An Original Hollywood

Rating: Null/10 (13 March 1999)

Usually you will not find a film like "Pulp Fiction" come out of the highly formulaic realm of Hollywood. That is precisely why Pulp is so popular with audiences and critics, the time has come for a new breed of film within the industry. There are a number of elements which makes Pulp Fiction one of the best and most important films in Hollywood.
Something that is very original about Pulp Fiction is of course its structure. It is both a narrative and non-narrative film at the same time. Tarantino takes on the roles of a novelist and a filmmakers, simultaneously. He tells three stories instead of the conventional single story and they are told through a number of perspectives. This makes the film much more interesting than usual and it tightens the shared universe that all the characters dwell in.
Tarantino's film is not meant to be a parody like many interpret it. It is supposed to represent real-life. The film's structure is circular; the film ends where and when it began to represent the perpetual crisis of life, the unending conflicts that exist within the reality we live in.
In fact, Tarantino emphases this point by attacking the Hollywood interpretion of life and displaying a conflict and contrast within that. Tarantino stereotypes many elements of his film to that of the conventional Hollywood presentation. He typifies the crime genre with his characters (2 washed-up hitmen, the crime boss, the crime boss's wife), their costumes (black, sullen), the violence, the death, the drugs. We see it all but then it is all twisted out of its conventional shape. The hitmen do not talk like usual hitmen displayed on film. They talk of TV pilots, toe massages and filthy animals. And even though they start out in the typical gangster situation with an assigned murder and retrieval of some goods, we then follow them for the rest of the day, instead of abandoning that story right then and there. We see conflicts and situations arise that are very unexpected and unusual for men such as these. Both their language and situations are atypical of their stereotype. We see that people of this constructed, everyday world do not go through a formula of life, they experience life in a seemingly unplanned fashion, just like real-life.
And when you look at Pulp Fiction nowadays, it has the very appealing retrospective ensemble cast. What I mean by this is that now everyone in it is a big star but back in 1994, they weren't all that they are now. John Travolta was wash-up and Pulp redeemed his career, Samuel L. Jackson was not well known, Bruce Willis had come off a bunch of box-office bombs like The Bonfire of the Vanities and Mortal Thoughts, Uma who?, Ving Rhames was a vitual unknown, Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer are purely creations of Quentin Tarantino, Eric Stoltz was trapped in the 80s teenage genre. In fact, Harvey Keitel was probably the only star but his character in the film was purely a creation of Hollywood and maintained that way throughout. This film still has a lot of appeal when you look at the cover box in a video story nowadays because it has this huge cast.
Tarantino's direction is also not that larger-than-life style that you are used to in a big Hollywood film. He lets his actors live and really indulge into their characters. He lets action take shape and remain on screen longer than would be expected such as Jules taking a long sip from a Big Kahuna coke or Butch walking to his apartment to retrieve his gold watch. He puts lots in the edges of the frame like the board games Operation and Life while Mia is about to get her adrenline shot. He integrates subliminal messages into his scene which take repeat and careful viewings to extract. Pulp has so much, both on the surface and within; much more than Hollywood is used to.
When you watch Pulp Fiction, try to remove yourself from those who feel they have to love it because everyone else does. Love it for what it really has and for what you can really see and feel. Watch Pulp Fiction over and over, and with each viewing look for something new and you will find it. You will usually only find a film with any similar merit as Pulp Fiction in the realm of non-narrative, avant garde cinema. But now that style has invaded Hollywood so take advantage of its genius and enter the world of fiction (but remember that nothing is as it seems, maybe even the title).