Pulp Fiction

 Pulp Fiction

• Director: Quentin Tarantino
• Also seen by this director: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Django Unchained, Inglourius Basterds, Kill Bill 1&2, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Samuel L Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames, Bronagh Ghallager, Roseanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz, Steve Buscemi, Cristopher Walken, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Samuel L Jackson – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Django Unchained, Jumper, 1408, Star Wars, Kill Bill, Changing Lanes, The Red Violin, Jackie Brown, The Long Kiss Goodnight, True Romance, Jurassic Park, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Sea of Love, Do the Right Thing
• John Travolta – Be Cool, The Love Song of Bobby Long, The Thin Red Line, Face/Off, Get Shorty, Urban Cowboy, Grease, Saturday Night Fever
• Uma Thurman – Be Cool, Kill Bill 1&2, Hysterical Blindness, Les Misérables, Gattaca, Beautiful Girls,
• Bruce Willis – Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Friends, The Siege, Armageddon, The Fifth Element, The Twelve Monkeys, Billy Bathgate, In Country, Die Hard
• Tim Roth – The Liability, To Kill a King, Gridlock’d, Rob Roy, Reservoir Dogs, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
• Amanda Plummer – The Hunger Games Catching Fire, My Life without Me, Dead Girl, Fisher King, Joe and the Volcano, Daniel, The World According to Garp
• Ving Rhames – Dawn of the Dead, Bringing Out the Dead
• Bronagh Ghallager – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Last Chance Harvey, Tara Road, Star Wars I, Mary Reilly, The Commitments
• Roseanna Arquette – Le Grand Bleu, After Hours, Silverado, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Aviator
• Eric Stoltz - Rob Roy, Little Women, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Steve Buscemi – Paris je t’aime, The Sopranos, Romance & Cigarettes, Big Fish, 28 Days, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Dead Man, Living in Oblivion, Reservoir Dogs, Billy Bathgate, Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, Mystery Train
• Christopher Walken – Nine Lives, Jersey Boys, Romance & Cigarettes, Catch Me If You Can, Sleepy Hollow, Blast from the Past, Suicide King, Nick of Time, The Addiction, True Romance, Sarah Plain and Tall, Deer Hunter
• Quentin Tarantino – mostly small roles in his own films
• Harvey Keitel – Moonrise Kingdom, Be Cool, Lulu on the Bridge, Copland, Get Shorty, Clockers, Smoke, The Piano, Sister Act, Reservoir Dogs, Thelma and Louise, The January Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
•  Why? Tarantino and cast and film itself
• Seen: 26 September 2020      

       This is such a classic that the whole thing is iconic. Oddly, I don’t remember the stories about the petty robbers, drugs lords, hit men, coke-head, spaced-out, multi-pierced wives but some scenes, some close-ups of this incredible cast – is that Steve Buscemi as Buddy Holly? We had not yet seen him in anything when we saw Pulp Fiction – some settings and the Jackson-Travolta exchanges are forever etched in my memory.

       However. Between the many highlights it almost lags a little. And the flashbacks and flashforwards are a bit too wibbly wobbly timey wimey to really keep up. Having recently seen Django Unchained it’s clear that this is a less polished product.

       But, oh, what a milestone in film history!

 4½ * of 5 (Hal says 5.)