I don't know why, but I liked it.

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2006)

I'll say this straight off: Pulp Fiction, unlike Tarantino's previous film Reservoir Dogs, is appropriately titled. Pulp is a publication which, according to dictionary.com, contains "lurid subject matter." This film is, put simply, trash.And I can easily see why this film may be a low point in American cinema. I can see how there can be a large amount of people who see the horrendous things this movie may or may not promote and call it the end of civilization. And I can easily see myself fitting into that crowd very well.
So why do I like PULP FICTION? I keep looking for reasons to hate it, but I can't find them.
Gratuitous violence? Can't people see that this sort of pointless bloodshed isn't entertaining? And yet I've seen worse: KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) is about a man who is able to kill seven men and one woman (all played by Alec Guinness) to become the Duke of Chalfont. And how about Titus Andronicus? That Shakespeare was one sick mother-- Profanity? Isn't this level of f-word usage unreasonable? And yet only yesterday I encountered two men who had never seen the movie before and were dropping f-bombs like a WWII blitzkrieg. It's not unreasonable; it's a reflection of society. It's not pretty, but then I didn't expect the Muppet Movie on this one. The other forms of deviance in this film? One word: DELIVERANCE. Aesthetic self-indulgence? Hey, I sort of liked CITIZEN KANE as well. It uses a camera trick every second, and not one of them helps the plot itself. But I felt it worked. Some films are good because they have a great story. Some films are good because they look nice on the mantelpiece. (The best films, of course, are both.)
I don't know why I should hate PULP FICTION.
But if that's the case, then why should I like it?
Good acting? I've seen less wooden characterizations in children's nativity plays. Samuel L. Jackson does a good job, and Bruce Willis has my favorite performance, but everyone else seems a bit held back by their foppery. Stylish camera-work? Some angles were nice, creating some good opportunities for my laptop wallpaper, but nothing spectacular. Dancing? You call that dancing? Music? Well, yes, I suppose I do like it. But at two hours and more, the soundtrack isn't enough to like a film.
Well, here goes everything:
Maybe I enjoy this film because it can show that, beneath the violence and the cocaine snorting, there truly is a humanity of some sort. That's why the film opens with such a loving couple robbing a restaurant. That's why two killers can talk so much about foreign fast food. That's why Bruce Willis can go back to save the man who previously was trying to kill him. That's why the film ends with the return to the restaurant scene, with one final act of redemption. That's why the good people get off the hook and the bad ones are killed by toasters.
Maybe I like this film because it shows that even the lowest scum has a sense of humanity.
Maybe I like it because it proves that it's never too late to do right.
Maybe I like it because it has a (BLEEP)in' adrenaline-injected heart.
Maybe.
While I can't give it the full marks some believe it deserves (in my mind, Tarantino's other masterwork RESERVOIR DOGS was better), I do think this is something worth watching. Just remember, as mentioned before, that this truly is Pulp Fiction. But it's Pulp like you've never seen before.