image from: http://www.miramax.com/movie/pulp-fiction/
Pulp Fiction, 1994, Directed by: Quinten Tarantino
For most people that know Tarantino movies, one would know that this is one of them. I’m a fan of Tarantino and a lot of his movies. This film was really successful as it has 8.9/10 on IMDb. This is a high ranking compared to many other movies. I think what makes it so successful is due to its perfect combination of violence and comedy. The screenplay was written by Quinten Tarantino. For people familiar with Tarantino, they would be familiar with the trunk shot. This shot has been used in everyone of his movies. It’s a great camera angle as it always looking up on the actors from within the trunk. One of the transitions that takes the viewer from one place in the movie to another is the good ole fade in, fade out transition. This is probably one of the most used transitions in film making. It marks a scene change, but it’s also very smooth when used correctly. Another which is more obvious is the car. The car is used to signify a change in location but can also be used to have a long conversation to transition into the next scene. Below is a link to a video of my favorite car scene in the movie. “Aw man I shot Marvin in the face”.
A scene that shows an actor that is not one of the main actors is at the house where they are trying to get Brett to talk about Marcellus Wallace. He plays a very unknowing business partner of Marcellus. Below is the scene I am talking about.
This is a great scene in Pulp Fiction and one of the best known.
Symbolism doesn’t come up a whole lot in this movie. There was one that I found which related to a briefcase and that of a bandaid on the back of Marcellus Wallace’s neck. The idea is that Marcellus has his soul sucked out of him, and is now present within the briefcase. Supposedly in China it is an idea that you can have your soul sucked out through the back of the neck. The briefcase needs to be retrieved from Brett and is then returned to Marcellus. In that scene Marcellus no longer has the bandaid on the back of his neck. This is a theory but it makes sense.
This film is full of outrageous scenes full of violence and comedy. They all make you laugh and make you watch it very intently. For an interaction to a scene I’m going to pick the scene from the above video. I thought this scene was just crazy. They were driving with Marvin and hit a bump and shoot him in the face. This is crazy, but the scene is perfectly filled with comedy due to their reactions. The lighting in this scene seemed to be natural lighting from outside. It added to the reality of the scene. The scene also has special effects shown by the gun shots and the blood. The gunshots from one angle bring on a faint orange glow to show a firing of the gun.
Basically this is one of my favorite movies and it brings mostly one emotion. It’s a funny movie filled with violence. There is not much to love. The soundtrack to this movie is great too and is filled with all kinds of music including rock n roll, pop, and soul. The soundtrack to this movie reached high on the charts in the 1990’s and was very popular along with the film itself.
Works Cited:
The Key to Happiness is Music and Art 
Great blog! I’m glad you did a post on this film, as I’ve been meaning to watch it for a long time and just never have gotten around to it. I like that you gave a general idea of the plot of the movie without any spoilers. I agree with you that screenplays written about violent or serious matters in comedic tones are a great combination and make the best movies. I love how highlighted how successful the Pulp Fiction soundtrack was vs the success of the film itself. I think this shows ow far reaching the success of the film was that its soundtrack reached high levels of popularity. Awesome job!
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I am a huge fan of Tarantino and really considered using one of his movies for this blog, probably Reservoir Dogs or Inglorious Bastards, but ended up changing my mind because they are just so crazy and I honestly felt unworthy to critique them. You, however, did a great job drawing attention to what makes a Tarantino movie his own. That, of course, is his dialogue. No other director does such a good job at making me want to pay so much attention to every single word the characters say. I agree that humor is a big role in this film, but I do have to argue that shock is an emotion of equal value to Tarantino. I mean, in every film he directs there are these big unexpected shifts in plot, and some of them, much like the driving scene you used, seem unnecessary at the time, but end up making sense in the end. Good choice and great blog!
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