Join the ATRM gang as we talk Tarantino and possibly his most acclaimed film in our Pulp Fiction review.
Pulp Fiction debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 and caused a sensation, winning the prestigious Palme D’or Award for Best Film. When it opened elsewhere, the film quickly became a cultural phenomenon cementing Quentin Tarantino’s position as the most exciting young director in Hollywood, launching the careers of Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, and reinvigorating that of John Travolta.
We’re off to L.A. with QT and were covedring the whole lot. The extraordinary script, the stellar cast and the always quotable dialogue. Big laughs and huge opinions on the way in our Pulp Fiction review.
This episode is delivered in three parts. You can find each of them below.
Part 1 – Introduction and The Director
Part 2 – The Writing and The Cast
Part 3 – The Highlight and The Rating
Episode transcription
Hello and welcome to The Cutting Room – the movie show from All The Right Movies. I’m John and the two little Fonzies here with me are Westy, and Matt.
This time round, it’s an icon of nineties Hollywood on The Cutting Room. We’re going all in on Quentin Tarantino and his generation-defining classic Pulp Fiction.
So… Matthew Fonzarelli. Why are we talking Pulp Fiction?
Yeah, I’m a big fan of Tarantino – I like every one of his films. I mean, to varying degrees obviously. And it probably started here. With Pulp Fiction. It was huge at the time when it came out, wasn’t it? A cultural phenomenon, and it caused controversy as well because of the violence in the film. In 1994, this was like a cinematic bomb going off – I mean it’s been parodied on The Simpsons, so you know it’s iconic.
And Tarantino – bit of a mad man and always fun to talk about him.
And Westy, why Pulp Fiction?
Right then. Who wants a Royale with Cheese? Let’s talk Pulp Fiction
Synopsis
In the seedy underbelly of 90s Los Angeles, a series of events bring together the worlds of two hitmen, a gangster’s wife and an aging boxer leading to separate tales of salvation, second chances, and redemption.
And making me want a cheeseburger. The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast
Released in 1994, Pulp Fiction was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, produced by A Band Apart and Jersey Films, distributed by Miramax, and stars John Travolta as Vincent Vega, Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winfield, Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace, and Bruce Willis as Butch Coolidge.
So, then, as ever, we’re going all in on the film and we’ll be talking about the direction, the writing, the cast, our own highlights, and then we’ll give Pulp Fiction a rating out of 10.
That’s about right isn’t it?
We’re starting with the director – and one of the biggest directors of his generation… never on the QT… it’s Tarantino…
The Director
Pulp Fiction was, directed by the one and only Quentin Jerome Tarantino. Just Tarantino’s second feature, Pulp Fiction came on the back of the huge critical acclaim he received for his debut – Reservoir Dogs.
Pulp Fiction, though. Westy, I know you’re gonna agave a lot to say about QT here…
Yeah, Tarantio’s second feature and Andrzej Sekula – the DP from Reservoir Dogs – returned. Sally Menke – the editor from Reservoir Dogs – returned. And already there are classic Tarantino visuals in Pulp Fiction.
We get the car trunk POV shot. Started in Reservoir Dogs, but it’s here as well. This is also where QT’s foot fetish gets ramped up. Mia Wallace is barefoot for almost all of her scenes. And Esmeralda Villalobos – Butch’s cab driver – there’s a close up of her bare feet too.
What I’m going to talk about a bit more though is what I think is Tarantinos main stylistic influence for the film – and that’s French New Wave cinema of the 1960s
I mean, Tarantinos own production company was called A Band Apart. Named after a Jean Luc Goddard film. And that Godard film also features a famous dance scene in a restaurant. Coincidence?
Long Tracking shots are a feature of French New Wave, where the camera seems to follow characters. Pioneered by auteurs like Goddard and Francois Truffaut, and Tarantino does that here throughout the film.
There was anorher New Wave filmmaker called JeanPierre Melville – he directed Le Samourai with Alain Delon – and he said a characters clothes should be their suit of armour And from Jules and Vince’s hitmen uniforms, through Lance’s bathrobe, Jimmy’s bathrobe and Mr Wolf’s tux at 8am every character is clearly dressed very specifically by Tarantino.
And Mia Wallace. I mean the visual influence of Godard and Anna Karina on her is very obvious, I think. Same hair, similar clothes.
There’s a lot of other things going on in Pulp Fiction that contribute to its very strong identity and the French New Wave influence definitely contributes to that.
And Matt, I’ll allow you to retort. Tarantino’s direction on Pulp Fiction? – his influences
Yeah, just his personality must help. You see footage of Tarantino on the set and his passion is like tangible.
The soundtrack plays a big part in Pulp Fiction too and the film made lots of songs that weren’t hugely well known at the time very famous. Songs like:
- Miserlou by Dick Dale
- Comanche by The Revels
- Surf Rider by The Lively Ones
- Bullwinkle, Part II by The Centurians
Yeah, loads of surf music, no surfing, which is outrageous. He stole what should’ve been the soundtrack to Point Break.
There’s so many moments where the music elevates the scene and the scene elevates the music. They feel intertwined. And no one is thinking of using these songs except Tarantino. One of the great soundtracks. No question, for me.
Tarantino often has a cameo in his films, and Pulp Fiction is no different. He plays Jimmy – Jules’ friend who helps out in The Bonnie Situation. He actually wanted Jeff Goldblum, Steve Buscemi or Bill Paxton to play Jimmy but they were unavailable. He gave Eric Stoltz a choice between playing Lance and Jimmy. Stoltz chose Lance, so Tarantino played Jimmy.
Yeah, any of those guys would’ve been better than Tarantino as Jimmy. To be fair though, I’ve seen him a lot worse than he is here.
Is he a good actor? Not really, to be honest.
Lawrence Bender, the producer, makes a small appearance too, if you know where? He’s in the diner in the final scene. Ringo – Tim Roth – sticks a gun in his face and insults him and it’s pretty – calls him a fucking yuppie..
Pulp Fiction debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 and went down a storm there. It won the Palme D’Or – the biggest prize. And when Tarantino collected the award he got heckled and gave the heckler the finger.
You can’t make it out but apparently the heckler shouted “Pulp Fiction is shit.” Just won the Palme d’Or so maybe pipe down. Lost out at the Oscars, though, but it was nominated. You know what won Best Picture that year? Forrest Gump won Best Picture and Robert Zemeckis Best Director. If the vote was cast again today I think there may be a different outcome? Shawshank would win.
QT as director of Pulp Fiction. Full of his trademarks, and made a nineties classic?
And, that’s it for Part 1. Come back for more though, as we’ve got the writing, the cast, our highlights, and our ratings to get into yet. You fellas coming back for the next part?
The Writing
Hello, and welcome back to The Cutting Room. We’re still John, Matt, and Westy…
And this is Part 2 of our Pulp Fiction episode. The other parts are on our YouTube channel and here we’re getting right into it to talk about the Writing of pulp fiction and the main Cast.
So here it is, the writing…
Pulp Fiction was written by Quentin Tarantino, with a stories by co-credit being given to Roger Avary. Tarantino’s third writing credit at the time, after Reservoir Dogs and True Romance. And Avarys second after writing and directing Killing Zoe.
How good is the screenplay here then, Matt?
Matt to mention: Tarantino himself says the theme of Pulp Fiction is redemption and salvation. Mia is saved by Vincent. Butch gets a second chance after he’s redeemed in the eyes of Marsellus. In the final scene, Jules redeems both himself and Ringo and Yolanda. The only character who rejects redemption is Vincent, who disagrees with Jules, and he’s killed.
Yeah, Pulp Fiction was massively original at the time it came out, wasn’t it?. And it’s not in the subject matter – mobsters and boxers? Seen that before. It’s in the identity. Tarantino is stamped all over Pulp Fiction. And nowhere more so than in the writing and I think Pulp Fiction carries some of Trantino’s chief writing trademarks..
There’s the non-linear narrative. Many of Tarantino’s stories are told out of sequence, and Pulp Fiction is no different. There’s actually three narratives – one where Vincent is the protagonist, one where Butch is the protagonist, and one where Jules is the protagonist. The three stories have pretty much nothing to do with each other, but because Tarantino has characters overlap – Vincent is the protagonist in his narrative, then a supporting character in Jules, and in Butch’s narratives – that makes it seem a lot more complicated than it actually is.
Something that I love about the narrative is that it’s circular. The opening scene in the diner is the start of the final sequence in the film. Also, when Butch and Fabienne drive off on Zed’s motorbikebike, its not the last thing we see in the film, but if the story were told linear, it would be. And the first thing we hear in the movie is the sound of that motorbike -So the story starts where it ends when told linear and non-linear. Not daft ol’ Quentin is he? Mad as a box of frogs but not daft.
Another Tarantino hallmark here is the dialogue. Or the type of dialogue, where he has his characters talk about trivial subjects – two hitmen talking about McDonald’s and burger king and foot massages, for example
Pulp Fiction is still Tarantino’s masterclass for me, and he and Roger Avary won a much deserved Oscar for it.
And Westy, what do you think of the writing here?
Westy – the way he keeps a pop culture reference to most of the film without it being too depressing. . Issues of drug use, rape, murder and McDonald’s all seem to go hand in hand. Somehow. .
Yeah, even at the time, when you see interviews with the cast, there was already a real reverence for the screenplay for Pulp Fiction.
Tarantino had the idea for Pulp Fiction with a writer pal of his called Roger Avary – they worked together in a video rental shop called Video Archives. Their initial inspiration was a 1963 horror film called Black Sabbath (which is also where the band got their name from). That film is written in 3 distinctive parts – like Pulp Fiction – they initially called the script Black Mask after a crime magazine.
I’d have loved a cameo from Sabbath in there. Absolute mentalists. But as well as Roger Avary, QT was also helped out by another pal of his. A woman called Linda Chen typed up Tarantino’s handwritten notes. She said “his handwriting is atrocious. He gave me 500 pages of notes – it was the ramblings of a madman.” She gets a nod in the film too, Linda Chen, you know where? Or how? – Honey Bunny was named after Linda Chen’s pet rabbit.
So with the money he’d earned from Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino took himself off to Amsterdam for 3 months to write Pulp Fiction. And that’s why there are several references to Europe in the film. And nobody seems sure whether it was the studio or Tarantino’s idea, but Roger Avary’s writing credit was reduced from co-writer to being given a stories by credit.
Which I’ve no doubt wouldve infuriated Roger Avary. Rightly so. For anyone interested, the story Avary wrote was The Gold Watch.
After the script was finished, the first studio involved was TriStar, who optioned the script. Mike Medavoy – the head of TriStar – read it and some of his comments were:
“What’s going on? Someone’s dead and then they’re alive.”
“The worst thing ever written.”
“Too demented.”
Medavoy put the script into turnaround because he wasn’t happy with all the violence and drugs use. Dany DeVito ended up getting his hands on the script. He loved it and sent it to Miramax, as he was pals with Harvey Weinstein. He also loved it and wanted to buy it.
Yeah, we’ve got some actual footage here of Harvey Weinsten rushing to buy the rights to Pulp Fiction. – I’ve got a video of a walrus galloping along the beach.
There’s some great little details in the screenplay too:
In the first scene, Yolanda shouts, “Any of you fucking pricks move, and I’ll execute every motherfucking last one of ya!” When we see that replayed at the end, she says something different. Apparently, Tarantino did that on purpose… the opening scene is told from Ringo and Yolanda’s perspective and the final scene from Jules’, so he remembers it differently.
Yes, you believe Tarantino on that? Or is it an error? And in the opening scene, we see Vincent in the background walking to the toilet, which is a lovely touch.
Also, when Mia and Vincent get back from their date, we see them with the trophy they won for the dancing contest. But, later on, we hear on a radio news report that the trophy was stolen. So they didn’t win it after all.
Another nice little detail is when Ringo and Yolanda hold up the diner, Ringo grabs the manager and the manager says… “Please, I’m just a coffee shop-” In the end credits, the actors role is given as “Coffee Shop”.
We see another Taratino hallmark with Red Apple cigarettes. Butch smokes Red Apples. Mia smokes Red Apples. And they’re in other Tarantino films too like Kill Bill, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
And Big Kahuna Burger is also in Reservoir Dogs. Brett’s burger looks awesome to be fair. And Westy, in our younger years surely me and you would have smoked Red Apples if we could have.
A huge screenplay on Pulp Fiction. Credit not going entirely where it was due, maybe, but the final script is an iconic piece of work?
The Cast
It’s very much an ensemble cast set up in Pulp Fiction. Not easy to pick out individuals, but we’re gonna try, aren’t we?
Who you going for Matt?
Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winfield
Matt to mention: Jules was written to have a giant afro, but the crewmember who went out to buy the wig came back with a jheri curl. Jackson loved it and persuaded Tarantino to go with that instead.
Yeah, when you see promo shots of Sam Jackson as Jules without the wig, it looks really weird.
He’s superb and, even though the part was written for Jackson, he almost lost the role. Paul Calderon auditioned for Jules and blew Tarantino away. So Jackson had to audition again. He was livid about it apparently and turned up for the audition raging when that came across in the audition, he got the part. Tarantino did cast Paul Calderon as well, though. He plays Paul, the barman at Marsellus strip joint.
Samuel L. Jackson as Jules then – massive performance. His best?
Bruce Willis as Butch Coolidge
And Westy, which cast member are you going to talk about?
Yeah, Willis is good here. Famously pretty difficult to work with Bruce Willis and I think it’s testament to Tarantino as a director that even Willis seemed to like him.
Before Willis was cast though, another actor did say no to playing Butch. You know who?
Mickey Rourke passed on the role in order to pursue his real-life boxing career. He said at the time “the script is nonsense” then said later when he was acting again “to be honest, I didn’t understand it”.
Butch was originally supposed to be an up and coming boxer and Matt Dillon was in talks – he loved the script and asked Tarantino if he could sleep on it and Tarantino said no. Tarantino then changed the role to be an older boxer who’s best days are behind him so Willis could play him. I can easily imagine Matt Dillon in the role.
Tarantino already developing a bit of an ego. “If he needs to think about it, he can do one.” I can easily imagine Matt Dillon in the role, to be honest.
Bruce Willis then. A good performance from him. Probably one of his best – and certainly better than his singing career?
John Travolta as Vincent Vega
For my cast member, I’m talking about JT John Travolta as the dancing drug addict of the piece, Vincent Vega.
Hes very funny. Brings lots of humour to the script – even at times, I think, when the humour might not be there on the page. Travolta’s career was a bit in the doldrums at the time wasn’t it, and Pulp Fiction revitalised it. Shame he went on to go and make some absolute crap after it – but as Vincent, superb. He’s far too laid back to be a hitman but Travolta brings a very likeable charm to the role. And his line delivery is excellent. I like it when he’s like “bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good.”
Tarantino first wrote the part with Michael Madsen in mind, who’d played Vic Vega – Mr Blonde – in Reservoir Dogs. Madsen was already signed up to play Virgil in Wyatt Earp though, so couldn’t do it. When Tarantino met with Travolta he offered him two parts – either Vincent Vega, or Seth GEcko in From Dusk Till Dawn. Travolta chose Pulp Fiction and said “It’s simple. I’m just not a vampire guy.”
So, Vampires – no chance. Battlefield Earth though – sign me up Yeah, when Tarantino sent his list of demands to Harvey Weinstein, the only one Weinstein refused was casting Travolta. Tarantino said he would pull out of the deal if he couldn’t cast Travolta though, and Weinstein had no choice but to agree. We’ve got some footage here actually of Harvey Weinstein talking about that. – It’s a walrus going mental on a beach.
Obviously Vince is a drug addict – addicted to heroin. Travolta researched that by speaking to a recovering addict. He advised Travolta to get really drunk on tequila then lie in a hot tub. He said that’s as close as you can get without actually taking heroin. Travolta was delighted to give it a try.
Yeah, Travolta was doing that already.
Again, QT had a huge list of names for potential Vincent’s.
Sean Penn, William Hurt, and James Gandolfini were all considered to play Vincent. Daniel Day-Lewis apparently wanted the part but QT said no. Can’t imagine many people have turned Day-Lewis down but Travolta said that Tarantino loved him – I saw an interview where Travolta says “I was Quentin’s favourite actor. I was Quentin’s favourite actor.” Liked him so much he said it twice.
And at one point, Tarantino considered changing the characters of Jules and Vincent to two English guys and casting Tim Roth and Gary Oldman. That could’ve been great.
Pulp Fiction was the rebirth of John Travolta. He is excellent as Vincent and without this, we would never have had Michael – the one where he’s an angel. Or Broken Arrow.
Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace
We should also talk about the only woman in the main cast. Uma Thurman plays Mia Wallace, wife of Marsellus. How’s she in the film?
Uma Thurman originally said no to the part of Mia because she was a bit concerned about all the rape scenes. Tarantino thought she was perfect though, and read part of the script to her over the phone to get her to say yes.
She is excellent. Really charismatic as Mia. There were lots of other names on Tarantino’s shortlist again, but the ones who came closest…
Isabella Rossellini, Meg Ryan, Halle Berry and Michelle Pfeiffer were all interviewed or auditioned.
And, apparently two big sitcom stars just missed out. That was Jennifer Aniston – famous for Friends, of course – and Julia Louis Dreyfuss, who played Elaine in Seinfeld.
Like any of those as Mia?
Yeah, she is excellent as Mia Wallace. Again, the launchpad for her career and still one of Uma Thurman’s best performances?
Pulp Fiction is a big ensemble piece like I mentioned, and there are lots of other excellent actors and performance in the film – Christopher Walken as Captain Koons, Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace, Eric Stoltz as Lance, Tim Roth as Ringo and Amanda Plummer as Yolanda are all memorable.
The main 4 though, 4 big names and all at the top of their game?
And, we’re done for Part 2 – the intermission if you like. Come back for part 3 though as we’re talking our highlights for the film and rating Pulp Fiction out of 10. Which is gonna be great, right?
The Highlight
Hello, and welcome back for the final part of Pulp Fiction on The Cutting Room. I’m John, and I’m with Matt and Westy.
You can get the previous parts here and we’re now onto Part 3, where we’ll be talking about our individual highlights for the movie and then bringing it all back home by rating the film out of 10.
So, here it is… our Highlights..
Some of the most iconic moments of 90s Hollywood come from Pulp Fiction so there is a feast for us to get into in the highlights section.
Westy, what are you going for?
Jules and Vincent retrieve the briefcase
Westy to mention: Jules flipping the table over in the beginning was improvised by Samuel L. Jackson, and Frank Whaley’s (who plays Brett) reaction was genuine, but they continued with the scene, and that particular shot was done in one take.
We find out later there’s a guy hiding in the toilet who tries to kill Jules and Vincent. Credited as Robert Arquette, later became Alexis Arquette. But, at this point the absolute double of Jerry Seinfeld. It’s ridiculous. No wonder Julia Louis Dreyfuss almost got the job. Jason Alexander was up for Marsellus.
Jackson in this scene is ike a perfect marriage between writer and actor. I know that Tarantino says “Sam doesn’t say my lines, he sings them” and that’s never more apparent than in the bible passage he quotes – Ezekiel 25:17.
It’s not an exact quote from the Bible. Part of it is from the Bible, and the rest of it is taken from another film. You heard about that?
A very similar passage is said in The Bodyguard. Not Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston . Not that The Bodyguard. The 1976 martial arts film starring Sonny Chiba.
It pops up in the MCU as well. Samuel L. Jackson plays Nick Fury and in the Winter Soldier we see his gravestone and it reads “The path of the righteous man… Ezekiel 25:17”
Yes it is in there. And Tarantino originally wrote it for From Dusk Till Dawn for Harvey Keitel’s preacher to say, but it’s much better here, surely? Maybe Keitel did a Travolta “I’m not a preacher guy.”
The reason Jules and Vincent are there is to collect Marsellus’ briefcase. All we see of whats in the briefcase is that it glows when Vincent opens it. It’s never revealed in the film what it is, but there’s been a fair bit of speculation about what it could be:
The diamonds from Reservoir Dogs.
Yeah that would’ve worked. I’d have quite liked that.
The gold suit Val Kilmer wears in True Romance as Elvis.
Eh? Isn’t Elvis a vision in Clarence’s head in True Romance? Makes no sense
Marcellus Wallace’s soul, which also explains why the combination is 666.
Yeah, that’s because of the earlier scene where we see Marselus with a plaster on the back of his head. Apparently that’s the point from which, in some spiritual faiths, your soul escapes… apparently.
Tarantino says the contents are “whatever the viewer wants it to be”
Not Val Kilmer’s gold suit though. That’s crazy. And the whole idea of a glowing case is taken straight from a film noir directed by Robert Aldrich called Kiss Me Deadly.
Huge scene, though. Samuel L. Jackson is superb, and one of Tarantino’s best?
Vincent and Mia’s date
My highlight, I’m sticking with Vincent Vega and bringing in Mrs Wallace to talk about Vincent and Mia’s date.
If somebody has to be resuscitated from ODing you can hardly call it a great date, but it’s definitely another great sequence in the film.
I 100% want to go to Jack Rabbit Slim’s. I want to be served by people dressed as 50s icons. I want to play on that enormous scalextric set. And I definitely want to try that $5 shake Mia gets.
The Jack Rabbit Slims set they had created is incredible. The idea of cars doubling up as tables came from Speedway, an Elvis film. And Tarantino makes the most of the set with that tracking shot when we first enter and we follow Vincent round the whole place – what a set that is. And have you noticed the posters on the wall? All Roger Corman films.
Travolta proves he’s still got it. Not just with his acting chops, but on the d-floor as well. Great moves from both Travolta and Thurman. Not so great from Tarantino when you see him behind the scenes.
Awful, in fact. Really sweaty as well.
But then it completely switches and we go from Jack Rabbit Slim’s to Lance and Jody’s drug den where Lance seems to be permanently in a bathrobe. Apparently Tarantino wanted John Cusack to play Lance but he passed so he brought in Eric Stoltz. And I’m glad he did, because he’s hilarious.
When he answers the phone… and he’s like: “and that’s what I’m gonna tell this fucking asshole right now.”
He’s really high and mighty about it. Standing in his bathrobe and Speed Racer t shirt.
This was another controversial scene in the film because of the overdose and adrenalin shot. And when the film was played at the New York Film Festival somebody in the audience collapsed during this scene – they had some kind of heart attack. And Tarantino loved it. He was like “this shit’s too intense for human beings man.!”
Mia and Vincent’s dance moves are mostly taken from other places. They start off dancing like the dance scene in 8 ½ by Federico Fellini. And then Travolta recommended they go into The Batusi, which is a move taken from Adam West’s Batman series.
And Travolta also had to speak to Thurman because , apparently, she was worried about having to dance opposite him because of how good he is in Saturday Night Fever and Grease.
His moves are unbelievable in those two, to be fair. Also, Thurman apparently didn’t like Tarantino’s choice of song for the scene. It’s You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry. She questioned it but Tarantino just said “trust me, it’s perfect.” I think he was right,surely?
We see Vincent’s car in this sequence to -he drives a 1964 Chevy Malibu. It was actually Tarantino’s car. And it was stolen just after the film came out and not found for 20 years.
It is a beautiful set of wheels to be fair. I like the Texas switch they do as well when Vincent steamrolls onto Lance’s lawn, then by the time the camera catches up, Travolta and Uma Thurman are there. Another little trick as well when Vincent gives Mia the shot. The way they filmed it was that Travolta mimicked pulling the needle out, and they just reversed the footage. The old tricks are the best tricks.
So Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace’s date might be one of the worst in history. At least he didn’t give her a foot massage, though?
The Gold Watch
Brilliant monologue from Walken. Tell you what’s horrible, though? How Zed drums his fingers on the gimp’s head. Awful. . And, Vincent needs to stop going to the toilet. He goes three times in the film and:
First time, he comes out, and Mia has overdosed.
He goes in the restaurant and when he comes out Ringo and Yolanda have stuck the place up.
And third time is here when he gets blown away by Butch.
That’s the real theme of the film – don’t go for shits in other people’s toilets. It’s a good message, to be fair.
I like the book Vincent’s reading too, have you noticed what it is? It’s the first ever Modesty Blaise novel. Modesty Blaise is a female spy who was popular in the 60s. Total Tarantino-esque reference that.
The song that plays when we’re in Zed’s basement is Comanche, an instrumental by The Revels. Tarantino originally wanted to use My Sharona by The Knack, but when they found out what scene he was going to use it for, they wouldn’t give him the rights. They did license it to BEn Stiller the same year though, for Reality Bites.
Surely they must regret that now. I wouldn’t change it. Comanche is like stitched into this scene now. That sax. Must be the dirtiest sounding sax I’ve ever heard. Its great.
A lot of people think that the gun Butch kills Vincent with is Vincent’s but it’s not. It was left there by Marsellus when he goes to get doughnuts and coffee.
Death by pop tarts for Vincent. And that moment where Butch comes across Marsellus in the car. Shot very similar to Psycho, when Marion comes across her boss after stealing the money. As Picasso put it “good artists copy, great artists steal ”
Tell you one of my favourite things about that quote? Tarantino stole it off Picasso.
“I steal from everything. Great artists steal. They don’t do homages.”
There are many moments that would’ve made good highlights in Pulp Fiction. And three of the best we’ve talked about there?
The Rating
Matt, you’re up first please. Your summary and score for Pulp Fiction…
I think this is surely the biggest indie film that’s been released in our lifetimes – the most impactful, definitely.
We could be sitting here saying we don’t know how Tarantino created a cultural landmark with an $8m budget, but I think we do: the writing is exceptional – hugely original at the time and massively influential since – the main cast all turn in either career-making or career-transforming performances. The famous scenes come thick and fast, iconic visuals run back to back and the quotable lines – some of the greatest movie dialogue written, for me.
One of the great screenplays, one of the top films of the nineties, and still Tarantino’s best. It’s a big kahuna burger 10 out of 10 for me.
And Westy? What’s your summary and score for Pulp Fiction?
So overall, that leaves Pulp Fiction with a score of XX out of 30.
And we have reached the end of our Pulp Fiction episode. If you liked it, please support us on Patreon. That will get you access to benefits like bonus episodes of The Cutting Room and also access to our full podcast archive – over 200 hours worth. The podcasts are also available on our website. Lots of great articles and features are added to our site regularly so go check that out at alltherightmovies.com. Mainly though becoming a patron will allow us to make more videos like this one.
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Outro
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The beginning of a beautiful friendship
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