Tarantino's world-creation

Rating: Null/10 (20 July 2004)

"Pulp Fiction" will stand as an example of the creative, life-embracing potential of cinema for generations. Tarantino has succeeded in relating a "fiction" to an audience that has perhaps expected something else: the relation of a set of "facts" in their taken-for-granted context. Tarantino has powerfully understood the potentially authoritarian position lent to a filmmaker with an audience that demands such simplicity, such servitude. The director of "Pulp Fiction" has not delivered a linear, appeasing plot or characters. He has, in a sense, created a world in which situations are not easily rendered in a series of simple cause-effect relationships. The chapters of his story come as he wishes to give them; this is ultimately an act of respect for his audience, allowing them to enter his world and imagine the possibility of their own creations.
Elements of this film remind me of Gary Walkow's 1995 film "Notes from Underground", based on the Dostoevsky novel, which is, fortunately coming to DVD in September. The Underground Man in the story cannot but view his life through a lens; this self-consciousness undermines his humanity and creative possibilities. Walkow's brilliance is reflected in the act of effectively turning the camera on his audience, holding up a relentless mirror to society and its inevitable product: a completely sick, dehumanized, alienated individual. Tarantino combats the mundanity of this alienation in his film "Pulp Fiction" through his ability to relate a "fiction", seeing it ultimately for what it is: his own creation, which he can change and manipulate as he pleases. Both "Notes" and "Pulp" come highly recommended; they each invite the viewer to embrace his or her own agency.