Sunday, April 3, 2011

Pulp Fiction - Is This It? The Greatest Movie IMO

A+ (10.0)


Before Inception, before Avatar, before we seen risque in American Beauty and Fight Club, and a philosophical science fiction The Matrix, Pulp was not only the most talked about film of its time and had caused a phenomenon, but also the most influential.

Quentin Tarantino's magnus opus is a pop culture sandwich, an arthouse that has irony everywhere, a web that spreads multiple storylines, a church with morality and immorality, an encyclopaedia of great movies and a study of nihilism, betrayal and loyalty.

It starts out as a couple sit together at a restaurant discussing about robbing it and they did. That was just the start of the film. The film then goes into the ramblings of Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta) two henchmen working for crime lord Marcella Wallace (Ving Rhames) with Vincent having to take Marcella's wife Mia (Uma Thurman) and entertain her. It then goes with an associate of Marcella, Butch (Bruce Willis) then go find his watch only to be coincidently involved with something unrelated.

I don't want to spoil the whole film so here's what I hate about this movie.

Nothing

This is an absolutely flawless film that I definitely enjoyed and showed us what contemporary cinema is all about. It goes beyond conventions of its unpredictable nature and story structure, dialogue but sustaining what's great about each genre of movies. Bringing in an ironic mix of humor and violence (trust me. There is just a few bits of violence) there is.

Tarantino brings the film to such an unique direction making it a neo-noir in its own right with a superb script from himself and Roger Avery. The dialogue is pitch perfect. Smart and witty and memorable. IT has fascinating observations of pop culture such as Mcdonalds and its Quarter Pounders and its competition, the Bible especially the famous verse from the book of Ezekiel delivered great by Jackson. But the script delivers themes of loyalty, morality and betrayal. Tarantino gives us heart that you shouldn't like, but by the time they open their mouths, both hitmen have deep heart inside them.

John Travolta is acting here like he was in the 70s and this is a film that ressurected his career as an actor. He shows that by how much personality his character has, but also the great dialogue from Tarantino. It worked. Jackson is utterly hilarious and thrilling as his partner Jules and has a role of a lifetime in this flick. Everyone in the cast is great here especially Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel.

Also adding flavour to Pulp is the soundtrack which I definitely enjoyed and the lighting makes the movie so cynical and gritty. The well-known dance scene with Travolta and Thurman is greatly choreographed.

More so this should be a guide on how to make a great movie. For all film buffs all from those who has started watching classics to those with the film brain of Tarantino, this is a film that is a definite must see and put into your personal favourites list. It's a landmark movie that redeemed Hollywood (even if it was made independently) to the far top.

This is a movie that defined a generation that watches movies the way they wanted to.

No comments:

Post a Comment