Pulp Fiction Movie
The Wikipedia page for Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction makes the following blanket statement -- "The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references." While that makes for a nice sound bite or a good final line in a five line review for a movie blog, it doesn't come near explaining the appeal, cultural impact, or beauty of what many consider Quentin Tarantino's greatest crime drama.
The Movie Tarantino Always Wanted to Make
You could say "This is the movie that Tarantino always wanted to make". Written with his friend (and one-time co-worker) Roger Avary, this movie takes all of the classic Quentin Tarantino tropes and mashes them together into a delicious whiskey. The film has all that Tarantino would come to be known for -- in-your-face violence, witty and quick banter, characters that define the word "cool", and yes, that infamous "nonlinear storyline" that Wikipedia was so kind to mention. Something of a pastiche of Tarantino's favorite oddball Hollywood films -- Taxi Driver, Rio Bravo, Blow Out, various Abbot and Costello "horror-comedy" films, and even Bogart's Big Sleep -- they all had some influence on this iconic 90s film.
So why is it so easy to put Pulp Fiction in a nice safe set of categories? Why can it be waved off as both "eclectic" and "pop"? What is it about Pulp Fiction that created both a cult following and a mega career for its director, Quentin Tarantino? Let's go beyond Wikipedia's brief review and take a good hard look at Pulp Fiction and its influence on the popular culture.
Samuel L Jackson Pulp Fiction
Let's take a look at Samuel L Jackson, Pulp Fiction and how this combination began what's known as the "Pulp Fiction effect". Though Samuel L. Jackson was properly discovered by Spike Lee for films like School Daze and Do the Right Thing, he played mostly minor parts. Though Samuel L. Jackson would eventually be a huge star (with more appearances in films in the last 20 years than any other actor) he was forced to work as a stand-in for The Cosby Show and led to take ridiculous parts, like those inNational Lampoon's Loaded Weapon and Jurassic Park. It was Tarantino's brilliant eye that saw a fresh-from-rehab Jackson and turned him into an international superstar. Samuel L. Jackson's Pulp Fiction role led to an Academy Award nomination (he lost) as well as a BAFTA nom, which he won. If a single film and a single director take a mostly unknown actor and turn them into an Oscar-caliber performer, you know that film and that director are powerful.
Pulp Fiction Filmmaking Recognition
Pulp Fiction is also recognized as the flash point for a whole "school" of filmmaking. Film students love Pulp Fiction for what Wikipedia so glibly refers to as an "ironic mix of humor and violence" as well as that good old standard, the "nonlinear storyline". So many movies tried to take what Pulp Fiction did and run with it, you could make a list of films that simply wouldn't exist without this movie. 8 Head In A Duffel Bag, Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead, 2 Days in the Valley, Out Of Sight, Suicide Kings and the list could go on and on. Tarantino lit a fire under young directors when Pulp Fiction hit the big screen, and that fire's still burning. Since Tarantino is still putting out hit films, you have to expect Pulp Fiction and even Kill Bill ripoffs to pop up for years to come.
Pulp Fiction Movie History
The year that Tarantino's masterpiece Pulp Fiction came out was a weird year in movies. 1994 saw the revisionist history epic Forrest Gump bring in nearly $350 million in domestic box office receipts while the obvious piece of crap remakeThe Flintstones (featuring Rick Moranis and Rosie O'Donnell) made an equally healthy $130 million. A film like Pulp Fiction, with its extreme examples of drug use, violence, sex, and the darker side of life should not have fared as well as it did. Pulp Fiction did almost $110 million in domestic receipts alone, and went on to bring in well over $220 million worldwide. What could have been a flash in the pan cult hit became a worldwide sensation, and propelled the already blazing career of Tarantino to new and greater heights. Though it took some years for Tarantino to return to the fire of Pulp Fiction, with 2003's Kill Bill, this film set the stage for a whole genre of films -- Quentin Tarantino style.
Though critical opinion is divided on the lasting impact of Pulp Fiction (some critics fear its style is already dated, and identify the film heavily with the 1990s alone) you can't ignore the splash it made at the box office. Whether you like Tarantino's movies or not, you'll probably come back to Pulp Fiction again and again. It is just that damn good, and that influential, of a movie.