Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film by director Quentin Tarantino, who cowrote the film with Roger Avary. A crime drama with a nonlinear storyline, the film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, its ironic mix of humor and violence, and its host of cinematic and pop culture references. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture; Tarantino and Avary won for Best Original Screenplay. It was also awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. A major commercial success, it revitalized the career of its leading man, John Travolta, who received an Academy Award nomination, as did costars Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman.
Tagline : Girls like me don't make invitations like this to just anyone!
The film's
title refers to the pulp magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during
the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue. Pulp
Fiction is self-referential from its opening moments, beginning with a title card
that gives two dictionary definitions of "pulp". The plot, in keeping
with most of Tarantino's other works, is nonlinear. The picture's self-reflexivity,
unconventional structure, and extensive use of homage and pastiche have led critics
to describe it as a prime example of postmodern film. Pulp Fiction is viewed as
the inspiration for many later movies that adopted various elements of its style.
The nature of its development, marketing, and distribution and its consequent
profitability had a sweeping effect on the field of independent cinema. A cultural
watershed, Pulp Fiction's influence has been felt in several other popular mediums.
John Travolta as Vincent Vega: Tarantino cast Travolta in Pulp Fiction only because Michael Madsen, who had a major role in Reservoir Dogs, chose to appear in Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp instead. Madsen was still rueing his choice over a decade later. Harvey Weinstein pushed for Daniel Day-Lewis in the part. Travolta accepted a bargain rate for his services—sources claim either $100,000 or $140,000—but the film's success and his Oscar nomination as Best Actor revitalized his career. Travolta was subsequently cast in several hits including Get Shorty, in which he played a similar character, and the John Woo blockbuster Face/Off.
Cast
John Travolta - Vincent Vega
Samuel L. Jackson - Jules Winnfield
Tim Roth - Pumpkin (Ringo)
Amanda Plummer - Honey Bunny (Yolanda)
Eric Stoltz - Lance
Bruce Willis - Butch Coolidge
Ving Rhames - Marsellus Wallace
Phil LaMarr - Marvin
Maria de Medeiros - Fabienne
Rosanna Arquette - Jody
Peter Greene - Zed
Uma Thurman - Mia Wallace
Duane Whitaker - Maynard
Paul Calderon - Paul
Frank Whaley - Brett
Plot
Plot
"Pumpkin"
(Tim Roth) and "Honey Bunny" (Amanda Plummer) are having breakfast in
a diner. They decide to rob it after realizing they could make money off not just
the business but the customers as well, as occurred during their previous heist.
Moments after they initiate the hold-up, the scene breaks off and the title credits
roll.
As Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) drives, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) reports on his experiences in Europe, from which he's just returned—the hash bars in Amsterdam; the French McDonald's and its "Royale with Cheese." The dress-suited pair are on their way to retrieve a briefcase from Brett (Frank Whaley), who has transgressed against their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace. Jules tells Vincent how Marsellus had someone thrown off a fourth-floor balcony for giving his wife a foot massage. Vincent says that Marsellus has asked him to escort his wife while Marsellus is out of town. They conclude their banter and "get into character," which involves executing Brett in dramatic fashion after Jules recites a baleful "biblical" pronouncement.
Vincent
Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife
The "famous dance scene":
Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) do the twist at Jack
Rabbit Slim's.In a virtually empty cocktail lounge, aging prizefighter Butch Coolidge
(Bruce Willis) accepts a large sum of money from Marsellus (Ving Rhames), agreeing
to take a dive in his upcoming match. Butch and Vincent briefly cross paths as
Vincent and Jules—now inexplicably dressed in T-shirts and shorts—arrive
to deliver the briefcase. The next day, Vincent drops by the house of Lance (Eric
Stoltz) and Jody (Rosanna Arquette) to score some high-grade heroin. He shoots
up before driving over to meet Mrs. Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and take her out.
They head to Jack Rabbit Slim's, a 1950s-themed restaurant staffed by lookalikes
of the decade's pop icons. Mia recounts her experience as an actress in a failed
television pilot, "Fox Force Five."
After participating in a twist contest, they return to the Wallace house with the trophy. While Vincent is in the bathroom convincing himself not to act on his growing attraction to his boss's wife, Mia finds Vincent's stash of heroin in the pocket of his coat. Mistaking it for cocaine, she snorts it and overdoses. Vincent finds her and fearfully rushes her to Lance's house for help. Together, they administer an adrenaline shot to Mia's heart, reviving her. Before parting ways, Mia and Vincent agree not to tell Marsellus of the incident, fearing what he might do to them.
Television time for young Butch (Chandler Lindauer) is interrupted by the arrival of Vietnam veteran Captain Koons (Christopher Walken). Koons explains that he has brought a gold watch, passed down through generations of Coolidge men since World War I. Butch's father died in a POW camp, and at his dying request Koons hid the watch in his rectum for two years in order to deliver it to Butch. A bell rings, startling the adult Butch out of this reverie. He is in his boxing colors—it is time for the fight he has been paid to throw.
The Gold Watch
Butch flees
the arena, having won the bout. Making his getaway by taxi, he learns from the
death-obsessed driver, Esmarelda VillaLobos (Angela Jones), that he killed the
opposing fighter. Butch has double-crossed Marsellus, betting his payoff on himself
at very favorable odds. The next morning, at the motel where he and his girlfriend,
Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), are lying low, Butch discovers that she has forgotten
to pack the irreplaceable watch. He returns to his apartment to retrieve it, although
Marsellus's men are almost certainly looking for him. Butch finds the watch quickly,
but thinking he is alone, pauses for a snack. Only then does he notice a submachine
gun on the kitchen counter. Hearing the toilet flush, Butch readies the gun in
time to kill a startled Vincent Vega exiting the bathroom.
Driving back
from the apartment, Butch encounters Marsellus by chance while stopped at a stop
sign. Butch rams him with the car; another automobile then collides with his.
A chase on foot ensues, and the two men land in a pawnshop. Butch is about to
shoot Marsellus, when the shopowner, Maynard (Duane Whitaker), captures them at
gunpoint. Maynard and his accomplice, Zed (Peter Greene), take Marsellus into
the back room and rape him, leaving a silent masked figure referred to as "the
gimp" to watch a tied-up Butch. Butch breaks loose and knocks out the gimp.
He is about to flee when he decides to save Marsellus. As Zed is raping Marsellus
on a pommel horse, Butch kills Maynard with a katana. Marsellus retrieves Maynard's
shotgun, shooting Zed in the groin. Marsellus informs Butch that they are even
with respect to the botched fight fix, so long as he never tells anyone about
the rape and departs Los Angeles forever. Butch agrees, leaving town on Zed's
chopper with Fabienne.
The Bonnie Situation
The story returns to Vincent
and Jules at Brett's. After they execute him, another man (Alexis Arquette, Rosanna
Arquette's brother) bursts out of the bathroom and shoots wildly at them, missing
every time before an astonished Jules and Vincent can return fire. Jules decides
this is a miracle and a sign from God for him to retire as a hit man. They drive
off with one of Brett's associates, Marvin (Phil LaMarr), their informant. Vincent
asks Marvin for his opinion about the "miracle," accidentally shooting
him in the face while carelessly waving his gun.
Forced to remove their bloodied car from the road, Jules calls upon the house of his friend Jimmy (Quentin Tarantino). Jimmy's wife, Bonnie, is due back from work soon and he is very anxious that she not encounter the scene. At Jules's request, Marsellus arranges for the help of Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel). Wolf takes charge of the situation, ordering Jules and Vincent to clean the car, hide the body in the trunk, dispose of their bloody clothes, and change into T-shirts and shorts provided by Jimmy. He also pays Jimmy for his linens, used to cover the bloody seats while they drive to a junkyard where Wolf's girlfriend, Raquel (Julia Sweeney), works. Wolf and Raquel leave for breakfast, and Jules and Vincent decide to do the same.
Jules and Vincent eat, and the discussion returns to Jules's decision to retire. In a brief cutaway, we see "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny" shortly before they initiate the hold-up from the movie's first scene. While Vincent is in the bathroom, the hold-up commences. "Pumpkin" demands all of the patrons' valuables, including Jules's mysterious case. Jules surprises "Pumpkin," holding him at gunpoint. "Honey Bunny," hysterical, trains her gun on Jules. Vincent emerges from the restroom with his gun trained on her, creating a Mexican standoff. Jules explains his ambivalence toward his life of crime and as his first act of redemption convinces the two robbers to take the cash they've gathered and go, pondering how they were spared and leaving the briefcase to be returned to its rightful owner.
Development and production
The first
element of what would become the Pulp Fiction screenplay was written by Roger
Avary in the fall of 1990:
Tarantino and Avary decided to write a short, on the theory that it would be easier to get made than a feature. But they quickly realized that nobody produces shorts, so the film became a trilogy, with one section by Tarantino, one by Avary, and one by a third director who never materialized. Each eventually expanded his section into a feature-length script-.
The initial inspiration was the three-part horror anthology film Black Sabbath (1963), by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava. The Tarantino–Avary project was provisionally titled "Black Mask", after the seminal hardboiled crime fiction magazine. Tarantino's script was produced as Reservoir Dogs, his directorial debut; Avary's, titled "Pandemonium Reigns", would form the basis for the "Gold Watch" storyline of Pulp Fiction.
Several scenes and images from the film achieved iconic status. Jules and Vincent's "Royale with Cheese" dialogue became famous. The scene of Travolta and Thurman's characters dancing has been frequently homaged, most unambiguously in the 2005 film Be Cool, starring the same two actors. The image of Travolta and Jackson's characters standing side by side in suit and tie, pointing their guns, has also become widely familiar. In 2007, BBC News reported that "London transport workers have painted over an iconic mural by 'guerrilla artist' Banksy-. The image depicted a scene from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns." Certain lines were adopted popularly as catchphrases, in particular Marsellus's threat, "I'm 'a get medieval on your ass."
The combination of the mysterious suitcase is 666, the "number of the beast". Tarantino has said that there is no explanation for its contents—it is simply a MacGuffin, a pure plot device.
Pulp Fiction (soundtrack)
Track listing
"Pumpkin
and Honey Bunny" (dialogue)/"Misirlou" (Quentin Tarantino/Fred
Wise, Milton Leeds, S. K. Russell, Nicholas Roubanis) – 2:27
Dialogue
excerpt featuring Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer; song performed by Dick Dale &
His Deltones
"Royale With Cheese" (Quentin Tarantino) – 1:42
Dialogue excerpt featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta
"Jungle
Boogie" (Ronald Bell and Kool & the Gang) – 3:05
Performed by
Kool & the Gang
"Let's Stay Together" (Al Green, Al Jackson,
Jr. and Willie Mitchell) – 3:15
Performed by Al Green
"Bustin'
Surfboards" (Gerald, Jesse and Norman Sanders and Leonard Delaney) –
2:26
Performed by The Tornadoes
"Lonesome Town" (Baker Knight)
– 2:13
Performed by Ricky Nelson
"Son of a Preacher Man"
(John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins) – 2:25
Performed by Dusty Springfield
"Zed's Dead, Baby" (dialogue)/"Bullwinkle Part II" (Quentin
Tarantino/Dennis Rose and Ernest Furrow) – 2:39
Dialogue excerpt featuring
Maria de Medeiros and Bruce Willis; song performed by The Centurions
"Jack
Rabbit Slims Twist Contest" (dialogue)/"You Never Can Tell" (Quentin
Tarantino/Chuck Berry) – 3:12
Dialogue excerpt featuring Jerome Patrick
Hoban (as "Ed Sullivan"); song performed by Chuck Berry
"Girl,
You'll Be a Woman Soon" (Neil Diamond) – 3:09
Performed by Urge
Overkill
"If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)" (Maria McKee)
– 4:55
Performed by Maria McKee
"Bring Out the Gimp" (dialogue)/"Comanche"
(Quentin Tarantino/The Revels) – 2:10
Dialogue excerpt featuring Peter
Greene and Duane Whitaker, song performed by The Revels
"Flowers on the
Wall" (Lewis C. Dewitt) – 2:23
Performed by The Statler Brothers
"Personality Goes a Long Way" (Quentin Tarantino) – 1:00
Dialogue
excerpt featuring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson
"Surf Rider"
(Bob Bogle, Nole Edwards, Don Wilson) – 3:18
Performed by The Lively
Ones
"Ezekiel – 25:17" (Quentin Tarantino) – 0:52
Dialogue
excerpt featuring Samuel L. Jackson
Animation
- Comedy - Crime
- Documentary
-
Family - Foreign
Language - Historical
- Horror - Musical
- Political
Recommended- Romance- Science Fiction and Fantasy - Sport Movies -- Thriller - War - Western - Wildlife
A map of where different US films & TV programmes blanket across the USA are
ZANADU - A FUN BASED SITE, WITH SOME FILM RELATED SECTIONS
Flight Las Vegas Nevada - Find a flight to Las Vegas
Cheap flights Beijing - Get your tickets here Fly to Beijing
Bank Interest Rates - A Website on Bank Interest Rates
Car Cheap Insurance - Get Cheap Car Insurance from here
Flights London - Want to fly to or Visit London get your Flight and Hotel place here
Get
your fave music here for your IPOD
Buy DVD Rent DVD Get your DVDs from here