Justin's Rating: But, will I be a man soon?
Justin's Review: Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino's magnum opus, used to bug the nuts out of me. It annoyed me to a degree that I've only felt elsewhere when I had to babysit shrieking mouths attached to hyperactive toddlers. What made it worse was that the whole world seemed to adore this film, and you know there's nothing more infuriating than hating something that everyone else just loves to death. After a while, you become convinced you're the only sane person left, and you might as well trigger the apocalypse to get it over with.

"If Q.T. wasn't so pretentious and fascinated with how incredibly awesome he thinks he is, then he might have learned how to properly wield an editing machine."

But now, it's okay. I was worried at the time that Q.T. was initiating a massive brainwashing campaign and was going to roll out irritating movie after irritating movie following this, nonstop. But since the guy is so anal and picky as to what self-indulgent projects he will work on, we're blessed with a reprieve of about twelve years between each of his flicks. I can handle that. And I can handle Pulp Fiction, which is easily the highlight of his first three films.

Not to say that it doesn't still bother me in some ways. I don't know what film school he went to, but Q.T. has absolutely no concept of pacing and plot. He's ever-so-much more concerned with style and mood and happily spanking himself over a cleverly placed camera angle that it becomes impossible to have any semblance to a normal movie. Here's a quick break-down of Pulp Fiction: 50% meaningless dialogue that does not serve to advance the plot, but gives Q.T. a venue to rant about various pop culture topics; 45% pauses where nothing happens but the camera just keeps on filming, possibly because the crew fell asleep; and 5% actual story, action and plot. It tests the patience, and delivers just enough to keep you from drop-kicking this film into a neighbor's window.

Pulp Fiction is a jumbled narrative that goes back and forth between stories and a fractured timeline. I particularly enjoyed this non-traditional approach to watching a story, and when the storylines intersect, it's a bit of a rush. A couple hit men having a bad day, a crime boss who's having an even worse one, a boxer on the run for his life, a girl on the verge of dying from an overdose, a man who specializes in cleaning up gruesome messes, two restaurant robbers, and Zed -- this is the cast that life is made from. The movie bounces back and forth between them, not pushing any one storyline as the alpha male, but just letting us tag along for the ride.

While Pulp Fiction was responsible for the unfortunate resurgeance of John Travolta's career (and thus allowed the travesty known as Battlefield Earth to take place), I don't really care for him here. He's got the smirking thing down, but what else? Greasy hair? No, I'd rather sit at the feet of Samuel L. Jackson instead, batting my eyes and fawning over his infectious wit. Jackson, who is as intense in his faux-Biblical quoting as he is sarcastic in his comebacks, makes my day here. He's a hit man with a heart of heart tissue, and the man knows how to carry his bad self.

If it weren't for the combined threat of both Travolta and Jackson as the hit men, I just know that everyone would remember Pulp Fiction for Bruce Willis instead. He's that close from carrying the film away from all others. As Butch, a boxer who has a wrist watch which is intimately connected to Christopher Walken, Willis is the most likable presence here. For one thing, he shuts up on occasion, which is rare in a Q.T. flick. Plus, he gets to wield a samurai sword, and you can't not be cool doing that in a film.

Pulp Fiction is a good movie, definitely odd and definitely unique in flavor. But if Q.T. wasn't so pretentious and fascinated with how incredibly awesome he thinks he is, then he might have learned how to properly wield an editing machine. You know what an editing machine is, Quentin? It's this device that would take a long, long movie that doesn't have enough justifiable material to honestly be this long, and cut it down to something more manageable. Pulp Fiction clocks in at two hours and forty-five minutes. 2 hours and 45 minutes! What the heck? Okay, that's fine for an epic war film like Braveheart, but not for a talky crime drama. At the beginning of this film -- as one example -- the hit men go to an apartment to talk to some guys. It takes them, seriously, around twenty minutes just to get to the point where they enter the apartment. Was this twenty minutes filled with plot or action or anything important? No, it was talk, and pause, and talk, and pause. ARGH!

One of the most important lessons for any author or filmmaker to learn -- early on -- is that you must make painful cuts to your source material in order to make it tight and polished. Another thing everyone learns is that every. single. thing. you write and do absolutely must further the story in some way. If you don't, you might well have a work of genius on your hands, but it just won't be as good as it can be. It'll be diluted with your own unrestrained ego.

I won't even go into how lame it is that Q.T. casts himself in his movies, seeing as how his main acting skill is "Smug Overkill". Let's just let the past be the past, and say that even for a movie with flaws that still irritate me like a flea infestation to this day, I can like Pulp Fiction in spite of all that. Check, please!

John Travolta as "The Vampire Lestat" Samuel L. Jackson as "Afro Muttonchops Dude"

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia's chest was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards.
• Wilson is the name of the fighter to whom Butch is instructed to lose. Wilson was also the name of the fighter against whom Terry Malloy took a dive in On the Waterfront.
• The book that Vincent reads is "Modesty Blaise", by Peter O'Donnell. In that book, a killer indulges in a Biblical rant very similar to that of Samuel L. Jackson's character.
• When Vincent and Lance are attempting to give Mia the adrenaline injection, the board games "Operation" and "Life" are visible in the background.
• Producer Danny De Vito starred in Twins, whose main characters were Vincent and Julius - almost the same as Vincent and Jules in this movie.
• The Big Kahuna burger was also eaten in the movie From Dusk Till Dawn and first appeared in Reservoir Dogs.
• The innocent bystander shot by Marsellus Wallace is the same actor pulled out of her car by Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs
• Butch smokes "Red Apple" cigarettes. The same brand is smoked by Tim Roth's character in Four Rooms
• When Butch goes through the alley, the radio says that the dancing trophy from Jack Rabbit Slim's had been stolen. So you might think that Mia and Vincent did not win, but in fact stole the trophy to make it look like they had won. But the trophy they take home is not the same as the one we see in the diner.
• The F-word is used 271 times
• Every time Vincent goes to the bathroom, something "bad" happens.
• In the opening sequence with Honey Bunny and Pumpkin, Jules can be heard talking about quitting "the life".
• Angela Jones, who starred in Curdled, is the cab driver fascinated with death
• There is a persistent myth that that all the clocks in the movie are set to 4:20 (although, certainly all the clocks on the wall in the pawn shop are set to 4:20). However, in at least two scenes it is obvious that this is not the case. In the "Bonnie Situation" while Jimmy, Vince and Jules are drinking coffee in the kitchen, the clock clearly reads 8:15. Secondly, when Vince and Jules go to retrieve the briefcase, it is "7:22 in the a.m.".
• In the opening credits, the music changes as if it were on the radio just as the credit for "Music Supervisor" appears on the screen.
• Vincent unzips a case to reveal an old-fashioned glass syringe, yet the extreme closeups of the syringe show it is made of plastic.
• The bullet holes are already in the wall behind Vincent and Jules before the guy fires off the "Goddamn Hand Cannon". [thanks The Pat]
• Jules's "biblical rant" is only loosely based on Ezekial 25:17. The actual biblical text is a line and a half long, not one full minute. [thank The Pat]
• In the opening scene with Pumpkin and Honey-Bunny, you can see Vincent on his way to the bathroom. [thanks The Pat]
• Honey-Bunny informs the restaurant patrons, "Any of you @#$%ing pricks move...and I'll execute every mother&#$%ing last one of you" in the opening scene (and on the soundtrack), but when she delivers the same line toward the end of the movie, she changes the words around. [thanks Pat!]
• In the scene where Vincent and Jules are on their way to get the briefcase, Vincent is talking about how he “just got back from Amsterdam.” Quentin Tarantino wrote Pulp Fiction while staying in Amsterdam. [thanks Pat!]

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

There's a couple interesting credit references.

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Quentin Tarantino hesitated over the choice between the character he was going to play: Jimmie or Lance. He ended up choosing Jimmie's role because he wanted to be behind the camera in Mia's overdose scene.

Steven Martinez (brother of chief graphic designer, Gerald Martinez) is credited under "Very Special Thanks" and painted the portrait of Mia (Uma Thurman) that hangs in Marcellus' house.

Speculation abounds as to the nature of the mysterious glowing contents of the case: Elvis' gold suit, seen worn by Val Kilmer (as Elvis) in True Romance; Marcellus Wallace's soul (It is an ancient belief that when the Devil takes a person's soul, it is removed through the back of the head. When we see the back of Marcellus' head he has a Band-Aid covering the precise spot indicated by tradition for soul removal. Perhaps Marcellus sold his soul to the devil which would also explain why the combination to open the briefcase is 666.); the diamonds from Reservoir Dogs.

In the edited-for-television version of the film, extreme measures are taken to erase all evidence of "the Gimp." All mentions of him and all his scenes are deleted. In one scene with Zed talking, where in the original film a small portion of the Gimp's shoulder is visible the bottom right corner of the screen, the television version removes it by zooming in on Zed a bit more.

Official and Not-So-Official Websites

• Tarantino Movies FAQ Page
• Timeline for Pulp Fiction

Groovy Quotes

Butch: Will you hand me a towel, tulip?
Fabienne: Ah, I like that. I like tulip. Tulip is much better than mongoloid.

The Wolf: That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten.

Jules: Whether or not what we experienced was an According to Hoyle miracle is irrelevant. What is relevant is that I felt the touch of God. God got involved.

Vincent: And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese?
Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the f**k a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules: Then what do they call it?
Vincent: They call it a "Royale" with cheese.
Jules: A "Royale" with cheese! What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent: A Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it "le Big-Mac".
Jules: "Le Big-Mac"! [laughs] What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.

Marsellus: I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'm gonna get medieval on your ass.

Jules: Say "what" again. SAY "WHAT" AGAIN!

Jules: [shoots a guy on the couch] Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration?

Marsellus: No one needs to know about this except you, me and Mr. Soon-to-be-living-the-rest-of-his-short-ass-life-in-agonizing-pain-rapist here.

Jules: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Mia: Don't you hate that?
Vincent: Hate what?
Mia: Uncomfortable silences.

Lance: You're going to give her an injection of adrenaline directly to her heart.
Vincent: Then what happens?
Lance: I'm curious about that myself.

Fabienne: Whose motorcycle is this?
Butch: It's a chopper, baby.
Fabienne: Whose chopper is this?
Butch: It's Zed's.
Fabienne: Who's Zed?
Butch: Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.

Captain Koons: The way your dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any of the slopes were gonna get their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.

Jules: Correct-a-mundo!

Jules: If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions.

Jules: What country are you from?
Brett: What?
Jules: I never heard of What. They speak English in What?

Soundtrack Review

The soundtrack features a number of dialogue bits from the movie mixed in between songs. The opening title song and Urge Overkill's "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" are the highlights; there's a number of rather forgettable tunes on here too.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Reservoir Dogs
• Jackie Brown
• The Long Kiss Goodnight

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