Pulp Fiction

Summary

“Oh man…I shot Marvin in the face.”

As a child, I remember that there was a television show on E! Entertainment Television called Coming Attractions. It was literally thirty minutes of movie trailers. That was all the show was, partially because E! was the most underfunded network on cable at the time (this was way before the Kardashians.) I think mainly because I was so young and not allowed to watch anything that was above a PG rating, this show was my sole pipeline to the type of grown up entertainment that I craved to see in the future. I saw a preview for Pulp Fiction months before it came out and I knew that it would be something special. 

Pulp Fiction went to Cannes Film Festival in 1994 and won the Palme d’Or. Upon its theatrical release in 1994, the $8.5 million dollar picture did just under $214 million dollars at the box office. It was an absolute sensation – a true cultural juggernaut. In 1995, at the Academy Awards, David Letterman walked through one of the greatest slates of nominees of all time for the Best Picture award. The nominees were: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Quiz Show, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, and The Shawshank Redemption. While Quiz Show and Four Weddings and a Funeral are both solid films, the other three films nominated remain some of the finest films of that era. Forrest Gump took home the award that evening, but Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption are every bit its equal. Pulp Fiction was nominated for six Academy Awards in total, which is a good indicator of its overall excellence. Pulp Fiction took home the award for Best Original Screenplay, which netted Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino their first Oscar. Tarantino has been nominated numerous times since then, but has only taken the Oscar home once more for his screenwriting on Django Unchained. Pulp Fiction remains Tarantino’s most influential film and the film most commonly considered to be his masterpiece.

Pulp Fiction’s screenplay is really unique. The film is divided into separate stories that interweave in some ways and move back and forth through timelines. It is a nonlinear approach that allows the stories to have consistently surprising moments where they cross over.

The first story in the film focuses on hit men Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent “Chili” Vega (John Travolta) as they have a difficult day on the job. Wearing black suits and ties, they start their day discussing Vincent’s recent return from Amsterdam and the cultural differences of fast food restaurants in Amsterdam from their counterparts in the United States. They then talk about how an acquaintance had been seriously injured for giving their boss Marcellus Wallace’s wife a foot massage. After discussing those issues, they enter an apartment to retrieve a briefcase for Marcellus from some of his business associates. The visit to the apartment turns violent setting off a chain of events.

Another story focuses on Vincent taking out Marcellus Wallace’s wife Mia (Uma Thurman.) Vincent picks up some heroin from dealer (Eric Stoltz) and shoots up before the date. He picks up Mia and takes her to a novelty diner called Jack Rabbit Slim’s. Mia orders a five dollar milkshake and goes to the lady’s room where she snorts coke. Mia was in a pilot that wasn’t picked up called Fox Force Five. They discuss that and other things as they sip on her face dollar milkshake she orders. Vincent asks her about the rumor regarding the foot massage. They do a twist competition and return to her house where she accidentally mistakes some of his heroin in his jacket for coke.

Another story focuses on a boxer named Butch (Bruce Willis) and a golden watch he has inherited from his dead father. Butch is supposed to take a dive in the fifth round of a boxing match. He has been paid off by Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) in advance. Instead, Butch kills his opponent in the ring. He plans to flee Los Angeles with his winnings from betting on himself with his girlfriend Fabienne (Maria de Madeiros.) When he realizes that she has accidentally left his only prized possession – his father’s watch – at their apartment, Butch must put himself into danger to retrieve it.

Unless you were alive in 1994 it is hard to explain just how much of a cultural phenomenon Pulp Fiction was. After demolishing the box office and anointing Tarantino as the filmmaker to watch for Generation X, the film caused a seismic shift in American filmmaking in general. Once people saw Tarantino’s fusion of noir elements, Elmore Leonard style dialogue, and violence played for laughs, a generation of filmmakers knew they had to step their game up. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I would think that Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary must have been extremely flattered by the films that were released in the wake of Pulp Fiction. Just like many imitators have tried to emulate Coca-Cola, their secret formula still remains the best. There have been some films that I hold in high regard that came in the wake of Pulp Fiction that owe some gratitude to the film (Snatch, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, The Boondocks Saints,) and there were numerous weak independent films that tried to emulate Tarantino’s style without any of the substance. It is worth pointing out that many of the best films that came in the wake of Pulp Fiction were based on Elmore Leonard novels which were a huge influence on Tarantino’s writing. Tarantino would later adapt Rum Punch by Leonard into the excellent film Jackie Brown. 

When Pulp Fiction was released, there was not a video store in the country that did not have a permanent poster of the film on some wall in the store. This was a film by video store clerks for video store clerks. The film hides knods to Fellini (the dance scene) and so many other directors throughout the course of the film, while never veering from a style that is Tarantino’s own. That is what makes Tarantino’s work so special – everything feels familiar but still feels fresh. Tarantino’s encyclopedic knowledge of film is evident in every film he makes. There are some exercises in style that work in the film despite being impractical, such as the sequence where Butch rides in a taxi after the boxing match. The taxi is obviously on a sound stage with rear projected footage behind it to show movement. The footage in the background is black and white stock footage from a different era – maybe even from a different city. This is a throwback to films from the Sixties and before, and by all accounts this technique should pull the audience out of the film rendering the film unrealistic. Somehow, that isn’t the case. The rear projection technique is also used during Vincent’s date sequence as he drives to pick up Mia, and in that case it works because Vincent has just injected heroin. It’s possible that this first use of rear projection desensitizes the viewer to the use of the technique to where we can accept it during Butch’s sequence. Whatever the case – Tarantino’s stylistic gambles all pay off.

Working with cinematographer Andrzej Sekula – who had also worked with Tarantino on Reservoir Dogs – Tarantino infuses the film with color while keeping the film grounded in its Angelino noir setting. The film was shot in Anamorphic Panavision using Arriflex and Panaflex cameras and lenses. The lightweight cameras allowed for a lot of motion, which can be best seen during sequences involving Butch’s character (his walk to the apartment – the way the camera swings around him in the bar.) Like many of Tarantino’s best films, Pulp Fiction benefits from his love for and knowledge of Los Angeles. The film navigates through bars, pawn shops, diners, homes, and apartment buildings; always keeping Los Angeles at the center of what happens. While Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood may be Tarantino’s greatest love letter to Los Angeles, Pulp Fiction would come in a close second place. Like Michael Mann’s Heat, or Altman’s Short Cuts and The Player, Pulp Fiction is one of the films that really defines Los Angeles.

The film has an incredible ensemble cast. John Travolta played against type as Vincent Vega. At the time, Travolta’s career was defined by the Look Who’s Talking films and his amazing performance in Blow Out was a distant memory. Tarantino single-handedly brought Travolta back into prominence as an actor by casting him in the film. Travolta was nominated for his iconic performance for Best Actor. He lost to Tom Hanks for his turn in Forrest Gump, but Travolta’s trajectory as a serious actor was forever changed. Samuel L. Jackson is remarkable in the film as Jules. The role was written specifically for Jackson, and it shows. Jackson had been reliably great in films in supporting roles (Spike Lee joints, Jurassic Park, etc.), but Tarantino put Jackson front and center as Jules. It is safe to say that this role gave Jackson the thriving career he has now. It remains one of his very best roles in a long and distinguished career. His performance was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but he lost to Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption. Uma Thurman is dynamite in the role of Mia and netted a nomination for Best Actress. She would prove a muse for Tarantino and helmed both of his wonderful Kill Bill films. Mia is probably the role that she will always be most associated with. Bruce Willis is perfectly cast as Butch. Aside from playing John McClain in Die Hard, this is Bruce Willis’s best role. It allowed the actor to be cast in some of his best roles such as Twelve Monkeys and The Sixth Sense by showing his versatility, but it still did not betray his action star chops. It is a perfect role for the actor and one of his very best performances. Ving Rhames owes his entire career to the film. I have heard nearly every line he says in the film repeated at some point in my life by somebody. His speech after his run-in with Zed is one of the most quoted. Harvey Keitel, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Tim Roth, and Amanda Plummer are all great in their parts. Steve Buscemi has a solid cameo as a Buddy Holly lookalike waiter at Jack Rabbit Slims. Peter Greene is memorably intimidating as Zed. Aside from the main performers, my favorite role in the film is Christopher Walken’s five-minute sequence as Captain Koons. His five-minute monologue regarding Butch’s father’s watch and the difficult trek it took to get to Butch may be my very favorite scene in the film. Walken is amazing..

At the end of the day, Pulp Fiction was a defining film of the American independent film movement of the Nineties. It is just as good now as when it was released and completely shook up the entire film industry. A true classic.

Video

The new 4K HEVC/H.265 transfer from Paramount Pictures, is a great improvement over the 2011 Blu-ray release. The 4K UHD brings out much more detail than the Blu-ray release and the source is in excellent shape. The color timing of the picture is true to the original intentions of the filmmaker and does not show any unnatural signs of tampering or dramatic tweaking. The film’s color palette has never looked better, with some of the more colorful sequences popping off the screen but never betraying the original look of the film. Fine detail is improved from the prior Blu-ray, but the film still maintains the limitations of the source material in terms of some softness in backgrounds.

Audio

Paramount Pictures have provided the same very good DTS-HD MA 5.1 track for this release as was presented on the 2011 Blu-ray. Obviously, a Dolby Atmos track would have been a very welcome improvement, but the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is still effective. Clarity is excellent and the track is immersive with occasionally strong surround and LFE channels support. I recognized that this is a track that plays better when turned up just slightly louder than some more recent releases. Once you crank it up, the film may not exactly shake the walls of your house, but it delivers a very good representation of the original theatrical sound.

Supplements:

UHD: 

• Not the Usual Mindless Boring Getting to Know You Chit Chat
• Here are Some Facts on the Fiction
• Enhanced Trivia Track

Blu-ray: 

• Not the Usual Mindless Boring Getting to Know You Chit Chat
• Here are Some Facts on the Fiction
• Pulp Fiction: The Facts – Documentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Behind the Scenes Montages
• Production Design Featurette
• Siskel & Ebert At the Movies: The Tarantino Generation
• Independent Spirit Awards
• Cannes Film Festival – Palme D’Or Acceptance Speech
• Charlie Rose Show
• Marketing Gallery
• Still Gallery
• Enhanced Trivia Track

Overall Scores: 

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 5/5

Pulp Fiction changed the cinema landscape of the Nineties when it was released in 1994. After winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, it became an absolute sensation theatrically. It propelled Quentin Tarantino forward as a visionary creative genius of his generation and redirected the careers of all the actors involved in the film. It is a perfect film from one of the greatest American filmmakers. I consider it to be one of the best films ever made and there are strong arguments to be made that it is still Tarantino’s best film. It is the most influential film from Tarantino’s canon, and one of the defining films of the Nineties. Fans of Pulp Fiction will be happy to see that Paramount’s new 4K UHD presentation of the film is a big leap forward visually from the 2011 Blu-ray. The movie has never looked better and was a joy to watch on my projection screen. The audio presentation is the same as on the prior Blu-ray release, but the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track replicates the original theatrical experience very well. Paramount has released the film in a standard release or in a good looking steelbook edition. Both earn our very highest recommendation.