Quentin Tarantino once again slips up

Rating: 6/10 (13 February 2003)

After opening his film-making career with the violent, gritty 'Reservoir Dogs' Quentin Tarantino followed it up with 'Pulp Fiction'. Told with a similar, non-linear storyline the latter follows the criminal lives of many characters, some of which intersect by coincidence. Tarantino's style of film-making is often incoherent, messy, and just plain obnoxious. While one can praise his entertainment factor, it's not good enough by itself to make a remarkable film. Such is this case with 'Pulp Fiction' which often relies too much on clever editing, smart acting, and foul language.
The film starts off with two lovers talking in a diner: Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Yolanda (Amanda Plummer). As they discuss previous criminal jobs, they suddenly decide to hold up the diner they're in. After they get up with guns, declaring their intentions the film goes to freeze frame and the opening credits role. To describe the entire plot of 'Pulp Fiction' would take too long, and is unnecessarily. It follows the lives of two hit men named Jules and Vincent (Academy Award nominees John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson), a Mob Boss (Ving Rhames), his oddball wife (Uma Thurman), and a boxer at the end of his prime (Bruce Willis). Intertwined among these criminal characters are a myriad of different personalities. There's the twisted Zed, the classy Winston Wolf, and of course Tarantino himself as Jimmy. These characters often come together through different segments and numerous situations. They include a desperate trip to recover a sacred Golden Watch, a case of someone very important overdosing on Heroine, and a botched getaway from a job. The cast is impressive, featuring smaller roles from the likes of Steve Buscemi, Eric Stoltz, and Christopher Walken. While Tarantino has an impressive cast list to boot, other elements of the film often go wrong.
The first thing that comes to mind in Tarantino's films is dialog. He works a labyrinth of different personalities, characters, and events while connecting them with one common theme. The main interaction in 'Pulp Fiction' is violence. It is sporadic, but it comes in bursts of graphic nature. There is, like in 'Reservoir Dogs' comedy mixed in with drama and even action. However, stylistically the combination is lacking. Tarantino ultimately has to use the f-word to establish a certain emotion or mood in his screenplay, rather than relying on directional technique. The cast emotes his dialog to their best of their abilities and the tough build of Jackson is impressive. He gets into his character and fully embodies the hit-man who grows a conscious. The rest of the cast are solid, but Jackson ultimately carries the show with his hilarious delivery and tone.
Technically speaking, 'Pulp Fiction' doesn't accomplish anything new. There is interesting editing by Sally Menke, although the photography by Andrzej Sekula looks dated. A good deal of Tarantino's filmography deals more with more with the "sound" than the "look". There is a fun soundtrack thrown into the mix, but everything looks fairly standard as intended. Tarantino's direction feels off base, mainly because the material he gives himself doesn't really go anywhere. 'Sin City' is an example of a film that is purely based on style and looks, while Tarantino as a filmmaker tries to get a combination of intelligence and entertainment. As these two heads collide, things get messy. Does 'Pulp Fiction' really do anything new for cinema? There's quite a bit of swearing, yes, and the film is looked up to as something out-of-this-world but these are not striking elements. In 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1' Tarantino once again heavily copies from other Kung Fu films, but in that regard he is able to create something distinctly entertaining and visually exuberant. The characters in 'Pulp Fiction' are degenerates, people who kill for a living and people who use drugs regularly. Tarantino has made personal remarks that he condemns this sort of behavior, yet the film stylizes both these elements as if there is a bigger mystique to them then there really is.
In the end, I give 'Pulp Fiction' more than it's fair share of points. It entertains and it has some solid acting-Tarantino's (lack of) ability to really pull everything together for a solid point ends up being his wrongdoing once again.
6/10