Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Quentin Tarantino
Story by	Quentin Tarantino Roger Avary
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Starring	John Travolta Samuel L. Jackson Uma Thurman Harvey Keitel Tim Roth Amanda Plummer Maria de Medeiros Ving Rhames Eric Stoltz Rosanna Arquette Christopher Walken Bruce Willis
Cinematography	Andrzej Sekuła
Edited by	Sally Menke
Production companies	A Band Apart Jersey Films
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	May 21, 1994 (1994-05-21) (Cannes) October 14, 1994 (1994-10-14) (United States)
Running time	154 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8–8.5 million[2][a]
Box office	$213.9 million[2]

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.^[3] It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence in Los Angeles, California. The film stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman. The title refers to the pulp magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue.

Tarantino wrote Pulp Fiction in 1992 and 1993, incorporating scenes that Avary originally wrote for True Romance (1993). Its plot occurs out of chronological order. The film is also self-referential from its opening moments, beginning with a title card that gives two dictionary definitions of "pulp". Considerable screen time is devoted to monologues and casual conversations with eclectic dialogue revealing each character's perspectives on several subjects, and the film features an ironic combination of humor and strong violence. TriStar Pictures reportedly turned down the script as "too demented". Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein was enthralled, however, and the film became the first that Miramax fully financed.

Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and was a major critical and commercial success. It was nominated for seven awards at the 67th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won Best Original Screenplay; Travolta, Jackson, and Thurman were nominated for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress respectively. As a result of the film's success, Travolta's career was reinvigorated, and the previously unknown Jackson and Thurman became household names. The film's development, marketing, distribution, and profitability had a sweeping effect on independent cinema.

Pulp Fiction is widely regarded as Tarantino's magnum opus, with particular praise for its screenwriting.^[4] The self-reflexivity, unconventional structure, and extensive homage and pastiche have led critics to describe it as a touchstone of postmodern film. It is often considered a cultural watershed, influencing films and other media that adopted elements of its style. The cast was also widely praised, with Travolta, Thurman, and Jackson earning high acclaim. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named it the best film since 1983^[5] and it has appeared on many critics' lists of the greatest films ever made. In 2013, Pulp Fiction was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[6][7][8]

Plot[edit]

Narrative structure[edit]

Pulp Fiction's narrative is told out of chronological order and follows three main interrelated stories that each have a different protagonist: Vincent Vega, a hitman; Butch Coolidge, a prizefighter; and Jules Winnfield, Vincent's business partner.^[9]

The film begins with a diner robbery staged by a couple, then begins to shift from one story line to another before returning to the diner for the conclusion. There are seven narrative sequences; the three primary story lines are preceded by intertitles:

1. "Prologue – The Diner" (i)
2. "Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
3. "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
4. "Prelude to "The Gold Watch" (a – flashback, b – present)
5. "The Gold Watch"
6. "The Bonnie Situation"
7. "Epilogue – The Diner" (ii)

If the seven sequences were ordered chronologically, they would run: 4a, 2, 6, 1, 7, 3, 4b, 5. Sequences 1 and 7 partially overlap and are presented from different points of view, as do sequences 2 and 6. According to Philip Parker, the structural form is "an episodic narrative with circular events adding a beginning and end and allowing references to elements of each separate episode to be made throughout the narrative".^[10] Other analysts describe the structure as a "circular narrative".^[11][12]

Summary[edit]

A pair of thieves, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, reminisce on their past robbery attempts as they eat breakfast in a diner. Pumpkin proposes they rob the diner at that moment because he believes the patrons and employees will be unprepared to stop them. Honey Bunny agrees.

Two hitmen, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega, arrive at an apartment to retrieve a briefcase for their boss, influential gangster Marsellus Wallace, from a business partner, Brett. After Vincent checks the contents of the briefcase, Jules shoots one of Brett's friends. Jules recites a passage from the Bible, and he and Vincent kill Brett in retaliation for Brett's attempt to double-cross Marsellus.

"Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"[edit]

Jules and Vincent give the briefcase to Marsellus, who bribes boxer Butch Coolidge to take a dive in his upcoming match. Vincent purchases heroin from his drug dealer, Lance. He shoots up and drives to meet Marsellus's wife, Mia, having agreed to escort her while Marsellus is out of town. They eat at a 1950s-themed restaurant and participate in a twist contest, then return home. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, and snorts it, resulting in an overdose. Vincent rushes her to Lance's house, where Lance revives her by injecting adrenaline into her heart. Vincent takes Mia home, and they agree never to tell Marsellus about the incident.

"The Gold Watch"[edit]

Butch double-crosses Marsellus by winning the bout, but he accidentally kills his opponent in the process. He plans to flee with his girlfriend, Fabienne, but discovers she has forgotten to pack an heirloom: a gold watch which belonged to Butch's father. Returning to his apartment to retrieve it, he notices a gun on the kitchen counter and hears the toilet flush. When Vincent exits the bathroom, Butch shoots him dead and departs.

When Marsellus spots Butch stopped at a traffic light, Butch rams his car into him. Marsellus chases him into a pawnshop. Maynard, the shop owner, captures them at gunpoint and binds and gags them in the basement. Maynard and his accomplice, Zed, take Marsellus into another room and begin to rape him. Butch breaks free and is about to escape, but decides to save Marsellus and arms himself with a katana from the pawnshop. He kills Maynard and frees Marsellus, who shoots Zed in the crotch with Maynard's shotgun. Marsellus tells Butch that they are even, and instructs him to tell no one about the incident and depart Los Angeles forever. Butch picks up Fabienne on Zed's chopper and they drive away.

"The Bonnie Situation"[edit]

In the apartment, after Jules and Vincent kill Brett, another man bursts out of the bathroom and fires at them. Every shot misses and they shoot him dead. Jules says that their survival was a miracle, which Vincent disputes. While driving away with Brett's friend, Marvin (who was actually a plant from Marsellus's organization), Vincent accidentally shoots him in the head after Jules drives over an unidentified inconsistency in the roadbed, covering Vincent, Jules, and the car interior in blood. They hide the car at the home of Jules's friend Jimmie, who demands they deal with the problem before his wife Bonnie comes home. Marsellus sends a cleaner, Winston Wolfe, who directs Jules and Vincent to hide the body in the trunk, clean the car, dispose of their bloody clothes and take the car to a junkyard.

At the diner from the film's prologue, Jules tells Vincent that he plans to retire from his life of crime, convinced that their survival at the apartment was divine intervention. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny hold up the restaurant and demand Marsellus's briefcase. Pumpkin initially holds Jules at gunpoint, but Jules soon overpowers Pumpkin and holds him at gunpoint. Honey Bunny becomes hysterical and points her gun at Jules. Vincent returns with his gun aimed at her, but Jules defuses the situation. He recites the biblical passage, expresses ambivalence about his life of crime, and allows the robbers to take his cash and leave. Jules and Vincent leave the diner with the briefcase.

Cast[edit]

• John Travolta as Vincent Vega:

Jules' partner-in-crime, working for Marsellus Wallace. Tarantino cast Travolta in Pulp Fiction because Michael Madsen, who had played Vic Vega in Reservoir Dogs, chose to appear in Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp instead. Madsen has since expressed regret over his decision.^[13] Harvey Weinstein pushed for Daniel Day-Lewis in the part.^[14] Travolta accepted a reduced rate; sources say either US$100,000 or US$140,000. The film's success and his Academy Award nomination for Best Actor revitalized his career.^[15] Vincent is the brother of Vic Vega, also known as Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs (1992), and in 2004, Tarantino discussed an idea for a movie starring Travolta and Madsen as the "Vega Brothers"; the concept remains unrealized.^[16]

• Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield:

Vincent's partner in crime, working for Marsellus Wallace. Jackson's first audition was overshadowed by Paul Calderón; Jackson had assumed the audition was merely a reading. Weinstein convinced him to audition a second time and his performance of the final diner scene won over Tarantino.^[17][18] Jules was originally scripted with a giant afro,^[19] but Tarantino's PA mistakenly bought a Jheri curled wig. Tarantino was enraged but Jackson persuaded him to keep it since the hairstyle had gained popularity through the rap group N.W.A.^[20] Film critic Owen Gleiberman took it as a "tacit comic statement about the ghettoization of [Black people] in movies".^[21] Jackson received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Calderón appears in the film as Paul, a bartender at Marsellus's social club, as well as Marsellus's assistant. Tarantino wrote the role for Laurence Fishburne, who turned it down. According to Tarantino, Fishburne refused it because his team did not see it as a starring role;^[22] Fishburne later said he turned it down because he felt the film glamorized heroin.^[23]

• Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace:

Wallace's wife and an aspiring actress. Miramax favored Holly Hunter or Meg Ryan for the role of Mia. Alfre Woodard and Meg Tilly were also considered but Tarantino wanted Thurman after their first meeting.^[24][25] She dominated the film's promotional material, appearing on a bed with cigarette in hand. She was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Despite being launched into the celebrity A-list, Thurman chose not to do any big-budget films until Batman & Robin (1997) three years later.^[26]

• Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe:

A "cleaner" who aids Jules and Vincent. Tarantino wrote the part of Wolfe for Keitel, who had starred in Reservoir Dogs and was instrumental in its production. In Tarantino's words, "Harvey had been my favorite actor since I was 16 years old."^[27] Keitel had played a similarly employed character in Point of No Return (1993).^[28]

• Tim Roth as Ringo/"Pumpkin":

A burglar and Yolanda's boyfriend. Roth had starred in Reservoir Dogs alongside Keitel. He had used an American accent in Reservoir Dogs but used his natural, London accent in Pulp Fiction. Though Tarantino had written the part with Roth in mind, TriStar head Mike Medavoy preferred Johnny Depp or Christian Slater.^[29] Early in development, Tarantino had contemplated casting Roth as Vincent and Gary Oldman as Jules, rewriting the characters as "two English guys".^[30]

• Amanda Plummer as Yolanda/"Honey Bunny":

Ringo's girlfriend and partner in crime. Tarantino wrote the role of Yolanda for Plummer to partner her with Roth. Roth had introduced Tarantino to her, saying: "I want to work with Amanda in one of your films but she has to have a really big gun."^[31]

• Maria de Medeiros as Fabienne:

Butch's girlfriend. Tarantino met de Medeiros, a Portuguese actress, while traveling with Reservoir Dogs around the European film festival circuit.^[32]

• Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace:

A crime boss and employer of Jules and Vincent. Before Rhames was cast, the part of Wallace was initially offered to Max Julien and Sid Haig, but both turned down the role.^[33][34] According to Bender, Rhames gave "one of the best auditions I've ever seen".^[25] His acclaimed performance led to him being cast in big-budget features such as Mission Impossible (1996), Con Air (1997) and Out of Sight (1998).^[35]

• Eric Stoltz as Lance:

Vincent's drug dealer.^[36] Gary Oldman was the preferred choice among TriStar executives, based on his portrayal of drug-dealing pimp Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993).^[37][38]

• Rosanna Arquette as Jody:

Lance's wife. Pam Grier read for the role, but Tarantino did not believe audiences would find it plausible for Lance to yell at her.^[39] Tarantino later cast Grier as the lead role for Jackie Brown. Ellen DeGeneres also read for the part of Jody.^[40] Rosanna's sister Alexis (then known as Robert Arquette) also appears in the film, as a man emerging from a bathroom to shoot at and miss Vincent and Jules who then kill him.

• Christopher Walken as Captain Koons:

A USAF veteran of the Vietnam War who delivers a young Butch his father's coveted gold watch. During Koons' monologue, which is interspersed with colorful descriptions of the Viet Cong, he mentions a soldier called "Winocki".^[b] Joe Winocki (John Garfield) is a character in the 1943 film Air Force directed by Howard Hawks, one of Tarantino's favorite directors.^[42] Tarantino played a character named Desmond Winocki in a guest appearance on an episode of All-American Girl titled Pulp Sitcom.^[43]

• Bruce Willis as Butch Coolidge:

An aging boxer on the run from Marsellus after having double-crossed him. Willis was already a star but most of his recent films had been critical and box-office disappointments. As related by Peter Bart, participating in the modestly budgeted film "meant lowering his salary and risking his star status but the strategy ... paid off royally: Pulp Fiction not only brought Willis new respect as an actor but also earned him several million dollars".^[44][45][46] Willis' appearance and physical presence were crucial to Tarantino, "Bruce has the look of a 50s actor. I can't think of any other star that has that look".^[47] Butch's look was modeled on Aldo Ray in Nightfall and his demeanor based on Ralph Meeker's portrayal of Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly.^[48] Chandler Lindauer plays a young Butch.

Bronagh Gallagher plays Jody's friend Trudi who does little but smoke a bong during the scene where Vincent revives Mia. According to author Jason Bailey, "Quentin thought it would be funny to have this casual observer who just happened to be there. All of this was born out of the experience of, when you go to someone's house to buy drugs, there are always people who are just there".^[49] Phil LaMarr portrays Marvin, an associate of Jules and Vincent. LaMarr auditioned for Tarantino after both had done a show for an improv group a few months prior.^[50] He read for the roles of Jules Winnfield and Brett before being cast as Marvin.^[50] Tarantino appears as Jules' friend Jimmie, in whose house they clean up a murder. Tarantino was unsure whether to play Jimmie or Lance, choosing Jimmie as he wanted to be behind the camera during Mia's overdose scene.^[38]

Frank Whaley portrays Brett, who has a briefcase requested by Marcellus. Whaley met Tarantino while he was filming Reservoir Dogs at a lab in Sundance Institute. He recalls, "we ended up meeting and spending time together, and I liked him, so I was really happy when he asked me to be in this movie."^[51] Burr Steers appears as Roger, a friend of Brett's nicknamed "Flock of Seagulls" by Jules. The scene of the confrontation between Brett and Jules went through several takes due to Steers making mistakes. Steers recalled in an interview that he had found acting difficult due to the loudness of the gunshots.^[52]

Angela Jones portrays Esmarelda Villalobos, a cab driver who aids Butch's escape. Her casting and character were inspired by her performance in the 1991 short film Curdled, later remade as a 1996 feature film with finance from Tarantino and again starring Jones.^[53] Duane Whitaker, Peter Greene and Stephen Hibbert play Maynard, Zed and the gimp.^[54] According to The Daily Beast, these "three psycho hillbillies" that rape Marsellus in Maynard's shop's basement allude to the film Deliverance.^[53][54] Steve Buscemi makes a cameo appearance as a waiter at Jack Rabbit Slim's, dressed as Buddy Holly. Buscemi, who had appeared in Reservoir Dogs, was originally considered for the role of Jimmie but was unable to commit.^[53] Kathy Griffin appears as herself.^[42][55] Michael Gilden and Joseph Pilato also appear at Jack Rabbit Slim's as waiter Phillip Morris Page and a Dean Martin impersonator, respectively. Emil Sitka made a cameo via posthumous archive footage, Karen Maruyama appears as "Gawker #1" after Butch's car accident, and Julia Sweeney portrays Raquel, the daughter of the owner of the junkyard in which Marvin's body is disposed of. Producer Lawrence Bender makes a cameo as a victim of the diner robbery, credited as "Long Hair Yuppie-Scum". Jerome Patrick Hoban appears in the Jack Rabbit Slim's segment as an Ed Sullivan impersonator. Susan Griffiths appears alongside Hoban as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator.

Production[edit]

Writing[edit]

Roger Avary wrote the first element of what would become the Pulp Fiction screenplay in the fall of 1990:

Tarantino and Avary decided to write a short, on the theory that it would be easier to get made than a feature. But they quickly realized that nobody produces shorts, so the film became a trilogy, with one section by Tarantino, one by Avary, and one by a third director who never materialized. Each eventually expanded his section into a feature-length script.^[56]

The initial inspiration was the three-part horror anthology film Black Sabbath (1963), by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava. The Tarantino–Avary project was provisionally titled "Black Mask", after the seminal hardboiled crime fiction magazine.^[32] Tarantino's script was produced as Reservoir Dogs, his directorial debut; Avary created the basis for the "Gold Watch" storyline of Pulp Fiction.^{[57][58][59][60]}

With work on Reservoir Dogs completed, Tarantino returned to the notion of a trilogy film: "I got the idea of doing something that novelists get a chance to do but filmmakers don't: telling three separate stories, having characters float in and out with different weights depending on the story."^[61] Tarantino explains that the idea "was basically to take like the oldest chestnuts that you've ever seen when it comes to crime stories – the oldest stories in the book ... You know, 'Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife' – the oldest story about ... the guy's gotta go out with the big man's wife and don't touch her. You know, you've seen the story a zillion times."^[9] "I'm using old forms of storytelling and then purposely having them run awry", he says. "Part of the trick is to take these movie characters, these genre characters and these genre situations and actually apply them to some of real life's rules and see how they unravel."^[62] In at least one case, boxer Butch Coolidge, Tarantino had in mind a specific character from a classic Hollywood crime story: "I wanted him to be basically like Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer in Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly [1955]. I wanted him to be a bully and a jerk".^[47]

Tarantino went to work on the script for Pulp Fiction in Amsterdam in March 1992,^[63] possibly at the Winston Hotel in the Red Light District.^[64] He was joined there by Avary, who contributed "Pandemonium Reigns" to the project and participated in its rewriting as well as the development of the new storylines that would link up with it.^[57][58][59] Two scenes originally written by Avary for the True Romance screenplay, exclusively credited to Tarantino, were incorporated into the opening of "The Bonnie Situation": the "miraculous" missed shots by the hidden gunman and the rear seat automobile killing.^[65] The notion of the crimeworld "cleaner" that became the heart of the episode was inspired by a short, Curdled, that Tarantino saw at a film festival. He cast the lead actress, Angela Jones, in Pulp Fiction and later backed the filmmakers' production of a feature-length version of Curdled.^[66] The script included a couple of made-up commercial brands that often featured in later Tarantino films: Big Kahuna burgers (a Big Kahuna soda cup appears in Reservoir Dogs) and Red Apple cigarettes.^[67] As he worked on the script, Tarantino also accompanied Reservoir Dogs around the European film festivals. Released in the United States in October 1992, the picture was a critical and commercial success. In January 1993, the Pulp Fiction script was complete.^[68][69]

Financing[edit]

Tarantino and his producer, Lawrence Bender, brought the script to Jersey Films. Before even seeing Reservoir Dogs, Jersey had attempted to sign Tarantino for his next project.^[70] Ultimately a development deal worth around $1 million had been struck: The deal gave A Band Apart, Bender and Tarantino's newly formed production company, initial financing and office facilities; Jersey got a share of the project and the right to shop the script to a studio.^{[71][72][73][74]} Jersey had a distribution and "first look" deal with Columbia TriStar, which paid Tarantino for the right to consider exercising its option.^[46] In February, Pulp Fiction appeared on a Variety list of films in pre-production at TriStar.^[75] In June, however, the studio put the script into turnaround.^[46] According to a studio executive, TriStar chief Mike Medavoy found it "too demented".^[76] There were suggestions that TriStar was resistant to back a film featuring a heroin user; there were also indications that the studio simply saw the project as too low-budget for its desired star-driven image.^[77][78] Avary – who was about to start shooting his own directorial debut, Killing Zoe – has said tha