pulp / n. 1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter. 2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough unfinished paper.
- American Heritage Dictionary
New College Edition
Pulp fiction can briefly be defined as a combination of three absurd tales about a bunch of weirdos being told in the most disorderly, devil-may-care manner and yet is an intriguing mousetrap. What makes this movie a delight to watch is its weird yet interesting buzz sessions between various characters. Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction released in 1994 defied the very concept of meaningful film making. Tarantino was en route to his legendary status after this bizarre flick. The movie incorporates three stories whose characters bump into each other at various points of the film. Chronology is a deceased factor in most of Tarantino’s movies and so is in Pulp Fiction.
Lance: ’’If you are alright say something’’.
Mia: Something..
Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace’s Wife
Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules (Samel L. Jackson) are hitmen working for Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Vincent is directed by Marsellus to take his wife, Mia (Uma Thurman), out while he is out of town. The buzz in the circles is, another hitman called ’’Tony Rocky Horror’’ was thrown out of a fourth story by Marsellus ’coz he gave Mia a foot-massage. Now, Vincent wants to play it safe by keeping the date with Mia as formal and nonphysical as it could be. They head out for a snazzy, 50’s restaurant called ’’Jack Rabbit Slim’s’’ where Buddy Holly is the waiter and Marilyn Monroe is the waitress. After a cautious conversation they head out to the dance floor to twist on Chuck Berry’s ’’You Never Can Tell’’ (the dance surely reminds you of the classic ’’Grease’’, other than the fact that John Travolta looks huge and fat this time). Things go wrong later in the night when Mia starts O.D’ing due to snorting heroin, thats when Vincent takes her out to his friend, Lance (Eric Stoltz) for an adrenalin shot.
The whole episode is absolutely hilarious. For one thing thats outward is Tarantino’s obsession with music and drugs.
The Gold Watch
Prologue: Young Butch has been awarded his family legacy , ’’a gold watch’’ by Captain Koonz (Christopher Walken) who was a mate of his father in the Vietnam War. Now this watch has been with his great grandfather in the WW-1 and then his grand father in the WW-2. His dad after being captured in the Vietnam war, stuck up the watch in the most undesired place to keep it safe for 5 years. Once his dad died of dysentery it passed on to Koonz’s. Now it comes to young Butch straight out of Koonz’s and young Butch is delighted.
Trust me, its a laugh riot when Koonz narrates the history and legacy of the gold watch.
Butch (Bruce Willis) is now a retiring boxer who has been paid by Marcellus Wallace to go down in the fifth round. But he decides to win the game and double cross Wallace. The story is about how Butch gets into trouble due to his gold watch and handles his escape from Wallace.
Vincent: You know what they call quarter-pounder with cheese in Paris? -- Royale with Cheese
Jules: What do they call a Whopper in Paris?
Vincent: I don’t know. I never went to the Burger King.
The Bonnie Situation This story couples the loose threads in the entire movie. Jules and Vincent vega are out for a hit when Jules witnesses a miraculous escape from death. He suddenly acknowledges god and understands Ezekiel 25:17 (a phrase from the bible which he brilliantly babbles out to scare people when he is out on a hit). Jules, who is on the path to righteousness also prevents a robbery in a coffee shop (being planned by Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer)). We also see Tarantino and Harvey Keital as Jim and Wolf in this story.
Conclusion: Drugs, sex and violence on the roll backed up with some mind boggling dialogues and performances by Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta and Bruce Willis. This movie is a cult classic, one of its kinds and definitely rocks. It is Tarantino’s all time best along with Reservoir Dogs and True Romance (which he only wrote).
The soundtrack particularly impresses me. It features Kool and the Gang’s Jungle Boogie, Chuck Berry’s You never can tell, Urge Overkill’s Girl, you will be a woman soon and Dick Dale And His Del-Tones’ Misir Lou.
Definitely worth a watch.. Pulp Fiction Rocks.....