Pulp Fiction

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2013)

Perhaps no other director places the entertainment value over essentially everything else than the quirky Quentin Tarantino. As long as people laugh, smile, and share in a cinematically glorious viewing experience of idiosyncratic dialogue, wacky story lines, who honestly can find it within themselves to give a hollerin' hoot about anything else? After his directorial debut of "Reservoir Dogs", Tarantino proved he possesses the talent to craft a screenplay and ultimately a film. Though a daring debut, "Reservoir Dogs" left out a majority of its action and subsequently more for the viewer to desire. With "Pulp Fiction", Tarantino delivers not only his best ever film, but a milestone in the delicate dexterity of original storytelling.
In this film we see three interweaving stories involving hit men, a bank-robbing couple, a rogue boxer, and a near-fatal blind date. The two hit men, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega, played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta respectively, provide the two most outstanding performances. Samuel L. Jackson dominates the screen with his thunderous voice and unwavering demeanor in his portrayal of a "cool- cat" gangster. His partner in crime, John Travolta, also provides an intriguing and convincing performance that most assuredly rescued his career from the D-list depths of the "Look Who's Talking" series.
Like "Reservoir Dogs", dialogue stands as the driving force behind the plot and characters of "Pulp Fiction". And not one line in the script lacks Tarantino's stamp of wit and cleverness. Characters speak fluently in wise-crack and tough guy throughout the plot, much like the cold-hearted noir heroes of the 40s such as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe (both played by the late Humphrey Bogart). In one particular scene of retribution, the big man Marsellus Wallace, played by Ving Rhames, having endured the sexually unthinkable, promises to "Go to work on the homes with a pair of pliers and a blow torch [] I'ma get medieval on you're a**." Goodness knows what "medieval" may imply, but safe to say the guy's got a bit of pain lying in his future.
Bruce Willis, who plays the down and out boxer, fails to throw a fight and thus suffers the pursuit of Marsellus and his gangsters. Eventually Marsellus and Willis wind up in a truly bizarre scene of mouth gags and homosexual perversion. Somehow Willis manages to find a way to escape the dastardly situation and get Marsellus off his back all at once. Wacky and uncanny? Indeed, but like the rest of the film, Tarantino tells it with such fun and enthusiasm that one can feel the entertainment buzzing like a jet engine.
Most of the dialogue stands in stark contrast to the majority of Hollywood writing which functions simply to further along the plot. Characters continually engage each other with conversations in which we might find ourselves conversing, making it all the more convincing. Tarantino's dialogue reveals character and dimension. It does not offer standard, thin lines that reveal only what the audience already knows. This works to provide the feeling that we eavesdrop on the characters as they chit chat about miscellaneous topics such as the nomenclature of hamburgers, the sexual implications of foot massages, piercings, etc. Though the dialogue may at first glance appear obscure and irrelevant, it obliquely implies events to come later in the unfolding of the plot. For instance, the talk of fast-food cheeseburgers does not stop in Vincent's car; rather we see the hamburgers return in the next scene as Jules and Vincent interrupt the uneasy Brett and gang as they dine on Big Kahuna burgers. We don't simply hear the dialogue, but we see a clever reprisal of the dialogue. It functions to the lay the comical and violence-tempering groundwork for future scenes.
The unusual discussion between Jules and Vincent about what exactly a foot massage signifies between a man and a woman most notably lays the groundwork for the tension throughout the long sequence between Vincent and Mia Wallace, played by Uma Thurman. Before their blind date, we learn that Marsellus Wallace threw a man off a balcony for merely giving his wife a foot massage. So if Marsellus Wallace nearly kills a man for touching his wife's feet, imagine what he would do if someone happened to accidentally, oh I don't know, kill his wife. Thus the problem Vincent faces on his date-gone awry with Mia Wallace. Marsellus just might go "medieval" again. Vincent knows this but most importantly the audience knows this. Tarantino cleverly crafts his dialogue to heighten the tension and anxiety of the scene, keeping our attention like a light trap and a fly.
By the end, which I shan't ruin for it serves better to hear and watch than read, the film comes back around in full circle, ending where it started. The events in "Pulp Fiction" arrive jumbled and for the most part out of order, which undoubtedly helped inspire the increased number of non-linear narratives that pervade throughout Hollywood today. The different plot lines of "Pulp Fiction" connect in some way, but each possesses a life of its own and can thrive individually. Because of this no better title could serve the film quite like "Pulp Fiction" does. The dictionary describes the phrase"Pulp Fiction" as "fiction dealing with lurid or sensational subjects." Tarantino delivers sensation and he does so with smart dialogue, exuberant direction, and an array of actors that perform with just the right mixture of tough-guy wit and comedy.