Not So Millennial: Re-visiting Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" in 2021.

The movie begins by educating the audience on the meaning of "pulp". So pulp fiction is the fiction dealing with lurid or sensational subjects, often printed on rough, low-quality paper manufactured from wood pulp. Now, what is Tarantino's Pulp fiction about? Undoubtedly the Tarantino wackiness. I am no movie-critic or filmmaker, I am movie enthusiast. Here, I will be sharing my thoughts on Pulp fiction. 

 

Everything might seem normal in the gangster world. Blowing up a person's head in the daylight-normal, Killing a guy in fight and escaping without the knowledge of anyone- normal, Getting OD'd and coming back to life-normal, Stabbing a woman's heart with a syringe- normal, escaping a set of gunshots without a slightest injury- NORMAL. So, it is the Gangster's world and others are just a part of it. We, the viewers are allowed to sympathize or feel only for the people linked up in the gangster world. We see a women getting shot in the middle of Butch-Wallace fight, we see four young men getting killed, We even see Quentin Tarantino as Jim in the movie, who is only scared about his wife and not seem to bother about the boy who was killed in an accidental gunfire.  We travel with them and feel for them because we are watching the movie from their point of view. The kill people for their living thus they are like any other working man. The women in the movie are opinionated, they have fantasizes of their own. Mia Wallace living on her terms for one day when her husband is not there, the women who is so passionate about her 18 piercings, the driver who wants to know what is it like to kill a man, the girlfriend who wants to have a pot belly and eat a pancake with blueberry breakfast, portray women with desire. Men are in the run. They are either trying to kill or escape. The not-so straight manner of film-making makes the movie interesting. It makes people to watch it over and over again only to discover new elements. The movie unleashes elements of humor in the most unnatural way, that is what dark-humor does, isn't it? The pep-talk delivered by Wallace and the monologue by Walken builds to the movie's biggest laugh. Before the scene shifts to Wallace I thought Butch was talking to himself. That is what is special with this movie, the screenplay, the editing and the camera id perfectly is in sync even when the story is not non-linear. Who needs a straight graph when one can connect the dots on their own? Jules' version of Ezekiel 25:17 and his theory of divine intervention makes us question about right and wrong. In fact that makes us clear that each person's perspective towards a particular incident is his right or wrong. It is your decision. There are a few dialogue which stayed with me. Mia Wallace saying, "That's when you know you found somebody really special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably share silence". Fabienne's wise words, " It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye are seldom the same.'' Wallace standing up to the man who raped him, giving him a punishment that he deserves, Jules trying to calm Yolanda, Butch saving Wallace, Vincent not behaving inappropriately with Mia shows the gangster's character. The experienced trying to teach the inexperienced with ease is also showcased in  the movie. Winston Wolfe who cleans up the mess and Jules advising Tim and Yolanda are those instances. What the anthology made me think was that if the climax of every story a divine intervention? Might be.

 

I see Uma Thurman holding a cigarette in the poster for pulp fiction. That is great but I want a poster with Maria de Medeiros' character Fabienne saying, "I don't give a damn what men find attractive.'' With all those dialogues in the movie we can say that, Tarantino is undoubtedly a visionary and probably the coolest director during that time.