Tribute to On the Waterfront

Rating: Null/10 (6 October 2002)

I have read some of the comments on this website concerning Pulp Fiction and perhaps I missed it but no one has mentioned the fact that Tarantino used an element from Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront" in 1954 staring Marlon Brando. In Pulp Fiction, Marsellus Wallace told Bruce Willis that he is supposed to intentionally lose to a boxer named Wilson:
Marsellus: "In the fifth, your ass goes down. Say it."
Butch: "In the fifth, my ass goes down."
Bruce Willis, not only doesn't go down and lose the fight, he kills Wilson. When I saw this, I became flushed with movie deja vu and felt very satisfied. Why was the boxer called Wilson? In "On the Waterfront" Marlon Brando has a famous monologue in which he expains how his boxing career ended: He went down intentionally against a boxer named Wilson because of greedy mobsters. Wilson, therefore was the invisble antagonist against Marlon Brando. Tarantino, being a smart guy, knew that in the deep annals of the film buff world, he could redeem Marlon Brando and all us film buffs that hate Wilson more than anything by killing Wilson. If it wasn't for Wilson, Marlon Brando "coulda been a contender." So, by killing Wilson forty years later, Tarantino effectively killed off the jerk that ruined Brando's Boxing career in "On the Waterfront." I don't know if many people had already realized this but I thought I would bring up to people's attention.
Also, for Tarantino fans, watch "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955) by Robert Aldrich. It has the answer to why the contents of the briefcase, when opened by Travolta, give a glowing lightbeam on Travolta's face and we never see what's inside.