[10]

A breath of cinematic fresh air that magically dignifies exploitation and elevates dialgoue to an art form. Writer/director Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill) assembles a stellar cast highlighted by the return of John Travolta, previously languishing in talking baby movie exile. In the chaptered non-linear screenplay, he’s paired with Samuel L. Jackson playing two hit men who wax philosophic between jobs. Bruce Willis stars in another chapter, captured with his angry boss (Ving Rhames) by a pair of crazed hillbillies who’ve seen Deliverance too many times. Other memorable performances come from Uma Thurman, whose drug overdose makes one hell of a nail-biter, Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer as a bizarre pair of restaurant robbers, and Harvey Keitel as the hit men’s emergency management man.

Tarantino’s skill with dialogue allows him to do what few other directors can get away with — pointing the camera at actors and letting them talk for five, six, seven minutes straight, while some suspenseful plot element simmers in the back of our mind. Tarantino makes exploitation movies work by ratcheting up our anticipation. Whether it’s Plummer’s explosive pre-title outburst, Jackson’s quoting of Ezekial, or Willis’ escape from the lair of the Gimp, Tarantino delivers on promise like no one else. He also knows how to put together a killer soundtrack from dusty old LPs.

Pulp Fiction is probably the most influential film of the 1990’s. Though it borrows from exploitation/grindhouse cinema heavily and tips its hat to the works of Sergio Leone, David Mamet, Brian DePalma, and probably countless others, Tarantino has successfully blended these qualities and merged them into his own unique style. That new style has been imitated ad nauseam since the release of Pulp Fiction in 1994, yet Pulp Fiction has lost no luster for it. It remains the leader of the pack, and it’s still my favorite Tarantino film.

Pulp Fiction should have won the Oscar for best picture. That it lost to Forrest Gump makes me want to get medieval on the Academy’s ass.

Academy Award: Best Original Screenplay (Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery)

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing (Sally Menke), Best Actor (Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Jackson), Best Supporting Actress (Thurman)