The Path Of The Righteous Man Is Beset On All Sides By The Iniquities Of The Selfish And The Tyranny Of Evil Men

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2011)

Vincent and Jules are two hit men who work for bigshot Marsellus Wallace. In the space of a few days they must chaperon Mrs Wallace on a drug-fuelled night out, track down a boxer named Butch who's reneged on a promise to throw a fight, follow through on a hit which turns very messy, and thwart a hold up in a diner they're having breakfast at.
Pulp Fiction is rightly hailed as a masterpiece of filmmaking, a movie which is almost jaw-dropping in its scope, intensity, originality and black humour. What impresses me most about it I think is not all the brilliant dialogue or bravura technique (although those are sensational), but just the balls it takes to make a film so daring. There are too many examples of this to mention, but to kill off your main character halfway through and then bring him back later for action which takes place previously, or to have a story which seems to be On The Waterfront but then abruptly turns into Deliverance requires real courage and vision. I can think of only a few big-budget pictures which take as many risks (say 2001). Tarantino is so confident in his storytelling abilities and so focused on every tiny element of his movie that his energy permeates on down through the cast and crew with the result that everyone does the very best work they can. The huge ensemble of players are all terrific, with Jackson stealing the show as the fiery gangster Jules, but everyone is superb, from Travolta and Thurman's goofy dance floor routine to the morbid cabbie played by Jones to Tarantino's own little turn as nervous Jimmie. There are many moments in the film which are ridiculous, but unlike many modern films which try to wink knowingly at the audience, Tarantino both pushes the absurdity to unheard of lengths but also crucially makes his actors play it as straight as they can. Hence, Butch is the most hackneyed of all stock characters - the washed-up fighter - but the way his situation is developed is utterly unique and we are riveted with his progress. A simple device like a glowing briefcase (which isn't even original, it comes from Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly) both entrances us and distracts us with Hitchcockian ingenuity whilst the director manipulates us into exactly where we should be, or floors us with another shock or razor-sharp slice of dialogue. If nothing else, Tarantino illustrates that too many directors are too timid, too conventional, too scared of doing something that will confuse or alienate an audience, instead of plundering cinema for all the artistic and entertainment value it has to offer. Trivia - the Travolta character is the brother of Mr Blonde / Vic Vega (Michael Madsen) in Reservoir Dogs. A rare example of a deserving winner of the Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and a great mad crime movie.