The Old National Centre is showing a Quentin Tarantino double-feature at 6:30 p.m. EDT, Saturday, April 8 – 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” followed by 2009’s “Inglourious Basterds.” While I like “Inglourious Basterds,” I love and respect “Pulp Fiction” as the greatest film since the 1970s. It sparkles with so much adrenaline audiences are forced to pay attention. I’ve written that no one can “casually” watch Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange.” In other words, if it’s on the TV, your attention is on the TV. Period. All other conversation and activities cease. Same with “Pulp Fiction.”
Interweaving several loosely related stories (the way Robert Altman used to do), Tarantino “treats” us to a treasure trove of gangsters, small-time crooks and ne’er-do-wells, and the strange situations in which they sometimes find themselves. Infusing extreme violence (or at least the threat thereof) with tar-black humor, “Pulp Fiction” takes us on a journey unlike anything we’ve seen before. That it has had more influence over today’s independent (and occasionally big-budget) motion pictures than any other film of the past 30 years is a testament to its originality.
John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson highlight a cast of actors just past their primes, whose careers received major boosts from Tarantino’s casting. As Vincent and Jules, Travolta and Jackson respectively play two hitmen working for Los Angeles mobster Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames, in the role that made him a major star). Jules has a habit of reciting a Bible verse immediately prior to killing his victims. Vincent and Jules famously discuss what the French call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese while driving to their next assignment. This everyday conversation is a refreshing change from standard crime fare, in which all the dialogue is in service of the plot. Credit Tarantino for his Oscar-winning original screenplay.
Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer play a couple of small-town crooks who have a difficult time holding up a diner. Bruce Willis plays a boxer who refuses to throw a fight, angering Marcellus to no end. And in one of the film’s funniest scenes, Christopher Walken makes an appearance as Captain Koons, who gives the prize fighter a wristwatch his father had used when he served in Vietnam.
My two favorite scenes involve Vincent. In one, he’s asked to go out with Marcellus’ wife, Mia, while Marcellus is out of town. Mia overdoses on heroin and must be revived (through her breastplate, no less) with a shot of adrenaline. In the other, Vincent accidentally shoots a man riding in the backseat, spraying blood all over the car’s interior. “Fix-it man” Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel) is called to the scene to clean up the mess (including disposing of the dead body) to make it appear as though nothing has happened.
If these don’t sound like typical crime movie plot arcs, you’d be correct. But it’s sequences like these that give “Pulp Fiction” some of its originality. Other stylistic choices Tarantino makes likewise bring a new creativity to this picture. Scenes that go on “too” long also contribute to the genius of the screenplay. In some cases, we begin to feel uncomfortable that the script isn’t moving forward. But so much happens in each scene, it would be foolish to ramp up the hyperactivity. “Pulp Fiction” is over two-and-a-half hours in length yet essentially contains seven scenes — and the first and last are the same scene told from different points of view.
But the real impetus for kindling a creative inferno among independent directors is the fact that Tarantino tells these stories out of order. If the seven sequences were to be told in chronological order, “Pulp Fiction” would have been just another crime saga. But Tarantino doesn’t rearrange his narrative merely to show off. He actually makes this material more interesting with his quirky screenplay.
About a third of the way through, Willis’ prizefighter kills Vincent. A few minutes later, we see Vincent back with his partner, at the scene of a crime. It’s at this moment audiences realize we’re out of order. I like to watch the viewers when Travolta reappears. A collective gasp is followed by the realization that linear structure is thrown out the proverbial window. It is also at this point that we realize we’re watching something so creative and refreshing that all extraneous activity ceases – no more talking, no more texting, no more popcorn. From this point forward, Tarantino has our attention. Only Stanley Kubrick was better at removing boundaries between film and audience.
While all the actors are given meaty roles, none shines greater than Jackson. But the real star here is Tarantino himself. As writer and director, he changed the film industry as no one since French director Jean-Luc Godard. In 1960, Godard released his New Wave masterpiece "Breathless," a film so different from anything else (particularly the big-budget Hollywood vehicles popular at the time) that it shook the industry to its core – clear across the ocean! By the end of the next decade, the Hollywood studio system was a thing of the past, and unconventional cinema ruled the day. Even the larger-budget films (such as “The Graduate” or “2001: A Space Odyssey”) looked and felt different.
Then something terrible happened. In 1976 and ’77, two of the biggest blockbusters of all time hit the scene within months of one another, "Rocky” and “Star Wars.” From that point forward, filmmakers have (with a few exceptions) concentrated on producing the next big hit rather than the next great film. For 40 years, it hasn’t much mattered if a screenplay is any good. Big-name stars, explosions and superheroes have ruled the day.
“Pulp Fiction” didn’t change that desire for stardom, fame and success. But it rattled Hollywood with a shot in the arm it so desperately needed. Since 1994, a new group of innovative, thought-provoking directors has found critical and (somewhat) commercial success. I’m thinking here of Alexander Payne, David O. Russell and my favorite, Paul Thomas Anderson. These men have Tarantino to thank for their impact on filmmaking. “Pulp Fiction” blazed the trail for a new generation of experimental cinema.
If you do nothing else this month, please make it a point to see “Pulp Fiction” at the Old National Centre.
Andy Ray's reviews of current films appear on http://www.artschannelindy.com/