Film Review
"Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things" - Robert Browning's
wry observation might well serve as Quentin Tarantino's mission
statement. After making a splash with his stylish debut feature
Reservoir Dogs (1992), Tarantino
engineered something of a cultural tsunami with his next film,
Pulp Fiction, the landmark thriller
that was to prove the most influential film of the decade. As its
title implies, the film has its roots in lurid popular crime fiction of
the past (most visibly the 1960s and '70s), but instead of simply
rehashing the old gangster plots and stereotypes it gives these a new
twist to create something excitingly fresh and original.
Pulp Fiction performs a similarly
post-modern re-evaluation of the classic gangster film which French New
Wave director Jean-Luc Godard undertook with his films
À
bout de souffle (1960) and
Pierrot
le fou (1965), but whereas Godard's intention was to
deconstruct the genre, Tarantino seems to be more interested in
developing its limiting conventions, to come up with something that is
more pertinent to our own era, an era which has become almost totally
desensitised to violence and has increasing difficulty distinguishing
right from wrong.
On its first release,
Pulp Fiction
was especially noted for its extremely graphic portrayal of physical
violence, but whilst there is certainly plenty of blood letting this is
far nearer to Grand Guignol theatre than realist drama. What is
perhaps more shocking is the film's perverse streak of black humour,
and the fact that, in spite of the film's near-the-knuckle brutality,
it is hard not to find it hilariously funny. The smart, punchy
dialogue sprays the audience like a hail of bullets from a 1930s
gangster film, and once you have got over the shock of the first grisly
execution sequence it is nigh on impossible for you to break free of
the vicelike hold it exerts over you for the next two hours and fifteen
minutes. Tarantino's masterstroke was to abandon the conventional
linear narrative approach and instead present the events making up the
three main story strands out of chronological order, ending the film
where it begins, like a serpent swallowing its own tail.
Pulp Fiction proves conclusively
that a story can make more sense, and have far greater impact, if its
events are not related in the way in which they occurred.
(Unfortunately, a lot of copycat filmmakers tried to follow Tarantino's
example, and merely ended up proving the exact opposite.)
Pulp Fiction film wasn't only
good for Tarantino, instantly making him one of the hottest film
directors on the planet, it also salvaged the reputations of two if its
lead actors, John Travolta and Bruce Willis, at a time when both were
taking a seemingly irreversible career nosedive. Travolta was only cast
in the film after Tarantino's first choice for the part of Vincent,
Michael Madsen, declined the role and producer Harvey Weinstein was
unable to get his first choice, Daniel Day-Lewis. The star of
Saturday Night Fever (1977) and
Grease (1978) was so keen to appear
in the film that he offered his services for a derisory fee (in the
region of 100 thousand dollars) - a wise investment as it turned
out.
Pulp Fiction not
only changed John Travolta's image, it immediately catapulted him back
up to the higher echelons of Hollywood stardom and allowed him to be
taken far more seriously as an actor.
Bruce Willis's own career enjoyed a similar boost through this film -
deservedly so, as his performance here is one of his finest. The
film's other standout performance is provided by Samuel L. Jackson, who
is irreplaceable as the Bible-quoting hitman who experiences a bizarre
Damascene transformation and thereby steals the film in its
gripping final sequence. With such a talented trio of lead actors and a
stunning supporting cast (a remarkable ensemble that includes Tim Roth,
Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer and Harvey Keitel - all
excellent), Tarantino could hardly have failed to deliver an
out-and-out winner. Travolta, Jackson and Thurman were all
nominated for Oscars for their performances in this film, and it is not
too hard to see why. Perhaps more than anything, it is the
buddy rapport between Travolta and Jackson (served by some
incredibly bananas dialogue) that has given the film its classic status.
Since
Pulp Fiction blazed its
way onto our cinema screens in the mid-1990s, innumerable other
filmmakers have sought to emulate its stylish mix of comicbook
ultra-violence and jet black humour, but few have come close to
matching Tarantino's unwavering panache, both as a writer and film
director. What makes
Pulp
Fiction stand out is that, beneath the detritus of
gore-splattered excess and sick humour, there is an old fashioned story
of redemption struggling to get out. The protagonists are not the
usual two-dimensional psychopathic hoodlums who revel in brutality for
its own sake; they are mostly ordinary human beings who are desperate
to escape from the nightmarish dog-eat-dog world in which they have
allowed themselves to become trapped.
Pulp Fiction may revolve around
petty underworld vendettas, but this is not what the film is
about. It is about individuals finding the courage to make the
choices that will improve their lives for the better. There is always a way out, if you
know where to look.
Not only was
Pulp Fiction a
massive hit at the box office (it grossed over 200 million dollars, a
good return on its modest budget of 8 million dollars), it also met
with almost universal acclaim from the critics. It took the
coveted Palme d'or when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in
1994 (a rare achievement for a genre film) and was nominated for seven
Oscars in categories that included Best Director and Best Picture,
winning the award for Best Original Screenplay. Hailed as an
instant classic on its first release,
Pulp
Fiction is now considered one of the most important films of the 1990s, a
seminal work in the development of the modern gangster film and a
watershed in cinema's depiction of violence.
And it is funny - killingly funny...
© James Travers 2012
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