Violence and Redemption Underscore "Pulp Fiction"

Rating: 9/10 (16 August 2008)

"Pulp Fiction" is considered Quentin Tarantino' masterpiece; both as a writer and director. Although it's not a perfect film and has a couple flaws, "Pulp Fiction" has one of the greatest scripts that changed the way films were made. The film opens with a conversation between "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny" as they chat about their new plans to rob restaurants instead of banks and liquor stores. Eventually this scene will end the film as it doubles back on itself. Often times- and we're seeing the case more and more with Tarantino- he'll drive a film on dialogue instead of plot and substitute plot for senseless dialogue. That happens here, but it works most of the time. Lately it hasn't been working on the level of "Pulp Fiction."
Uma Thurman plays Marcellus Wallace's (Ving Rhames) wife, Mia, and her only importance to film is to be entertained by Vincent Vega (John Travolta) on a date that's not quite a date. I feel as if these scenes are supposed to entertain us since it has nothing to do with the plot that is extremely thin compared to its run time (154 minutes). Travolta, for me, is the real stand out. When he's on screen his scenes, whether Jackson is next to him or not, are full of energy and pulp. He does a lot of listening, some dancing, a lot of arguing and/or debating, and offers up a lot of great comedic moments. His best scenes are with Uma Thurman when they go to Jackrabbit Slims. This little date, where they talk about nothing of much importance as far plot is concerned, is funny, engrossing and entertaining. I don't know why it never gets old, but it doesn't. The acting between the two is great and both were worthy of their Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. This section of the film is one of the strongest of the three along with "The Bonnie Situation." The writing and acting is superb in both sections. This date leads to an overdose as Mia takes a line of Vincent's heroine. The direction here is much in the mold of a graphic Hitchcock film. To add to the suspense the owner of the house counts to three (Something that happens quite a bit in the film). As he slowly counts to three we see all the nervously waiting faces in the entire room. We get a close-up shot on the needle that's cocked back and ready to strike. We get a close-up on the red dot where the needle needs to hit. It slowly builds the scene and the suspense. Tarantino handles this scene and all the others with a ton of precision and a lot of confidence.
Tarantino makes huge strides as a director since his previous film, "Reservoir Dogs," and a lot has to do with his confidence as a director. The older Tarantino is too confident in his abilities. The majority of "Pulp Fiction" has a lot of energy and snap to it. If you watch closely to the opening scene in "Reservoir Dogs" you won't see that same kind of crisp, confident direction from Tarantino. There are a lot of pauses throughout that conversation and it doesn't quite flow like a Tarantino film that we've become used to. To his credit he was working with some B-list (Some C or D-list) actors. He's not working with much more here, but the majority of his major role players are all acted out terrifically with the exception of one: Bruce Willis- through not fault of Tarantino; Bruce is just a bad actor.
The section of the film that really drags, and is noticeably behind compared to the other two sections, is "The Gold Watch" section. This section is incapable of greatness since Bruce Willis single handedly ruins it with his "Die Hard" facial expressions, especially when they're not needed. The writing here is also the worst and, at times, puts the actors in very difficult situations. This section becomes annoying as we hear Bruce Willis call his girlfriend- that we won't care at all about- Lemon Pie, Sugar Pie, and retard. When he calls her a retard it's pretty funny, but other than that this lacks the punch that Travolta and Thurman provided minutes earlier. This section is bloated with dialogue, bad acting, and uninteresting characters. "The Gold Watch" has its moments and definitely picks up when we meet the gimp and the crazy world that we fall into. It just takes too long getting there. Christopher Walken provides a very interesting and hilarious story of the watch that has been passed down anally from generation to generation of the Coolidge family.
"The Bonnie Situation" may very well be the strongest section of the film. This is where we meet "The Wolf" (Harvey Keitel) as he cleans up a mess made by Vincent Vega in a hilarious scene where he accidentally "shot Marvin the face." "The Bonnie Situation" offers up quite a bit of laughs, some great acting, and a very strong ending. The film ends where it started with Jules (Jackson) talking about changing his life around as he "walks the earth." Thankfully Gods interventionist-like hand, that saved him hours earlier, doesn't make him walk too far as He has sent him a weak person for the transitional Jules to save. The film ends on Jules changing or turning against everything he has ever done or known. Instead of being a bad - and killing "Pumpkin" (Tim Roth), he gives him some money, out of his own wallet, for a chance to start fresh and redeem himself. This might actually be "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny's" last heist, and they have Jules to thank for the chance at redemption and changing their ways.