My Favorite Movies: #3—Pulp Fiction

3. Pulp Fiction (1994) 

Genre: Gangster Drama 

Director: Quentin Tarantino 

Writer: Quentin Tarantino 

Stars: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames 

Awards: 1 Oscar—Original Screenplay

Metacritic score: 94 

IMDB Ranking: #7

I first heard about this movie driving to work in St. Louis and listening to Morning Zoo radio host J.C. Corcoran try to describe this new movie he saw called Pulp Fiction. He failed, admittedly. He did not have words to explain the absolute genius of what he saw. All he could effectively say about it was go see it. I did.

Pulp Fiction is a completely transformative movie experience. It completely wipes away all your preconceived notions about linear narrative structure, plot connectivity, even cause-and-effect. It takes, quite literally, the types of lurid, violent, sexual stories from '50s-era pulp novels (named for the cheap paper they were printed on) and turns them into three interlocking cinema novellas that, when released, transformed everything we thought about what movies should and could be.

This was the movie that made Quentin Tarentino the most exciting director in Hollywood, that made Samuel L. Jackson a movie star, that made Uma Thurman a household name, but most unexpectedly, resurrected John Travolta's career from the dead in a way for which there are few other analogues in cinema history. 

Every aspect of this profane, violent, thoughtful, and darkly hilarious film is extraordinary, but allow me to point out a few of the more obvious qualities of greatness. Of course, the non-linear story structure, while not unheard of in film, has never been done more effectively. Massively complicated flow charts have been posted on the Internet attempting to chart the chronology of events, but that's not necessary. In fact, the non-linear structure is one of the primary appeals of the film.

The three stories work independently but contain important interactions. The primary story is that of Jules (Jackson) and Vincent (Travolta), two hired killers in the employ of drug kingpin Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), who are sent to reacquire a briefcase with something extremely valuable inside. We never find out what it is, which gives the film a timeless mystery for film geeks to debate about. They kill three young men to get the briefcase, taking their inside man along with them as they leave. This is the story that essentially opens the movie, with the aftermath acting as the close.

The next story is self-contained, although Jules and Vincent discuss it in the first part. Marcellus is out of town and has asked Vincent to take his wife, Mia (Thurman), out to keep her company. There are two problems here. First, there is an enormous attraction between Vincent and Mia, which Vincent works hard to resist, as he has no desire to mess with the boss's wife. Second, Vincent is a heroin addict, and Mia is a coke head. She finds Vincent's bag of heroin, and mistaking it for cocaine, snorts a bunch of it and has a nearly fatal overdose. If you've never seen what Vincent does to save her life (and by extension, his own), I'm not going to spoil it for you except to quote Rosanna Arquette's reaction to what happens: "That was fuckin' trippy!"

The third story is called "The Gold Watch." Washed-up boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) is paid by Marcellus to throw a fight. Instead, he bets a ton of money on himself, knocks out and kills his opponent, then grabs his girlfriend to run away with his money. One problem: she forgot to pack his gold watch, his only connection to the father he never met who died in a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war cell. He risks everything to get his father's gold watch, and I do mean everything. What happens is another bit of genius that I won't spoil; suffice it to say that when Butch tells his girlfriend, "Baby, this has been the weirdest day of my life," you will totally agree with him.

The last act of the movie is titled "The Bonnie Problem," and it is a continuation of the briefcase story that opened the film. Vincent accidentally shoots their young accomplice, Marvin, in the face, splattering his head all over the inside of the car. They flee to the home of their nearest compatriot, a coffee connoisseur named Jimmy (Tarantino, who likes to act, too), who only agrees to help them if they're gone before his wife, Bonnie, comes home from work. Jules calls Marcellus, who assures him to relax...he's sending "The Wolf" (Harvey Keitel), who "solves problems." Boy, does he ever!

The dialog throughout the movie is perhaps the best of any movie I've ever seen. Tarentino's real genius is for making mundane conversations seem deep and meaningful, and scene after scene of this movie does that so effectively. Like my previous two selections this week, every scene is iconic, but none more so than when Vincent and Mia dance at the retro restaurant "Jack Rabbit Slims." (Side note: why did no one ever make this restaurant a reality?)

I can't depart without mentioning the soundtrack as well. A mix of R&B, blues, rock, pop, oldies, and surfer-dude guitar, the soundtrack is as important as any other aspect of this film in making it so memorable. I could write an entirely different blog entry (and very well may someday) on the philosophy of this movie, which grapples with the concept of miracles and fate in a way that few other scripts dare to attempt. I have no further superlatives with which to praise this film, other than to urge anyone who hasn't seen it before to watch it at your earliest opportunity.