Quentin Tarantino
Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs are among the best and most innovative films of the nineties.

Pulp Fiction.

Two small-time crooks have breakfast in a fast food restaurant, talking like any couple of lovers. The romantic Honey Bunny listens intently to what Pumpkin says, and eventually they decide to rob the fast food joint. Before going for their guns, they kiss... the scene is interrupted to show the opening titles, accompanied by the instrumental track "Misirlou."

From this scene alone, Tarantino redesigns the traditional gangster movie models, inserting personal clichés in the art of dialogue. Dialogues are filled with irony and subtle dark humor. Like Jean Luc Godard, he realizes his personal stylistic turn in the genre, drawing on pre-war pulp literary production, built more than anything else on violence. Supported by a brilliant soundtrack and the tragicomic strength of the actors, Tarantino has written a screenplay that stands out not only for its lightness but also for its skillful dramatic construction, admirable cohesion, and rhythm. Telling the entire plot is impossible and even superfluous because the important part of the film is the characterization of the characters and the caricatured perspective the director can transmit to the whole work. The film offers no interpretations of good and evil; the hitmen are like cartoon heroes, simplified and constructed with unreliable personalities. Every scene stands alone. Thus, Tarantino, to keep the viewer interested, shuffles the deck by reversing the chronological order, but in the end, the pieces can be coherently combined. The gangsters are not only involved in criminal matters; before committing atrocities, they talk about fast food in Europe, foot massages, and Holland. These dialogues with humorous undertones are the common thread throughout the film, so much so that the "bad guys" who kill without scruples are depicted in a way that generates sympathy. In an exaggerated world where wickedness seems shockingly banal, Tarantino dismantles the rigorous vision of previous gangster movies, some admirable, yet all serious and disciplined in telling the facts.

The various stories are described by a handful of actors. The improbable pair of killers Jules and Vincent, after recovering a mysterious (and cursed) briefcase for their boss Marcellus, Vincent (John Travolta) carelessly shoots a young man in the face, messing up the car; Mia, the boss's drug-addicted woman, who falls into a coma after mistaking heroin for coke; the already mentioned Honey Bunny and Pumpkin who make a living robbing whatever comes their way; the boxer Butch, who instead of going down in a fixed fight, decides not to play along; The Wolf (Harvey Keitel), the one who solves situations. The film ends in the fast food restaurant where it began, while Honey Bunny and Pumpkin hold customers and staff at gunpoint; they have to deal with Jules (Samuel L. Jackson), a moralistic killer who kills without remorse but often quotes Bible passages.

Tarantino's film was an adrenaline shot to the heart of entertainment cinema.