Review 301: Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is a masterpiece, one of Quentin Tarantino's best films, if not the best and one of the most ingenious movies ever made.

1.      Prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) has decided to stop payment on a deal he's made with the devil (crime boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames)). Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) and Pumpkin (Tim Roth) are young lovers and small time thieves who decide they need a change of venue. Meanwhile, two career criminals, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson), go about their daily business of shooting up other crooks that are late on payments to their boss. While Vincent is asked to baby sit Marsellus  dangerously pretty young wife Mia (Uma Thurman), Butch suddenly realizes that he must give up his life of crime.

The plot is a work of sheer genius, it's a story, or several stories for that matter, about crime, loyalty, betrayal, fate and chance and misunderstandings. But it deals with these themes in such an ironic way that you'll probably mistake it for a comedy and in some ways it is: A black comedy.

Crime: Pulp Fiction is not just about a bunch of criminals doing horrible things, it's about the human side of crime because all the characters are criminals and hitmen but they talk about normal every day things e.g. Jules and Vincent ask what a cheeseburger is called in French and they discuss things like pilot episodes for TV series. And all these conversations show the characters' perspectives on life and a very human side of criminals.

Loyalty: The majority of the stories centre on the hitmen's loyalty to their boss Marsellus and to each other. There is also an uncharacteristic kindness near the end of the film between Marsellus and Butch which don't usually expect in hitmen. In the incident between and Mia and Vincent they agree not to tell Marsellus what has happened on their evening out.   

Betrayal: Pulp Fiction shows the consequences of what happens to those betray their boss.

Fate, Chance and Accidents imitate life in Pulp Fiction showing how unpredictable events can change the course of well laid plans.

Pulp Fiction is also one of the funniest crimes films ever made. It has an unpredictable irony because we see the pitfalls as they happen in daily life and the way the characters have to deal with these unexpected events. Even though the situations might not be ones we face in everyday life the human emotions are ones we all feel e.g. what we do when a crisis occurs. 
  
But what really makes Pulp Fiction tick are it's characters. The characters are so real they feel like people we may know even though the job they do is out of our league. You could almost imagine them as a really good friend of yours or someone you'd go out and have a drink with. By the time one of them is killed you really grow for them.

Tarantino's direction is outstanding, the soundtrack is outrageous, it's brilliantly lit and paced, the cinematography is elegant, the make up is rich, the tension is killing, the costumes are stylish, there are hysterical touches of humour sprinkled throughout, 

The acting is sensational. The whole cast is stellar here, one of the best ensambles in a movie: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Maria de Medeiros, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Bruce Willis.
Each gave a spectacular performance and even the minor characters e.g. Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), Butches girlfriend, were people you could identify with and not just bit parts.

Pulp Fiction is an amazing crime film and actually a very hard film to write about, 5/5.