HUH?
That was my first reaction when Pulp Fiction ended and the credits started rolling. My cousin and I were left mumbling '' I don't get it''
ENLIGHTENED
A few days later I am still wondering how Quentin Tarantino managed to pull it off.
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PLOT:
I am going to do my best to reveal as little of the plot as possible as I want you to enjoy it in the same manner in which millions have.
The movie is like a jigsaw puzzle. This means there is no climax per se. Infact the last scene is a continuation of an earlier scene.
It describes the events of four days (I came to that conclusion after racking my brains!) through various situations that have been placed in a random manner rather than going through them one by one.
Jules (Samuel L Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are two men working for mob boss Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames).
Jackson wants to pull off one last job before retiring for good.Travolta is pissed off that he has to take Ving Rhames's wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out for dinner. This is because Travolta is unsettled by rumors that Rhames had severely injured one another man who had been incharge of taking his wife out.
Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) is a boxer who is ordered by Rhames to throw a boxing match he is expected to win so that they can make money.
That is there all to the plot. Other characters do come up but these are the essential ones
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What makes this movie special?
1. Characters:
You just cant help but falling in love with the people in this movie.
The mannerisms of each character, their emotions, the idiosyncrasies that make each character special all contribute enormously to the brilliance of this movie.
From the intense Jackson to the lovable Travolta to the capricious Willis each character is dealt with beautifully. The sultry Uma Thurman stands out in her small role.
Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel make memorable cameos in the movie in different situations. While Walken makes an appearance in a flashback, Keitel is incharge of cleaning up a mess created by Vega (Travolta)
2. Direction:
What comes out strongly out of this movie is Tarantino's respect for the viewer and his confidence that the viewer will be able to figure out the whole thing himself/herself.
Tarantino does not lay out everything in sequence for the viewer to numbly accept, as is normally the case in all other movies.
Being such a huge fan of great movies himself, Tarantino incorporates different moments from great movies into this one. He makes a very interesting cameo appearance near the end (his acting skills aren't bad either)
3. Dialogues
I will need many tomes to describe the dialogues in this movie.
The movie starts off memorably with a man explaining to his girl friend the finer points of robbing a fast food diner.
This just sets the pace for the fantastic dialogues that follow. The ones involving Travolta and Jackson are memorable.
The two are found talking about why the French use a different term to describe a quarter pound with cheese burger (hope you figure out why! If you cant that's a good enough reason to catch this movie). The next you find them talking about the reasons every show has a pilot before lapsing into a very serious conversation about divine intervention.
Jackson in particular stands for the ease with which he delivers his dialogues. Whether it is a lengthy discourse about giving another mans wife a foot massage or quoting a passage from the Bible, Jackson does it with a great degree of panache.
Jackson's ' pleasant ' conversation with a young boy who double-crosses his boss is out of this world.
Christopher Walken makes a memorable appearance (in a flash back ) talking to a young Bruce Willis about his fathers sacrifice. This is a beautiful and a hilarious scene and the camera focuses solely at Walken.
Watch out for Uma Thurman's memorable joke! Oh---the F word is used around 400 times in the movie
4. Class
The movie oozes class in every respect. The word Slick comes foremost into the mind as I recall some of the scenes from the movie.
The camerawork is outstanding with long shots of focus being put into great use.
Long shots are memorably used for Walken and also for Willis's opening scene as he takes orders from Ving Rhames.
- The Music
The movie had a soundtrack that is as big as the movie itself. It also rekindled interest in 60's and 70's music. With songs like Girl You will be a woman soon ( Urge Overkill) and the brilliant You Never Can (Chuck Berry) ( used in the dancing contest which Thruman and Travolta win) the soundtrack of the movie did just as well.
The opening scene would have been dull and boring without the films theme song Misirlou ( Dick Dale & His Del-Tones ) . Brilliant guitars start off this movie
in great fashion.
Many of the songs are integral to the scenes themselves. Bruce Willis singing Flower on the Wall ( Statler Brothers ) just before he comes face to face with the one man he does not want to see is the best example of that.
My Opinion
Movies like Pulp Fiction don't come out often. Movies that are near perfection are rare, this has got to be one of them.
Movies that makes you and I think never come by and that adds to its value.
I can't wait to watch this movie again in the hope that I can catch some of the finer points of this movie. Tarantino like our very own Ram Gopal Verma never attended directing school. He was a clerk at a video rental store and his sheer love for movies comes through beautifully in the movie.
No review is going to do justice to this movie. You have to watch it for yourself.
In case you can't grasp it the first time, I can bet good money that you will find yourself watching it again.
Waiting to watch and review Kill Bill next!
