A Modern Day Canterbury Tale

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 1999)

Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" was a frame story: there was one overall story/link that binded all the characters (they met at the inn on the road) which is at the beginning and end of the story but in between are mini-stories about each of the travellers. "Pulp Fiction" is a modern version. The frame in this case is the Diner which is where, like Chaucer's inn, the main characters meet. In between we get mini-story's like Butch's tale (the Knight if you will), Vincent's tale (the Sailor) and Jules' tale (the Monk). Each is interwoven with the other except that chronologically, they are out of synch (Butch wastes Vincent in his tale but Vincent is in the Diner frame part of the story). The dialog is sharp and has some serious hidden meanings at times--Tarintino is notorious, like Stephen King, for lacing the dialog with pop-culture references. Witness the scene outside Jack Rabbit Slims where Mia asks Vincent "You're not a square Daddy-O are you?" and proceeds to "draw" a square in the air ala Pebbles Flintstone. This blurring of the film's reality with our reality lets you know Tarintino is not some by the books director with no sense of what "Joe Bagofdonuts" does--he watches TV too! Kevin Williamson's re-writing of the horror film rules owes alot to "Pulp Fiction" and it's acknowledgement of just who is going to see movies these days. Rent it, buy it... the bonus cut footage alone is worth a look.