Pulp Fiction

There have been cult films before and after, but there is hardly one that personifies the 'cult film' tag as Pulp Fiction does. An achievement of epicly irrelevant proportions. Quentin Tarantino's defining opus, it stands as a frighteningly awe inspiring example of the gangster/crime genre. From it's wicked dialogue to ironical excesses, it is indeed a groundbreaking movie.

Quentin Tarantino stands as a peerless figure in the world of direction. His brand of violence may have been invented by Scorsese, but there is hardly any director apart from Guy Ritchie who has managed to make it seem so utterly palatable,delicious to be precise.

In Pulp Fiction, he gives us ample evidence to his class and a gift to know what his audience wants. This could be marked as a milestone for Non Linear storytelling with it's different plotlines interwining in one heady cocktail. The various characters ranging from Butch the boxer (Bruce Willis), Jules and Vincent (John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson), Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) were all very aptly cast and did justice to their characters. However, this is one film where the stars take a backseat to their characters, the story and the dialogues.

This is certainly best exemplified by Jules (Samuel L Jackson) whose dialogues range from "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men" to the far more earthly and pop culture reverential "Well I’m a mushroom cloud layin’ motherfucker, motherfucker. Every time my fingers touch brain, I’m "Superfly TNT". I’m "The Guns of the Navarone". In fact, what the fuck am I doing in the back? "

There are so many fantastic scenes that it doesn't let the whole film sag for even a bit. The dancing scene at Jack Rabbit's, the accidental killing of a guy in Jules and Vincent's car, when Butch finally meets Marcellus Wallace, the Honey Bunny section, there are quite a lot. Indeed, memorable moments abound throughout the film.

The violence is there in all it's gory glory but it is again a testament to Tarantino's brilliance that we are laughing when two guys are cleaning a car covered in blood. With his use of irony and twists of fate, lined with eclectic character lines, the violence is often just a spectator to the action unlike most similar movies where violence is glorified.

While this film followed the excellent "Reservoir Dogs" you can still see the impact of Kubrick's "The Killing". That does say it all, maybe Kubrick's successor is Tarantino. But, Tarantino is his own man and his decided American character filters through in his movies. The man has a legacy based on a single movie and it's impact on pop culture.

The incredible thing about this movie is it's attention grabbing. Most movies today cannot feature this much dialogue as is evidenced by the constant violence and special effects that today's movies are so highly reliant on. When Butch's girlfriend Fabienne tells him she wants a pot belly but later remarks `It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye are seldom the same.'', a dialogue that would find people turning up their noses in any other movie but here we care, we reflect and realise the stark, irony clad truth and it is where this film wins.