Pulp Fiction

Movie Review: Pulp Fiction

Year of Release: 1994
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Uma Thurman

Plot outline: The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption (IMDb).

Quentin Tarantino pulls out all of the stops with Pulp Fiction: stupendous dialogue, discourses on the meaning of life, flash-backs, weird camera angles, brutal torture and fascinating people. These extended sequences of talking are like a trademark, providing insights into the characters and lulls between the bouts of frenetic violence, which occur in everything that this director touches. However, true to the theme of pulp magazines, these linked stories have no connection with reality and the actors, realizing this, play their parts with gusto (except for Tarantino himself, who should stay behind the camera). Samuel L. Jackson probably gives the best performance, but it was Travolta who revived his career and received a Best Actor nomination. There is much comic relief to break the tension, which is most intense during Uma Thurman's overdose. Combined with Tarantino trademarks of using forgotten pop oldies as a soundtrack, which both fits into the action and provides a setting for it, the effect is akin to a 154-minute roller-coaster ride; exhilarating but exhausting. Although you'd think that the movie would be too controversial for the staid Academy, it won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Tarantino was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture, while Jackson and Thurman picked up supporting nominations. (BK, DC)

My judgement: **** out of 4 stars