THE non-linear timeline and sheer coolness of Pulp Fiction inspired Generation X to become lightweight film pseuds who never got round to Truffaut or Tarkovsky. Is it even any good?
Things happen out of order
Like your mother’s anecdotes, the events in Pulp Fiction flash back and forward in time, following characters and abandoning them, concluding where they begin. And like that your mother’s anecdotes, if it was all in the correct sequence it’d be a preposterous set of non-events.
The quotable dialogue
The ‘You know what they call a quarter-pounder with cheese in Paris?’ exchange is funny, because you don’t expect hitmen to be having a borderline-moronic chat about fast food. It’s less funny now, after a million pop-culture obsessed assassins in a million shit films.
Rapidly diminishing returns
If there’s one trick Tarantino has nailed, it’s subverting expectations. It’s never what you think: When Mia is stabbed with a hypodermic – she sits up! When a gun is emptied at Jules and Vincent at point-blank range – it misses! When Marvin gets shot in the face – you’re just sitting there going ‘Mmm, well, that was a bit unexpected’.
The unfortunate events of the pawn shop
Male rape, scary gimp, racist guy, pipe-hittin’ n-words; memorable filmic nastiness that makes Scum look like The Railway Children, but it’s hard to divine any deeper meaning. Still, there’s a happy ending: a man will be tortured to death.
Everything is ‘iconic’
Mia’s and Vincent’s dance? Iconic. Jules’s Bad Mother Fucker wallet? Iconic. Walken’s watch monologue? Iconic. Everything’s so bloody iconic you start to wish a character would just drive somewhere without cracking wise about Godzilla or whatever.
The glowing briefcase
Tarantino’s clever-clever take on a MacGuffin? Pseuds bring up numerous fan theories too, eg. it’s Marcellus’s soul. So now the film’s supernatural as well? It would be great if Tim Roth opened it and said ‘wow, fairy lights’.
What’s the point of all this?
Take away Tarantino’s pulp sensibilities and box of tricks and there’s not much left. What’s the film telling you? Crime doesn’t pay, except for Butch? Accept the blessings of the Lord when murdering for money? Always check drugs you find in a stranger’s jacket before snorting a fat line? Useful lessons.
