Marsellus Wallace (VING RHAMES) is the king daddy of gang lords in L.A. Feared by many, his control over his domain is vast, particularly since his two hitmen, Vincent Vega (JOHN TRAVOLTA) and Jules Winnfield (SAMUEL L. JACKSON), are so "good" at what they do. While Vincent doesn't think about what he does, Jules begins to reflect on his life and leans toward getting out of "the business."
When Marsellus asks Vincent to entertain his wife, Mia (UMA THURMAN), for an evening, Jules worries that his partner may meet a nasty end should anything go wrong. It does, of course, and Mia overdoses on some drugs supplied by Lance (ERIC STOLTZ), a buddy of Vincent's.
This all happens as the men are ordered to take care of Butch Coolidge (BRUCE WILLIS), a boxer who's on the run after not following orders to take a fall in the ring. And they must also deal with two small-time thieves/lovers, Pumpkin (TIM ROTH) and Honey Bunny (AMANDA PLUMMER), and with covering up an accidental and messy murder.
Nominated for seven 1994 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor and both Supporting Actor and Actress roles, "Pulp Fiction" is a disturbing, yet powerful film that instantly became a cult classic, and did extremely well at the box office.
After this movie's success, many copycat films followed and tried to emulate what made this one work so well, but none could compare to this wild and highly inventive movie. Featuring a terrific script filled with rich, and quite entertaining dialogue, the plot breaks the traditional boundaries of a linear storyline that only adds to the film's imaginative delivery. Never knowing where or when the film will go, the audience has no choice but to be glued to the screen.
While the script is obviously cleverly in concept and execution and creates memorable characters, a great deal of the dialogue is unrealistic -- truly, would hitmen be comparing the names of hamburgers in different countries, or making other, deeper philosophical comments? This is a slight problem, since so much of the movie is the dialogue and script, but its unique approach makes it fairly easy to swallow. The fact that these characters discuss other matters while going about their business not only makes them more human, it makes them that much scarier.
Dim-witted villains are bad enough, but when you get philosophical ones that spout religious passages and can carry on deep conversations with their victims -- now that's frightening. This film not only blasted director Quentin Tarantino into the mainstream, but also single handedly resurrected John Travolta's career. His performance is downright amazing and is overshadowed only by Samuel L. Jackson's and both were nominated for their tremendous performances.
Everyone else is superb as well, from Uma Thurman's nominated performance to Willis' usual fine delivery. Easily capturing the hip retro 70's comeback -- c'mon, didn't everyone think this was set in the 70's, what with the soundtrack, afros, clothes, etc... -- the film's visual style and production design are some of its other strong points.
Even so, some people were put off by the nonlinear story, the matter of fact violence, and other objectionable material. Granted, there's a great deal that may offend some, but the sheer brilliance of the directing and script clearly overshadow those faults. Of course, some would say that they didn't need to include all of the "bad stuff," but without it, there would really be no story or depth.
This film is about that dark, underbelly of life, and that gritty quality only adds layer upon layer to this feature. Definitely not for kids or those upset by the often harsh material, this wildly inventive, never boring, and visually fun to watch film is a must for film lovers as it's probably one of the better pictures of the 1990's. We highly recommend it, especially with the plentiful supplemental features offered in this 2-disc collector's edition.
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