Op-Ed

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2005)

I don't know how many reviews of Pulp Fiction are on the IMDb website, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents worth. If you have the time or patience, go to my review of Mean Streets, Scorcese's classic hood drama from 1973. If Mean Streets made me feel icky, Tarentino's Pulp Fiction made me feel almost feverishly sick to my stomach. PF gave me cramps as I sat squirming through the buckets of blood, the sick humor, and all the talented and elegant film-making expended to bring forth this profoundly ugly movie.
I'm not religious, but Pulp Fiction and its director's predecessor, Reservoir Dogs are almost . . . evil. I don't use that word lightly, nor do I feel particularly spiritual when I see movies, but this thing and its creator feel bad, just wrong.
The best movie I have ever seen is Roman Polanski's Chinatown (Polanski isn't exactly a poster boy for virtue considering his notorious legal problems) and even though the bad guys win in Chinatown, Nicholson's J.J. Gittes is a virtuous man. Virtue defeated is still virtuous. Quentin Tarantino has created more than one film where there simply is no virtue (although Samuel L. Jackson's character makes an attempt toward the end of Pulp Fiction, the soul of the movie is a darkened husk by then).
Pulp Fiction is a cheerless, hateful thing that finds humor in human beings accidentally losing their lives. When I saw it, I wanted to find out what all the buzz was about. When it was through, I was depressed, sad for the vermin on the screen and off.
I've written that I like movies with grit and depth; my wife likes to be entertained. If you've never seen Pulp Fiction (or if you have and want to see it again), take my advice and rent something old and Disney.
Or even Chinatown. At least there's somebody to root for.