PULP FICTION
Rating: R
Studio: Miramax
MSRP: $19.99, but Amazon has it for $14.99
Running Time: 154 mins
What’s Going On?
Director Quentin Tarantio made his mark on popular culture and established himself as one of the most iconic directors of the modern era with this film, whose non-liner structure, rapid fire dialogue and various film and pop culture references others would try and imitate, but none could get close to.
While the plot can be a bit complicated to explain, it involves a huge cast of characters whose lives, as disparate as they may seem initially, are all connected. This includes We have two hitmen (Travolta and Jackson) doing some work for a gang boss (Rhames) who is also demanding that a boxer (Willis) take a dive in an upcoming fight. There’s quite a lot more, but I’ll let you experience it for yourself.
Who’s In It:
This film had a huge cast which included John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis, whose careers were reinvigorated with their roles, Uma Thurman, who broke out onto the movie scene with her performance and also featured Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz Rosanna Arquette, and one of my all time favorite Christopher Walken performances.
If You Like…:
Films like RUN LOLA RUN, any episode of COMMUNITY, or ever wondered what Tarantino did before things like INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, then check this out.
Special Features:
There’s an all new retrospective documentary called Not the Usual Mindless Boring Getting to Know You Chit Chat, which features members of the cast and crew talking about what the film meant to them and in which Tarantino talks about his love of film critics, particularly Pauline Kael, who indirectly influenced the casting of John Travolta.
The other new documentary is called Here are Some Facts on the Fiction, which includes film critics Elvis Mitchell, Scott Foundas, Stephanie Zacharek, Tim Lucas and Andy Klein discussing the impact of the film. Interestingly, not everyone likes it.
There’s a cool little segment from Siskel & Ebert (the show that Roger Ebert co-hosted with Gene Siskel since the dawn of time) called The Tarantino Generation, talking about PULP FICTION’s and Tarantino’s impact on film.
There are a host of deleted scenes, but in Tarantino’s introduction to them, he says that he made the movie he wanted to the first time, and had these scenes left over, and included them mostly because he found them funny.
There’s footage from the Independent Spirit Awards and Tarantino’s acceptance speech from the Cannes Film Festival, at which the film tool the Palme D’Or. There’s also a full episode of The Charlie Rose Show, which includes an hour long interview with Tarantino, which is always great. Tarantino is an encyclopedia of film knowledge and he’s consistently engaging and fascinating to listen to.
The Technical Gist
The transfer here was actually approved by Tarantino himself, and it is truly something to behold. It’s better than perhaps any of the blu-rays of older films I’ve ever reviewed for VeryAware. It’s absolutely fantastic and I only wish that other directors cared enough to spend this kind of time with their films before transferring them to blu-ray.
The sound is also excellent. Bullets never sounded better.
The Verdict
If you haven’t already figured it out, this is a definite MUST BUY/UPGRADE. You can’t really beat a price like fifteen bucks for one of the most seminal works of cinema in the past quarter century and you can basically watch this film over and over as your own bloody and hilarious film school.
