Just because you are a character, doesn't meant you have character

Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.  And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Ezekial 25:17

This post came about as a result of a discussion I had with Mr Pointon back last year about Pulp Fiction, which basically went along the lines of "Yeah, but is it really all that good?!?".  Neither of us were entirely convinced, so I watched it again to find out - over a period of about a month, because a) I was quite busy listening to music and b) it's amazing how long it takes to watch a film and write about it at the same time.  I should possibly warn you that it quotes a fair bit of the film and they may be one or two rude words in there, so if you have sensitive eyes/ears you may want to skip over some (ok, all) of those bits.  And also, I've not really included too many spoilers but if you've not seen the film then I suspect very little of what follows is going to make any sense to you at all, so maybe you should go and watch it first.  And then you won't need to read this, because you'll be able to make your own mind up.

So, roll VT...

Well, it certainly starts well - Pumpkin/Ringo (Tim Roth) & Honey Bunny/Yolanda (Amanda Plummer) sitting in a diner.  An intriguing conversation (very Tarantino-esque) where you're not entirely sure where it's going, but it soon become clear - 

Honey Bunny : "I love you, pumpkin"
Pumpkin : "I love you, honey bunny.  All right, everybody be cool - this is a robbery". 
Honey Bunny : "Any of you FUCKING PRICKS move, and I'll ex-e-cute every MOTH-ER-FUCK-ING LAST ONE OF YOU!"

Cue titles - complete with cool music. Misirlou by Dick Dale - admit it, you didn't know that, did you?  Now, that was most definitely a cool way to start a film!

And then we're in a car with two shady looking blokes - Jules (Samuel L Jackson) with the cool hair and Vincent (John Travolta) with the somewhat less cool hair, discussing Royales with Cheese (it's because of the metric system, you know) - still intriguing.  And they're going somewhere, in an intriguing way.   With guns, intriguingly.  Fast forward 5 minutes and OK - maybe they should stop being quite so intriguing and chatty and actually do something now.  And finally they've got somewhere - but they're early, so they do some more chatting. In the end, they go inside to see some other shady looking dudes who've got a briefcase.  With an orange light in it!  And we've got a biblical quote as well!  And it doesn't end so well for one of the other dudes.  Overall, I can't fault any of that - Samuel L Jackson really makes the scene count.

Oh - now there's Butch (Bruce Willis).  Looking young (and more than a bit like Jason Statham) but not doing much else other than taking some money (and a big bag of red apples).  From Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), who've we've heard about before now, but not seen yet.  And we ain't gonna see here either.  Some scene setting - so remember all that stuff for later.

And then we're somewhere else, in the first scene I don't remember - so I'm guessing it's going to be the first dud.  Jules doing drugs and driving.  But is he really driving or is is a metaphor?  I'd have to say it's looking pretty fucking metaphorical to me - right up until the point that he gets out of the car.  So maybe not so metaphorical - he's off to see Marcellus' missus, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman).  Where Dusty kicks in on the soundtrack - Quentin did her some favours including that, as we mentioned here.  And now it's Mia's turn to take some illegal substances - I tell you, it's not going to end well for someone.

So, fully tooled up for an evening out, they both head out to Jack Rabbit Slims.  This is the first scene from the film I remember somewhat dragging - I seem to recall it felt like he had to justify building the massive set.  The staff in this place are an odd mix - a dwarf and various impersonators including Buddy Holly (played by Steve Buscemi - which I totally didn't notice at first), Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe and Mamie Van Doren (I had to look her up - apparently she's still alive)  And yeah - all the stuff around "Fox Force 5" feels completely pointless, so if you don't remember that you can be forgiven.  Uma Thurman looks very good in the scene, but she just doesn't have the chemistry with Travolta that Samuel does - although the whole "sitting in a booth" thing doesn't help with the camera angles to generate chemistry.  And a load of dialogue about uncomfortable silence just feels a bit too meta - even for Quentin.  And 2 minutes of uncool dancing is just too long, I'm afraid.

OK - so they're home now, having won the uncool dancing contest.  And, just to spoil us, we get some more uncool dancing.  I'd forgotten about that.  Uh-oh - she's found the drugs.  I told you it wasn't going to end well for someone.  And how long is Vincent spending in the bathroom exactly?!?  Off in the car we go to find someone who can sort this out (not for the last time).  Hold on - how small is his mobile phone?  When is this film supposed to be set?!?  And how do I not know?!?

Please excuse me whilst I pause the film and head off down an internet-based rabbit hole - apparently it has to take place in "the current day-ish" (1994) because of the cell phones and Winston Wolfe's car (we'll meet him later), but there are many retro touches which confuse matters - including Frute-Brute breakfast cereal that was discontinued in 1982, so it must have been stored very carefully for the intervening 10 years.  And amusingly some people out there in Internet-land think that because Mia uses a reel-to-reel tape player, that must mean it's the 80s - because obviously that's what we all used back then.  The relative lack of external shots and various retro touches (eg using matches to light cigarettes) also confuse matters, but I'm happy enough to go with early 90s.  So back to the film...

OK - what are we going to do with Mia who isn't exactly compos mentis at the minute?  The scene is a bit wordy to be entirely realistic (get a move on!) but is suitably edgy and you are uncertain what's going to happen - and it's quite the pay off.  "That was fucking trippy!"  Cue one awkward car ride home, a handshake, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home and have a heart attack" and a terrible joke (but that was the point).  And that was pretty much the last we saw of Uma looking cool until Kill Bill Vol 1 (which I remember being quite cool, so might have to rewatch next).

So - now we're somewhere and sometime else with Butch as a boy.  Pay attention - this is important.  It's also (as I remembered) a somewhat lengthy scene - an impressive piece of acting by Christopher Walken but I'm still not convinced about the necessity of the watch's storage location.  All you need to know is that the watch means a LOT to Butch.

Cue sweaty Butch before the fight looking nervous and then sweatier Butch after the fight running away because he hadn't done the one specific thing Marcellus had told him to do.  And Marcellus was not very much not happy about it.  I'd completely forgotten about the scene in the taxi and having rewatched it, I'm not in the slightest bit surprised - Bruce is not the best actor in this film.  And neither is his girlfriend, who I'd also forgotten about, until she started going on about pot bellies.  Maria de Madeiros, apparently.  Jeez, this is dull.  And, continuing the theme,  I'd completely forgotten about "Butch, will you give me oral pleasure?" - and I'd forgotten how happy I was to have forgotten about it.  And the shower scene - yawn.  And then Bruce in his undies - no-one needs that.  And then he wakes up - and she's still brushing her teeth.  I'm sorry - what's the point to all this?  Just get to the bit where she's forgotten the watch...

...ah, there we go - grumpy Bruce.  Grumpy over-acting Bruce.  Well, at least we've got that out of the way.  Oh no - there's a bit more grumpy over-acting in the car.  And then a lot of following him as he takes the long way round to get to a scene that's actually worth watching, even if I'd forgotten how ridiculous that gun was.  And you're left thinking he can now go back and get his pancakes for breakfast and head off to Bora-Bora - and I think it's fair to say the film takes a bit of a left-turn here.  The whole bit with Zed and The Gimp is well filmed but somewhat, if not exactly unnecessary, then definitely "huh?" - which is a problem I get once or twice in all of Quentin's films.  But - Bruce does actually get to do some acting for a bit of it, although I'm really not convinced picking the samurai sword was the best option.  But it does lead to this scene, which is well done

Butch : "Are you OK?"
Marcellus : "No man - I'm pretty fucking far from OK"

But we still have to go back and see his girlfriend - god, she really is annoying - but at least it lets Bruce say "Zed's dead, baby - Zed's dead".  And as far as I remember, that's them gone.  PLEASE let it be so.

Now wait a goddamn minute - all of a sudden, we're back in the apartment with Jules and Vincent and the other dudes who would have had a lot of trouble getting life insurance at this particular point in their lives.  Obviously the first time I saw this film, I wasn't expecting the backwards time jump - but actually, the second time around I was expecting it to happen much earlier (we're nearly 2 hours into the film now, after all).  I know there has been a lot of investigation by people with far too much time on their hands as to the running order of the various scenes, but this is the first one that's obviously run out of order, which is now making me wonder whether the whole thing is quite as "timey-wimey" as I remembered.  Anyways, the bullet holes in the wall behind them is a nice touch and has kept a lot of people on the internet happy trying to answer the question "Are they actually dead?" (spoiler alert - no they're not.  But are they though?).  And then we're back in the car for a bit more chat followed by probably one of the funniest cinematic accidental shootings out there 

Vincent : "Oh man - I shot Marvin in the face!" 
Jules : "Why the fuck d'you do that?"
Vincent : "I didn't mean to - it was an accident!"
Jules : "We gotta get this car off the road - cops tend to notice shit like you're driving a car drenching in fucking blood"

Which brings us to the obligatory Tarantino cameo - he's actually not too bad in this one but obviously displays his usual level of over-acting.  And, somewhat bizarrely, he spends a lot of the time standing in a shadow - I'd say maybe it's just because he didn't direct this scene, but knowing him there's probably a good subtextual reason for it which I wouldn't even begin to understand.  OK, important question here - why does Marcellus have a mobile phone so much bigger than Vincent's?  He's the boss - surely he can afford the best phone there is at the time?  Or have we travelled much further back in time here?  Who knows, eh?!?  

Anyway - "You sending The Wolf?  Shit, Negro - that's all you had to say!".  Samuel L Jackson is easily one of the best things in this film - but he's given a good run for his money by Harvey Keitel playing Winston Wolfe - "It's thirty minutes away - I'll be there in ten" (and both actors have definitely used these personae very much to their benefit in an advertising capacity over the years).  Winston is without doubt a dude - "I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if we're gonna get out of this.  So, pretty please, with sugar on top - clean the fucking car".  He's called in, sorts it all out and then leaves to go and have breakfast with Raquel (featuring a bizarre cameo role for Weird Al Yankovic's wife for no obvious reason) leaving with a classic line "Just because you are a character, doesn't mean you have character" and a cloud of dust.  Bravo, sir!

And with that, Jules and Vincent head to a cafe - can you guess which one?  Time for another classic set of QT dialogue ("We'd have to be talking about one charming motherfucking pig") - and for a pleasant change, Vincent doesn't come across as a complete dick.  And, oh look, there's Tim Roth again - "everybody be cool, this is a robbery".  The internet gets very excited here because Amanda Plummer says a slightly different line - there are a few theories as to why this is but, of course, you never notice unless you're looking for it (I'm sure Quentin had his reasons though).  It's a good scene though with a level of unease and uncertainty which you know isn't going to be decreased by "what's in the case?".  But in the end "we're gonna be three little Fonzies.  And what's Fonzie?  He's cool".  And we get Ezekiel 25:17 again as well - and no-one is going to argue with that now, are they?

And finally...

Vincent : "I think we should leaving now"
Jules : "Yeah, that's probably a good idea"

...is a fine way to end the film with some cool music - "Surf Rider" by The Lively Ones, which I didn't know either.

Right, so what are my thoughts after all that?  The briefcase (or more accurately its contents) annoys me - I know perfectly well it's a classic MacGuffin, but that doesn't stop me (and looking at the Internet, countless other people) wanting to know what's in it.  Which just annoys me more, because I recognise it's nonsense and yet still want it explained - I like to think I'm better than that (whilst knowing perfectly well that I'm not).  Having said that, I do like the "it's Marcellus' soul, which the devil took from him, which is why he has a plaster on his neck - because everyone knows that's how the devil gets your soul out and also the combination of the briefcase is 666" theory for its general Internet levels of bonkersness.

If you like (or don't like) the film, then you really should check out the Wikipedia entry for it - to say it's comprehensive would be an understatement.  It also pointed out something that had never occurred to me but is, in hindsight, obvious - the importance of "the bathroom" in the film.  A lot of scenes involve some character disappearing off to the smallest room - part of me is quite keen to watch it again to see exactly how many.  Having said that, some of the theories offered by critics around this point are ludicrously nonsense - it's scary that some people are actually paid to write such things.  But, to say the least, this is a film that has attracted more than its fair share of ludicrous nonsense - the way it's structured does somewhat encourage such behaviour, but to be fair to Quentin, even if he says "there's nothing to it" (like he does for the briefcase) it doesn't stop people from proposing their own batshit crazy theories.

OK - but, coming back to the initial question, is it really all that good?  Well, some bits of it are really excellent filmmaking populated with charismatic characters expertly played by some skilled actors.  And some bits of it are not - and most of those bits are in the middle.  As a general rule, I don't think you can go far wrong with if Samuel L Jackson is on screen, it's worth watching - John Travolta, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer and Quentin Tarantino all do a fine (at least) supporting job when they have Sam to riff off.  Uma Thurman is under-utilised (he makes up for it in Kill Bill though) and she doesn't have the chemistry with Travolta that you might hope for.  Christopher Walken uses what he's given well but it's not a huge part.  And Bruce Willis isn't totally terrible, but his is just not (for the most part) a particularly interesting story and doesn't really link in with the rest of the film -  but his girlfriend is super annoying and super forgettable.  

So overall, I was left with the impression that the middle 45 minutes of the film are kinda dead time, which is what probably lead me to my "yeah, but" thoughts - whereas the beginning and the end are really well done and link well, which is what probably leads everyone else to "no, it's a great film" thoughts.  Overall, I think it probably contains a great film (which is true for a lot of Quentin's stuff, in my opinion) and I was certainly glad to revisit it, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be better - in my memories, Reservoir Dogs is a better film but I can't help but worry that I revisit it then I'm going to be disappointed (so obviously, I may well do such a thing at some point in the future).