Pulp Fiction (1994) directed by Quentin Tarantino

AFI Top 100: #94

I seem to have a lot of favorite movies lately. While Baby Driver stays at the top of the list, I recently watched Pulp Fiction again and realized that right next to Reservoir Dogs, it is definitely my favorite Tarantino film. There are so many aspects to love about this film, including its amazing performances and confusing chronology which is just a part of its groundbreaking charm. After a recent lecture about the study of mixed genre, I realized that this film is so much more than the memes associated with it. Ain't that neat.

One of the best parts of this film was its use of events that are not in chronological order. This is trademark of Tarantino's style, and was also used in his first  big-budget film Reservoir Dogs. This type of narrative structure provides so many more questions than answers, but I believe that is what keeps the audience drawn in. Finally finding out what some of the biggest unanswered questions are feel so rewarding to the audience. Aspects that I loved about this film the most were the performances. Especially that of Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta. Their characters Jules and Vincent, respectively, were embodied so well by them. Starting and ending the film with their characters was a very smart choice because they were absolutely the highlight acting of the film. Other parts that I loved were the character development seen in basically all of the characters. They each had their own story arcs which, eventually tying together, had their own motivations and goals. This film was also one of the first to openly display rape in a public setting. While there have been obvious films in the past that explored this touchy subject, Tarantino had the guts to tackle it head-on. Including extremely racist background with the perpetrators made this scene that much more uncomfortable, but necessary to tell the harsh reality of the story. Either that, or Tarantino just really likes to use the n-word. Probably a little bit of both.

One of the best, and my favorite, elements of this film is the genre it is included in. Since it is considered a mixed genre, that means that it has a little bit of everything included in it. If someone were to ask you what genre this film was, you would probably answer gangster drama comedy thriller. Which makes sense in your mind, because it definitely pulls many qualities from all of those, and more. I love this film so much because you can not truly understand the title of the film until you understand that it is a mixed genre. Hence the name Pulp Fiction.

The only negative comments that I have about this film includes the story with Bruce Willis's character Butch, the boxer. His story was probably the most loosely-connected one of them all, and I would have wanted to seen more of his interactions with the characters of Vincent and Jules. A large majority of Butch's story has been left unanswered, and it is up to speculation many parts about him. The biggest example would be that of his father. We never hear anything about him until the scene with Christopher Walken, and even then, it is questionable whether or not Walken's character was telling the truth or not. In any case, Willis's character was portrayed very well, and definitely would not have had the same effect with any other actor.

This review seems short, but that's because you have to see this film for yourself. If you haven't ever seen Pulp Fiction, I would strongly recommend it, as it is arguably one of the most popular cult classics of all time. Giving us amazing scenes ranging from the burger confrontation to Jules's mid-life crisis, this film has a little bit of everything for everyone.

My Rating: ★★★★½