Pulp Fiction

Not knowing how to start reviewing this amazing film, as it is considered one of the very best modern classic movies in the 90s. But let's give it a go.

First of all, we have to emphasize the special cast, consisting of John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis, but the special mention should be given to the excellent director and writer of this movie, Quentin Tarantino, without forgetting Roger Avary, who also did a great part of the script.

In Pulp Fiction we find a mixture of disjointed and parallel stories that do not have any global sense, in spite of the nimble winks given by the director (such as the first scene in which Travolta feels like pooing, that matches up with one of the last scenes).

The film is considered a masterpiece by many people; rubbish by others. And I definitely belong to the first group. It has a very original approach and it does not stop there, but it takes us directly to a sequence of stories about violence, drugs and corruption, in which each character has different problems that complicate the situation in such a way that only a good jigsaw puzzle enthusiast could clear it up better than Tarantino.

Pulp Fiction could be disconcerting to the viewer because the narration, full of flash-backs and flash-forwards, interweaves three different but closely linked stories that are not presented in the order in which they happen. In this sense, it is worth to praise Tarantino's witticism fitting every piece of the jigsaw puzzle in such a way that the result has a solid and intelligent coherence.

The film starts with a couple that is going to hold up a bar at gunpoint. Just at the moment when the show is going into action, the credits appear on the screen, what leaves us with a special interest to know how the robbery ends. So, as we will see below, this initial scene will not be solved until the ending, creating the first open front of the film.

On the second scene (that happens before the first one), two hired guns, Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson), dressed up in black suits pretend to recover the mysterious briefcase of the leader, Marsellus Wallace. To do so, they kill with an incredible naturalness two of the three boys who stole the briefcase. But, again, even though the display does not finish there, the film starts another one, contriving the second open front. Then, the thugs meet their boss in a bar, but now they are dressed up in swimsuits. This sequence may leave us a bit disconcerted, because it is sure that something has happened, but there is not yet any trail.

At the meeting, Marsellus entrusts Vincent with entertaining his wife, Mia (Uma Thurman) while he is out of the city. After having dinner and dancing in a restaurant, they go home where the girl takes an overdose of heroin, what makes it a very overexciting situation. Afterwards, Vincent finally achieves reviving Mia and they promise not to tell anyone about what has happened. 

 

Later on, the story of the boxer, Butch (Bruce Willis), gets into the show. Although Marcellus bought Butch to lose a boxing match, he betrays him by wining it. The boxer tries to escape hastily with his girlfriend not to be caught. In their hurried flight, she has forgotten the watch that Butch appreciates so much, so he has to go back home and pick it up.

At his house, Butch finds Vincent very negligent, which gives him the advantage to kill the thug before he could act. After obtaining his watch, he tries to escape again but, unexpectedly, Marsellus cut in front of him. Butch knocks him down and then he has a car crash. 

Even though both are injured, Marsellus sets off in pursuit of the boxer, what ends up in a new situation: they are caught by two mystic men. They finally achieve to getaway of an unpleasant moment and resolve their differences with the condition that Butch has to leave the city as soon as he can. This is chronologically the last scene of the film, but there are still two open fronts that have to

be solved.

The scene in which Vincent and Jules are recovering Marsellu's suitcase comes back. They kill another boy and take another one into their car, where he is also killed but now accidentally. Their black suits get bloodstained, and that is why they turn to a friend, who gives them that curious swimwear with which they arrive at the bar where the film started. There, all of the scenes will be solved as well as the relation that this event has with everything that goes on in the film. The only thing that is not solved is what Marsellu's suitcase contains.

Maybe the best of the film is not the characters or their interpretations, the originality or the provocation, to my opinion the best are the dialogues, Tarantino's unmistakable mark. Supposed absurd and empty messages about hamburgers or foot massages which, behind their gullibility, conceal (or not) a personal code that takes to the depth of each character. There is no doubt that this film ―that mixes complexity and dexterity― is one of the greatest emblematic dialogue makers in the film world.

A masterpiece that, as any masterpiece, is indispensable.