The Content of Pulp Fiction - Essay Example

Film Analysis of Pulp Fiction Introduction Pulp Fiction is a postmodern crime film often ified by critics as a drama movie with eclectic scenes consisting of the violent and the humorous, and is a 154-minute masterpiece by director Quentin Tarantino. It is a 1994 movie that stars an ensemble cast made up of John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and Ving Rhames. The movie is actually a clever and surprisingly humorous interplay of characters whose lives are intertwined in a strange fashion. In short, as the title implies, the movie storyline as well as the characters is a mere “pulp” – shapeless, rough and unfinished. Thus, the movie is merely a cinematic rendition of a shapeless storyline about bad people acting out their roles in a most realistically cruel world. Content Pulp Fiction presents a story that connects the lives of different people with different evil agenda acting their roles in a society with no values. The film is partly a story of exoneration of evil in an evil society. The movie opens with a scene at the diner, where Pumpkin and Honey Bunny decide to rob the customers and the diner itself. The significance of this scene though can only be known at the end of the film where everything goes back to the diner. At the end, Vincent and Jules get involved in the robbery but when Pumpkin tried to seize the briefcase from him, it resulted in a matter of life and death where all four people were pointing a gun at the next one beside him. Eventually, Jules let go of Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. The characters in the movie are a mixed breed, thus attesting to the senseless pulp fiction quality of the movie. The main characters of the movie include the hired killers Vincent and Jules, upon whom the bulk of the movie is based. Other major characters include Marsellus and Butch, since it was they who both concluded the movie and somehow added some humor to it because of the sodomy scene. Other minor characters include Honey Bunny and Pumpkin, and Brett and his friends. These minor characters, however, added much to the degree of senseless violence in this real pulp fiction. However, although it is pulp fiction, the setting is far from fictitious. It is in fact a setting that is very realistic. As the characters move around the city, they visit a diner, a bar, an apartment, a club, and a pawnshop. These are the major places in an urban area where violence wrought by the characters has transpired. These are the very places, however, where modern-day senseless violence may always take place. Thus, these places are perfect for a violent modern day pulp fiction. The movie also demonstrates to the audience a world which is free from any rules or remorse, and where people are unfair and thus play dirty. Meanwhile, in another scene, hired killers Jules and Vincent are on their way to retrieve a briefcase from a man named Brett, who has defected from their boss Marsellus. However, the encounter between Jules, Vincent and Brett was to be concluded at the second to the last scene in the movie. Fast forward to Marsellus’ place, Vincent and Jules arrive and hand over the briefcase to Marsellus. It was here that Vincent meets Butch, a boxer paid by Marsellus to lose a fight. The next day, Vincent meets Mia, Marsellus’ wife. They both joined and won a twist contest but, at Marsellus’ house with Marsellus absent and traveling in Florida, Mia got an overdose of heroin. However, with Vincent’s friend’s help, she was revived. The movie also shows that there is no integrity in this world, and that only the person who has a gun can subdue evil by being more evil. Butch had to use a gun and become more evil than Vincent, and the security guard had to use a gun to overcome and sodomize the most powerful person in the movie –Marsellus. The conflict in the story begins with the old boxer Butch trying to win the boxing fight despite the fact that Marsellus paid him in order not to win. However, during the match, he violated his agreement with Marsellus and therefore ran away with the prize money too. Butch fled to the motel but then remembered that he left his father’s prized gold watch at his apartment. It was a gold watch that came from his father. It was back at his apartment that Butch killed Vincent in an encounter but was found by Marsellus at the traffic light. The chase that ensued made both Marsellus and Butch end up in a pawnshop. The owner then held them up with a shotgun, and had his security guard sodomize Marsellus in a room and a masked man watch over Butch. However, in a series of fortunate circumstances, Butch was able to subdue the masked man and save Marsellus from the sodomy. The story basically ends here. However, the movie then goes back to the scene where Jules and Vincent killed Brett and his friends, and where the two hired killers were encountered by a shooting madman. Then it finally goes back to the very first scene at the diner where Jules let go of Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. Thus, finally the movie ties up all the loose ends. Personally, the movie was definitely a success in terms of being a pulp fiction itself, that is in terms of senselessness and in being a shapeless, rough and unfinished work of art. There is senselessness not only in the storyline itself which is broken at several points before it ties up the loose ends towards the final part of the story. Moreover, the choice of music at the beginning of the movie when it shows the credits is actually eclectic in terms of genre. It therefore adds to the rather shapeless nature of the movie. The characters are also senseless and unpredictable in terms of their violence. The major character Jules and Vincent may actually be well-dressed but they are both ill-tempered people with a tendency to shoot just anybody if someone does not follow what they say. In the same way, Honey Bunny and Pumpkin were cruel when they robbed the diner. They were also basically senseless in their violence. Moreover, Marsellus is a corrupt businessman and tycoon, and what happened to him at the end, which was an act of sodomy, was actually his violent taste of karma. The other characters like Brett and Butch are those who never keep their word. The rest like the people of the pawnshop are simply mentally-deranged and sexually-weird. Moreover, nobody would ever think that Marsellus would get sodomized for he is supposed to be the movie’s strongest character. Thus, there is no character in this film that is actually really good. Everyone is either sexual or violent. Even if one would consider the women at the piercing center, you can find there women with tattoo and piercings, and are talking about nothing but sex. The events are themselves insanely intertwined and do not reveal any unity except in terms of violence and evil. There are endless shootings and beatings of people in the movie. The language is also significantly vulgar, with the use of the F-word as a very common thing. The events are also all using guns, except the scene where Marsellus was sodomized. Thus, the gun culture of the United States is the one being emphasized here. Moreover, the guns that are used are used not only to kill but also to threaten and torture people. Honestly, the level of violence of this film is terrible unfit for children and young teenagers. The movie also illustrates the thesis very well, as one which reflects the evil of the world. The movie is good because it lives up to its definition of pulp fiction. Moreover, it continues the momentum of the movie from the diner scene to the very last one. There is no part which is dragging between scenes, and more importantly there is no scene which is not realistic. Every event happening is therefore realistic and may actually be the real places where people could shoot at anyone. The thesis, which is all about the existence of an evil society with the evil people, is really made realistic by this film. Analysis Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is actually a masterpiece in its own right. In the movie, the director was able to achieve his purpose of defining “pulp fiction” using the events that transpired in the film. Pulp fiction is basically senseless, disorganized, and violent, yet it does create an appeal to the viewer. The violent events as well as the violent cast of characters have somehow added to the degree of senselessness in the film in terms of meaning and plot. The acting in the movie is superb. Every scene seems realistic for all the cast, especially because the cast is made up of Hollywood’s finest: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman and Ving Rhames. The acting of the violent scenes in the movie is rather good. There is nothing that proved to be understandable. Besides, everyone else has good pronunciation and there is no character who mumbles his words. The characters also perform their roles very realistically such as Vincent and Jules mercilessly killing three men in an apartment, thus making them fit the role of cold-blooded hired killers. Honey Bunny and Pumpkin also act very naturally like real robbers who are so confident and authoritative when they shout at people to announce a robbery. Moreover, the characters’ use of vulgar words, including the “F” word, somehow makes their conversations more natural and somehow makes the audience feel that there is no script at all. The musical score is also perfect. It is a clever mixture of serious and humorous music, especially during the beginning of the movie and at the end whenever the credits are rolling in. The music somehow sets the pace of the movie and also marks where one chapter begins. However, there seems to be a lack of seriousness in the music during the shifts from one chapter to another. However, this is perhaps how the movie treats all those cold-blooded murders, something that is just so trivial. The writing of the screenplay is also equally outstanding. The screenplay has the best choices of words related to swearing and violence in a sense that these vulgar words strengthen the emotions of the speaker and of the audience towards a particular scene of the movie. Moreover, the screenplay also emphasizes different backgrounds of the characters, and so some of the conversations may actually vary in the degree of vulgar language. The movie has several strengths. First, the movie has an ensemble cast of the best characters acting out not really their best roles but the most practical and most realistic. Second, the cinematography is excellent, at least to a layman like me. The angle is perfect and the shots are amazing. Third, the plot may be a complex and intertwined but it is certainly a good plot. Another strength of the movie is that it is clearly a reflection of the meaningless, senseless pattern of events in our present society nowadays. Without the occasional, what is revealed Among the weaknesses of this movie, perhaps the most unpopular is the one where there is a tendency of people to look for a good ending but Pulp Fiction simply does not have one. The movie is a combination of scenes that do not particularly revolve around one topic. Another weakness of the movie is the strange flashbacks, where everything goes back to the scene where a man who has already been killed is still alive. This can therefore be awkward to many people. One more weakness of the movie is the fact that certain character roles are actually left behind in the middle of the movie and not allowed to develop his or her role like Mia Wallace, whose role in the movie is performed by Uma Thurman. There is also rather a weird inconsistency among the characters as Vincent would be willing to kill others but not have a one-night stand with the boss’ wife, or that Jules would kill three people in an apartment but would let go the robbers who would want to get his briefcase. These are strange acts of good that somehow overwhelm those who have gotten used to the evil roles of these characters. Nevertheless, despite all the good qualities that the movie has, I would recommend the film only to those who I feel would not want to wait for a climax in a movie. Another thing is that I do not think it will be appreciated by those who regularly watch good movies with endings that make them feel good and happy. Moreover, I would not recommend this movie to those who I know would want to see a movie through to its climactic end since this movie particularly has no climax. Conclusion Pulp Fiction is one postmodern crime movie that is creatively presented as a senseless mixture of events and violence with an ensemble cast whose lives intertwine in a world where society worships evil. Nevertheless, despite the many good ad positive qualities that the movie has in terms of cast, acting, music and creativity of plot, I would not want to recommend it to most moviegoers especially those who I believe would prefer movies with good climactic endings. Overall, Pulp Fiction leaves me a good impression of how Quentin Tarantino directs a film, but also how bad, cruel and violent this modern society is. The American society with its gun culture is a threat to every American who simply wants to enjoy a good meal at a diner or a good drink at a bar. The film somehow features how easy it is for people to rob a diner and then get away, how easy it is for two people to break into an apartment and kill everyone in it and still get away, and how easy it is for people to just kill almost anyone and hide their bodies. The movie with its rather naturalistic element also reminds us that human life is so fragile, and that the film should therefore leave the audience with the realization that he should at least take good care of himself in a society where guns and violence dictate what will happen next. The modern American society is indeed pulp fiction, a society where lives intertwine in a mixture of senseless and shapeless violence, cruelty and deaths. Top of Form Bottom of Form Works Cited Bender, Lawrence. Pulp Fiction. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis & Ving Rhames. Miramax Films, 1994. Film. Read More