Review of Pulp Fiction

This is one of my favorite movies. I like that this movie makes you think about everything that you are watching and listening to. Until I read our text book and the article "Shepherding the Weak: The ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction", I really didn't understand the true complexity of this film. The way that the film editor has to intricately cut each scene so that they over lap with the whole nature of the story. The way that this film is made so that each major scene is its own story, broken up from each individual part by a black screen with a new story title accompanying each story. As you go through and watch each scene and make your way through the movie you start to see the whole movie coming together. The very first story in the movie with Vince and Jules going to the apartment to get the brief case and the story of how Jules and Vince had to call the "cleaner" and get the blood out of the car from the guy they shot that was helping them get the brief case in the first story. The way that this movie intertwines itself with every shot and dialogue. The movie also incorporates strong use of color in the movie. The use of colors is really unique, from the use of very dull, to black and white, colors for the murder scenes to the use of really fun and bright colors through out the rest of the movie. The way that the director had Vince and Jules wear some really out of character clothes while they were getting cleaned up, to the really bright colors of the 50's restaurant.
The dialogue in this movie is a great component to the film. The use of colors and editing is really important for this movie, but the script and dialogue between the characters is what makes this movie really good. The way the subjects are discussed in the movie make the view responsible for answering the questions, or makes the viewer think about the question in their own way. A good example of this is when Vince and Mia are on their date and she asks the question “why people feel so awkward during a time of silence”, while this is just a very basic question for two people on a first date, she asks it to a guy who is taking out the bosses wife.
This film is really strong in bringing the audience into the dialogue, as expressed in the previous example, or by having the audience laugh at the argument of two hit men that are on there way to kill somebody. This is expressed in the movie when Vince and Jules are talking about being able to get a beer in McDonald's in Amsterdam, and discussing the different condiments that countries put on french fries. (Shepherding the Weak…)
Overall this movie is really entertaining and is worth a rent at the video store. I had seen this movie a couple of times before I had taken this class and the amount of stuff that I got out of film after reading the text book and the accompanying article for this assignment, I appreciated this movie even more.

Shepherding the Weak: the Ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantinos “Pulp Fiction”. Davis, Womack. Literature Film Quarterly. 1998 Vol. 24 Issue 1 p.60

The Art of Watching Films. Boggs, Petrie. McGraw-Hill. New York, NY. 2008