A paradoxical clarification of our confusing world

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2001)

Some people think that Pulp Fiction is unique because of its formlessness. However, not only does the film have form, stereotypical characters and a traditional moral framework, but it is a self-proclaimed derivative tribute to other classic films. Pulp Fiction is unique, paradoxically, because of its laborious adherence to cinematic tradition.
Except for the ending, the form is mostly linear: the coffee-shop incident is succeeded by Travolta's story (with Uma Thurman) which is followed by Bruce Willis' story. The opening scene in the coffee-shop jumps back in time slightly (like a nudged record needle ) and what follows is the Samuel L. Jackson (with Travolta) interrogation scene; a dislocation which is reversed, or put right, at the end where the interrogation scene is followed by the coffee-shop scene (temporally correct).
The final section of the film covers the time-period just before the start of the film and ends just after the start of the film. It charts the bloody conclusion to the interrogation scene; Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta's baptismal hose-down (the head of the hose, looking like a gun, punishes them with a cold jet and cleanses them of their sin, like a re-birth; instead of being shot with bullets, they are chastised with water and re-clothed in ordinary civilian, rather than gangster, clothes) and ends with Jackson's conversion. In the coffee-shop Samuel L. Jackson  the character with the most authority, partly due to his powerful Old Testament prose  has a religious revelation and gives up his gangster life. It is the extremity with which this cliché (gangster has revelation and gives up bad life) is executed that makes it unique; it is the excessive conservatism of Jackson's divine enlightenment  with the miraculous escape from the bullets, the harsh baptism, and the gradual understanding of the bible quote he has repeated all his life  that is so shocking and surreal. It is his complete lack of distinctiveness (his wallet doesn't have his name written on it, but Bad Mother F***er'  it may as well read Bad Guy') that makes him so memorable and iconic.
A work of fiction that focuses on character-in-action is moralistic by default; morality being the manifestation of psychology when it interacts with the world. The film tells three short-stories which focus on a certain character and end with that character reaching the moral high point of his life (like the thousands and thousands of other stories, both timeless and corny). The first one involves Travolta and Thurman, the gangster boss's wife and ends with him saving her life, delivering her home safely before walking away (rather than sleeping with her). The second is an escape story involving Bruce Willis which ends with him saving the gangster boss who was originally trying to kill him for an earlier misdemeanour. The third and final story is the story of Samuel L. Jackson, ending with his conversion.
It's a shockingly good film, with an absolutely inspired absurdity to it.

Pigs are filthy animals  I don't eat filthy animals.' - Yeah, but bacon tastes good; pork chops taste good.' - Pigs sleep and root and shit  that's a filthy animal. I ain't eating anything that ain't got sense enough to disregard its own faeces.' - How about a dog  a dog eats its own faeces.' - I don't eat dogs either.' - But do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal?' - I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they're definitely dirty. But a dog's got personality  personality goes a long way.' - So by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal.' - We'd have to be talking about one charming mother f***in' pig.'

It is it's surrealism  with time becoming disjointed  that makes it so close to every day life (which is confounded by memories - the past living in the present). It is a film that is so surreal that it seems real and so hackneyed that it is totally unique; it is a paradoxical clarification of our confusing world.