My top 30 films - No.16

16. Pulp Fiction (1994) - "You won't know the facts until you've seen the fiction."

The winner of the 1994 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Well it's the only one that premiered at Cannes that year that I've actually heard of. It is the "second" film by Quentin Tarantino and shows how he managed to build on the success of Reservoir Dogs.

The one thing the film is most famous for is its nonlinear storyline. There are a number of chapters of event that happen in this film, but not all in chronological order. By the end however, it is easy to work out the correct order.

The prologue begins in a diner, featuring a conversation between "Pumpkin" (Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs and Lie to Me)) and "Honey Bunny" (Amanda Plummer) discussing whether or not to rob it. The next scene introduces the audience to Vincent Vega (John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever)) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson (Jackie Brown)), who are both gangsters who worked for Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible)). Marsellus has sent them to collect a briefcase from a group of clients.

The first chapter, entitled "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife", in which Vincent takes Marsellus' wife Mia (Uma Thurman (Kill Bill)) out for dinner to a 50s nostalgia restaurant. This includes an iconic dance scene to Chuck Berry's You Never Can Tell.

Chapter two, "The Gold Watch", concentrates on boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis (Die Hard)), who accepted a sum of money from Marsellus to take a dive in an upcoming fight. However, he accidentally kills his opponent and bet on himself with his payoff from Marsellus. Butch meets up with his girlfriend Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) at a motel, but is angry with her because she has forgotten his gold watch. In the prelude to this, we see a young Bruce being given a gold watch, that has long been in his family's history, by Captain Koons (Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter and Catch Me If You Can)); Butch's father died serving alongside Koons in Vietnam. So Butch has to return to his apartment to look for it, knowing that Marsellus' men are after him.

The final main chapter, "The Bonnie Situation", carries on with Vincent and Jules, after they have collected the suitcase. However, there are, let's say, complications, which means they need the help of Jimmie (Quentin Tarantino) and Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel (Means Streets, Taxi Driver and The Piano)). But, they need to do this before Jimmie's wife Bonnie comes back home from work. There is then a final epilogue following this. 

Like in Inglourious Basterds, there is evidence that Quentin Tarantino is good at dialogue set pieces. The most notable one for me has to be when Vincent and Jules are discussing difference between Europe and America, from hash bars and drinking a glass of beer in a cinema in Holland to ordering a "Royale with cheese" in a French McDonald's. It also features long shots following the characters as they are walking, which includes Jules and Vincent getting "into character". There is a theme of bathrooms in this film, specifically when Vincent goes to them and returns, bad things happen.

In terms of acting, this performance briefly revitalized John Travolta's career. He was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, losing out to Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump.  Also nominated that year was Morgan Freeman for The Shawshank Redemption. It is a bit of a shame Travolta hasn't done anything good since. The main candidate for his role was actually Michael Madsen, who played Vic Vega in Reservoir Dogs. However, Madsen was appearing in Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp at the same time. Tarantino did think of a film starting both Travolta and Madsen as the Vega brothers, but it remains unrealized. Another actor considered for this role was Daniel Day-Lewis. Paul Calderon was originally chosen to play Jules, if it wasn't for Samuel L. Jackson deciding to audition again. He nails that role and is in some way quite "bad-ass" about it. Calderon did appear in the movie as well. Tarantino did create characters specifically for the actors who played them, including Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer and Harvey Keitel. Tarantino described Harvey Keitel as his favourite actor since he was 16.

As with all of his films, the soundtrack is from Quentin Tarantino's collection. The most iconic song from the film is Misirlou by Dick Dale & The Del-Tones. This is the song that features in the opening titles. The basic musical style of the film was surf music, which includes that and Surf Rider by The Lively Ones and Bustin' Surfboards by The Tornadoes. As well launching the career of Urge Overkill with their cover of Girl, You'll Be a Women Soon, the film saw the rebirth of classic hits such as Jungle Boogie by Kool & The Gang and Dusty Springfield's Son of a Preacher Man.
This film did only win one Oscar and that was for Best Screenplay (Tarantino shared it with co-writer Roger Avary). Its three main stars (Travolta, Jackson and Thurman) were nominated in their respected categories and it was up for Best Picture. It echoes classic films and TV shows as Tarantino pays homage to them. It is a prime example of postmodern film and be remembered forever. My only criticism is the influence from Jean-Luc Godard and Tarantino's admiration for him. Tell me Quentin, did you see/like/understand Film Socialisme?