Review: Pulp Fiction (RATING: 9/10)

People have been nagging me to see this movie for a very long time. They kept saying that it was “just the kind of movie I would love.” This of course made me pretty scared of seeing it, for two main reasons. One is that it would not live up to its expectations, and the (perhaps more important) other being that I was sccared to see what kind of movie people thought I would like. This added to the fact that I had heard that it was pretty violent made me shrink from watching it.

But eventually I was to come back from England, and reactivate my Netflix. The first movie that I was actually interested in seeing on my queue (because yes, I have many movies that I am almost never in the mood for on my queue) happened to be Pulp Fiction. So I bit the bullet and had it sent. Even then it took almost a week for me to actually get around to watching it.

And I’m very glad I did. It was not at all what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. It was much less coherent than I had thought that it would be, with about three very vaguely related stories. (the Netflix summary, as inaccurate as they always are, stated that the twists and turns fit together in ingenious ways, going back and forth in time. This wasn’t really true.) Each one was compelling on its own, but the real greatness of this film is, as most people (except me) were probably aware, the dialogue. It wasn’t entirely real sounding, as Altman dialogue consistently is, but it was really enthralling. These characters, be they hitmen, mob bosses, boxers, or whatever, were just going around their typical duties, but they weren’t really paying attention to things. They were talking as anyone might do, just about interesting things, and, oh yeah, they have to shoot this guy. I had always heard about the hamburger conversation in the car (although it is one of the few famous movie clips I had actually never seen before I saw the film), and a few others, but actually seeing it all put together was great.

It wasn’t that violent, either. There were a few select scenes, but for the most part it wasn’t really shown on screen (unlike what I hear of Kill Bill, another Tarantino film I’ve never seen). It’s still not really something to take the kids too, but it’s certainly nowhere near the deterrent that I was thinking it might be. The plot of a heist, or crime (as told by the Netflix summary) was completely inconsequential, to the point of never actually showing the supposedly great Macguffin that was in a suitcase, only people’s reactions. (I like that as a stylistic choice, however I just hate it personally, because I really want to know what it was…) I did sort of wish that the plot did fit together a little better, and that there was a bit more of a story, but for what it was I loved it.

I came out of it not at all worried about what people thought of my taste in movies. I could easily say that I loved this movie, although it wouldn’t be on a list of my top ten or anything. Then again, I’ve already discussed my difficulty with top ten lists, so who knows, maybe it would be. If you, like me, have been putting off seeing this movie, I would go out and rent it as soon as possible. And, if you haven’t, check it out. It’s not what you might expect.

Tags: film, movie, pulp fiction, quentin tarantino, review