movie review - Pulp Fiction
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Samuel Jackson leads in this recent "instant classic" by Tarantino. It's a stylish gangster movie that wanders around Los Angeles picking up stray characters and scenes and is peppered with dialog and violence. Its opening scene is the robbery of a diner that pits the couple of robbers against two gangsters who are sitting in the diner after a very long night.
The story is cleverly pieced together in a series of clipss that are not in chronological order - something we're not aware of on first viewing. The main plot line is never entirely explained. There is a briefcase that must be returned but why and what does it contain? We know it glows with a golden light, but the significance of the glowing contents is somewhat irrelevant in something as style-heavy as this. Happily, we don't have to worry about this sketched-in plot, as there are sub-plots to keep us rapt. The second-fiddle gangster on the job winds up with significant screen time, buying heroin and then taking the boss's wife on a date only to have her OD on his heroin. The entire sequence sees perfect performances from the pair, supported by superb settings and dialog. The way it's done, it doesn't even feel like a long divergence from the main plot.
The same can be said for an entire sequence about a boxer who cheats the mob's unfortunate boss after arranging to take a fall. This entire sequence is bonkers, a crazy detour that eventually ties in nicely (I'm sure there's a better adjective there) and pays off in a satisfying way.
It's hard to believe this movie is already three years old.
A favorite. Strongly recommended.
P.S. I noticed this time that there are two versions of this film out there, with slightly different endings in the diner scene that starts it off.