Pulp Fiction 
A mini-tribute

It was the first film to make people aware of independent films. It redefined the meaning of 'hip'. It achieved cult status. It spawned many imitators and inspired even more spoofs. It has Samuel L. Jackson in a funny wig. And it is the best film I have ever watched.

To this day, I have not seen another film which combined such splendid acting, excellent direction, beyond-cool dialogue, offbeat humour, head-boppin', feet-tappin' music, charismatic style, critical acclaim, and an immortal dance sequence. You probably first heard of this film during the much-publicised duel between it and Forrest Gump at the 1995 Oscars. So Pulp Fiction might have finished second place in almost every category they were nominated in (except for the screenplay), but darn it, it put up one heck of a fight. People at that time did not realise the impact Pulp Fiction made on many other films over the years, even now. Nowadays do you hear anyone talking about Forrest Gump anymore? There we go.

To the people still not familiar with the film (hey, it was banned in Malaysia after all), I have the story here in its most uncomplicated matter. This film is separated into four mini-stories, so there really is no central character. Pulp Fiction's story was not told in chronological order (from actual beginning to actual end, or from A to Z like in most films), so many people did not like it because they thought it was confusing. Sheesh, some people.

(If you want to skip the story, go directly to the bottom of the page for more stuff)

i) Prologue and Epilogue
A young couple, Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honeybunny (Amanda Plummer), were in a restaurant discussing about their final robbery before they retire from a life of crime. After ruling out gas stations, banks and liquor stores, they finally decided to rob the restaurant they were in. How unlucky they were to pick that day to do the robbery, for it was interrupted by the two prominent characters in the film, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), two gangsters who were having breakfast in the restaurant.

ii) Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace's Wife
Tipped by Marvin, an informant, Vincent and Jules were sent by their boss Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) to retrieve a briefcase from three people in an apartment. After successfully getting the briefcase (and killing everyone in the apartment except for Marvin), they reported their success to Marcellus and brought the briefcase back to him. Marcellus, who would be out of town during the evening, asked Vincent to keep his wife, Mia (Uma Thurman), company and take her out to dinner. The dinner went well, but Mia later overdosed on the drugs found in Vincent's coat pocket. It is up to him and his drug dealer buddy Lance (Eric Stoltz), who gave him the drugs in the first place, to revive her.

iii) The Gold Watch
This chapter focuses on Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), a boxer. He was bribed by Marcellus to throw away a match, but he instead killed his opponent and took the money with him. He planned to leave the country with his girlfriend Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) the morning after, who was waiting in a motel. Upon leaving, she realised that she forgot to take along Butch's gold watch, a family heirloom which meant the world to Butch. So Butch has to go back to his apartment, undoubtedly guarded by Marcellus' men, to get it back himself. All went well until he is outside again where he came across Marcellus himself.

iv) The Bonnie Situation
This story took place after Vincent and Jules acquired the briefcase, but before Vincent took Mia out to dinner. While driving in their getaway car with Marvin, their informant, Vincent accidentally shot Marvin in the face and killed him, right in the middle of town, in broad daylight, car windows stained with blood (and if you're interested, brain bits too). They immediately drove their car to a former colleague's (Jimmy, played by Quentin Tarantino) house, where they stayed until Marcellus sent the Wolf (Harvey Kietel) to dispose of the body and clean up the car. They had to do everything on time before Jimmy's wife Bonnie, a nurse, comes back home from the night shift.

Now that didn't sound too confusing, did it? These four stories were blended together by the magical hands of Tarantino, and made not only a great film, but an instant classic sure to be remembered by many. If you want to watch this masterpiece, I advise that you tread with caution. This film is very offensive and contains violence, realistic drug use, and non-stop profanity (which can actually be fun in some cases). After all it was rated R in the U.S., which meant that people under 18 can only watch this film if accompanied by someone over 18. But then again, these three elements are the basic ingredients of any Tarantino film. I gave this film 11 out of 10. Yes, you heard me right. Go figure.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Want an expert opinion? Then click here to see what Roger Ebert thought of the film.

Just for fun, and maybe to satisfy your curiosity, click here to take a look at the awards and nominations Pulp Fiction received.

Hang on, don't leave yet. I have other stuff in this tribute as well. Click here for a beginner's pictorial guide to the main characters of Pulp Fiction, along with a cool quote from each of them.

What were the words Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) uttered before blowing away that unlucky dude? Ezekiel 25:17, only it didn't come directly from the Bible. Mr. Tarantino added in a bit here and there for this modified version. Read on.

I made a wallpaper too. I think it is the only other original item in this tribute other than my review. It's a big file, about 240K, but I thought it looked pretty nice. So if you're interested, click here to get it.

Another highly sought item is the Pulp Fiction movie poster. I have it as a .jpg file. It's about 120K large. I got this from a Korean site years ago, and that site already closed down, so, hey, you're in luck.

The last item of this page is the original screenplay of Pulp Fiction. Read the script that won, and moreover deserved, an Oscar. For those afraid to watch the film itself because of its offensiveness, and also for those who watched the film, loved it, and simply want to relive the Pulp Fiction experience. Because it contains profanity, I cannot display it at my site, so the script is available as a zipped file only. But you know what you can do? Print out the script, bind it, and paste the movie poster (from the link above) as its cover. That's what I did.

If you've read it and want some more, follow this link to my Tarantino Scripts section. Contains 5 other scripts for hours of reading pleasure, all zipped for the same reason.

(See, I told you the tribute page was small. Be seeing you. - Ezekiel^)

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