will never have to face a situation like that (in a POW camp) and take on certain responsibilities.' This echoes Butch's ultimate act of redemption that is to come in the sense he will be a prisoner (of war, I suppose) and will have to take on certain acts of responsibility in being a saviour all motivated through the want for the gold watch around which the story is entitled.
Another item could be the way in which blatant violence is set up to be ignored for a bigger deal such as when a bystander is shot accidentally by Marsellus after a car crash (but the concentration is the chase after it) and a certain individual has his head blown off (but the concentration is the very bloody car interior and what they will now do). Pulp Fiction is essential viewing for anyone that even remotely considers themselves 'into' cinema. The European influence and contemporary referencing is second to none culminating in Pulp Fiction: one of the greatest American films ever made.