Royale with Cheese...

Rating: 10/10 (26 July 2003)

I went to Paris recently. Whilst walking down the famous Champs Elysees, I decided to check out the local MacDonald's just to see exactly what they do call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. To my disappointment, it wasn't "Royale with Cheese" (or should that read "avec fromage"?) but something slightly different.. I forget what it was exactly, but that's not important...
To call a movie like Pulp Fiction special is like... well.. it's special. A special movie. Masterpiece, even. Tarantino's script must rank among the sharpest and wittiest ever written. A lot of the dialogue is completely unnecessary as far as narrative goes, it does very little to forward the plot. Yet it is the dialogue that makes the movie so compelling and holds the interest of the audience just as well as any brilliantly told story could. This isn't to say that the movie has no decent narrative flow or substance to the story. Far from it. Tarantino's less than chronological way of telling this story makes it all the more intriguing. On first viewing, this may baffle viewers throughout most of the presentation. However, such a feeling just makes the final diner scene (where everything ties together) all the more satisfying. The three stories that are chronicled in this film are all unique, yet filled with the same brilliant drama and dark humour that wowed audiences of Tarantino's two previously penned films, Reservoir Dogs and True Romance.
The characters in this movie are unforgettable and brilliantly written. Each and every event in the movie contributes greatly to the personality of each of them. By the end of it, we feel greatly acquainted with those that have the most limited screentime. They are backed up by a superbly talented all star cast. My two personal favourite performances being those of the fantastic Samuel L. Jackson (in a brilliant break-through role) as the wise-cracking hitman Jules Winnfield, and the legendary Harvey Keitel as the wonderfully odd fix-it man Winston Wolfe. Honourable mention should also go to the always outstanding Christopher Walken in his small but intriguing part as Captain Koons. Needless to say, the rest of the cast do Tarantino proud and all give some of the best of their career.
At less than ten years old, Pulp Fiction is regarded as one of the finest of offerings in over a hundred years of cinema. It is one of the most important films of the twentieth century. Watch it, if you don't like it, keep watching it until you do. 9/10 (because I never give tens).