My Review of Pulp Fiction (1994)

 

Written by Quentin Tarantino And Roger Avery

Directed by Quentin Tarantino 

Jules: "Besides I've already been through too shit this morning over this case to hand it to your dumb ass."

There are a lot of quotes I could've used to open this review and many of them were very lengthy, which is par for the course when it comes to any movie made by Quentin Tarantino, good or bad. Stating the bleeding obvious, this particular movie would fall into the category of one of his best movies to date though.

Broken into four connecting stories, this film opened with a couple at a diner. Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Yolanda (Amanda Plummer) find themselves deciding to rob the place. Unfortunately for them they chose the wrong diner to rob and the wrong guy to antagonise to boot. While Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) was almost willing to help them in their goal, he wouldn't hand over a certain case. Then his partner, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) stepped into the fray and let's just say that things didn't end well for Pumpkin and Yolanda.

Of course, Pumpkin and Yolanda's story while opening and effectively ending the movie wasn't even the most violent part of it. For the most part, it was the scenes involving both Vincent and Jules, the hitmen of the piece that had a lot of violent scenes in them. We get to see these two very different men working together, with Jules going through something of an epiphany towards the final act while Vincent has his own adventures.

Together the two of them did take out a group while retrieving a suitcase for their mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) when they weren't in need of a cleaner Winston Wolff (Harvey Kietel) to take care of one of their bigger messes. Both Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta have an excellent rapport with one another and make for an excellent team but of course, there's another actor with whom Travolta also had his best on screen chemistry with.

I'm of course talking about Uma Thurman who gave an amazing performance as Marsellus's wife, Mia. The chemistry between Thurman and Travolta was off the charts, especially in their diner scene together as both Mia and Vincent enjoyed sizing the other up for their own amusement. A little incident with the wrong drugs of course nearly took their rapport down a dark path and Vincent didn't need to be on Mia's husband's bad side, considering how he dealt with those who wronged him.

That led to Bruce Willis's boxer, Butch Coolidge who conned Marsellus out of money, inadvertently killed his competition and wasn't best pleased with his girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) misplacing his father's watch. However that was the least of Butch's problems when both him and Marsellus wind up getting taken captive by the depraved Maynard (Duane Whitaker) and Zed (Peter Greene) in without a doubt the most gruesome scene resulting in the most deserving of just desserts for measure. 

Yup, for a movie that could've easily taken any of these plots and had them stand on their own, the way all of them converge on each other worked rather brilliantly here. The performances from the mains, in particular Travolta, Jackson, Thurman and Willis are sublime but no one slouches here. Some of the language might be a bit shocking for this age but it's fine within the context of the movie itself.

- Tarantino played the role of Jimmie while Eric Stoltz played the drug dealer, Lance who helped Vincent revive Mia. We also learned that Mia was in a pilot that never made to air.

- Other talented actors who appeared in smaller roles in this ,movie included Rosanna Arquette, Bronagh Gallagher, Steve Buschemi and Christopher Walken.

- Standout music: Jungle Boogie by Kool And The Gang, Son Of A Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield and Let's Stay Together by Al Green.

- Chronology: The film came out in 1994, so I'm assuming it's around that time for it to.

Pulp Fiction without a doubt has to be the movie that's a gold standard for Quentin Tarantino, highlighting his strengths as a writer and director. It's a gripping yarn from start to finish with plenty of memorable moments and shocking sequences and a lot of quotable scenes. 

Rating: 9 out of 10