Review of “Pulp Fiction”

“The path of righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children.”

This verse, Ezekiel 25:17, that appears three times during the movie could announce to us a film with religious and Christian significance, but the reality is quite different, even if at the end it could have a change connected with the faith.

Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), a killer, pronounces this fantastic verse immediately before killing his victims. Pulp Fiction is a crime thriller of 1994 directed by Quentin Tarantino, with John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and Tim Roth. It was nominated for seven Oscars: it won for Best Original Screenplay. Also it was awarded the Palm D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the opening scene there is a couple discussing their plans of robbery in a café. Everything appears to be normal: the music in the background is the typical noise of a café. Moments after Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and  Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) initiate the hold-up, the scene breaks off and the titles roll. Still the scene needs to be continued… Jules Winnfield (S. L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are two men in black suits that have to retrieve a briefcase from a man that has transgressed against their boss, Marsellus Wallas. Jules tells Vincent that Marsellus had a man thrown off a fourth floor balcony for giving his wife a foot massage. Vincent is worried about this fact because the gangster has asked him to escort his wife, Mrs Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), while he’s out of town. Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) is an aging prizefighter and in exchange for a large sum of money promises he would take a dive in his oncoming match. But he will not fulfill the pact and will be forced to flee with his girlfriend, but a gold watch will make him face the danger. Jules and Vincent will try to deliver the briefcase, which is the driving force behind the action to Marsellus throughout many trials and a final twist.

The film contains an heterogeneus mix of American rock and roll, surf music, pop and soul by various artists. Notable songs include Misirlou by Dick Dale, in a surf- rock rendition, which is played in the opening scene and mixed with the words pronounced by Pumpkin  and Honey Bunny shouting at the people in the café and which gives the movie action and an imprint of western music. Another relevant song is the version of Son of a preacher man by Dusty Springfield which is the background of Vincent entering the Marsellus’ house to take Mia Wallace out. Urge Overkill's cover of the Neil Diamond song Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon is played when, after coming back home with Vincent, Mia is dancing alone in the living room. Mia feels sexy and it is clear she wants to seduce Vincent.

An interesting aspect of the movie is that it tells different stories, includes different characters that come in and out of the story, with their feeling a and personal background and with their own relevance within the story and in comparison with the other characters. It is a story of loyalty, betrayal and crime (but also of fun, dance and jokes). Hard drugs, especially cocaine and heroine, are a necessary complement for the world represented by the gangster, his wife and his henchmen such as the submission of the weakest people under the more powerful ones is another natural consequence of this kind of organization. Vincent and Mia Wallace are only two passive and weak characters in the hands of the destiny and of their boss. They can’t do anything else if not behave as he wants them to behave and move as he wants them to move. Uma Thurman is a great performer of that part, sensual and naïve at the same time.

The overdose of the weak Mia, “a woman soon”, as the text of the song says, shows her frailty and demonstrates that her look of woman in the surface hides a inner soul of girl. Tarantino inserts in some scenes a touch of irony, but also so much unexpected cruelty and violence; he gives us some raw images related to the use of cocaine and presented as something normal and ordinary. Also the gunshots are continual and the blood shed on the ground is so raw. But actually all the nastiness is driven away by the act of mocking the action, to exaggerate it, to make it perverse. For some aspects the movie is the representation of the modern times and seems so real to me in spite of its surface of fiction.

ENRICA MALITO