Pulp Fiction, which airs Oct. 6, is the third installment of a special eight-week cult classics series at The Athena Cinema. Each movie will run on Thursdays at 7 p.m. For a full schedule, click here.
Pulp Fiction, the 1994 indie hit that cemented writer and director Quentin Tarantino as one of the great filmmakers of his time, is more than your run-of-the-mill good movie — it’s a masterful piece of cinema. Between the uniquely-stylized violence, the incredible level of quotability, the characters which exude charisma and eccentricity and the unforgettable soundtrack, the film is a truly generation-defining work; it's the rare kind of movie that captures perfectly every trivial detail of the time and place in which it exists.
While the film is typically recognized more for its dialogue and music than it is for its camerawork, Tarantino’s ability to pace a scene and convey the finest details of human interaction purely through his unique directorial style is quite impressive, and in large part what separates the movie from its many inferior copycats. Scenes such as the famous dance contest featuring Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), and Captain Koons’ (Christopher Walken) lengthy monologue to a young Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), are shot to absolute perfection, engrossing viewers in the action and lasting just long enough to not feel either abbreviated or excessive. Though the film crosses the two and a half hour threshold, the brisk pacing and fact that it is presented non-chronologically and in an episodic manner makes the run-time feel far shorter.
Dialogue, in more elitist circles, is often seen as being a cheap fallback for directors of lesser talent to push the plot forward without any regard for visual storytelling, but Pulp Fiction serves as a huge exception of that idea as opposed to a reinforcement. Tarantino refrains from “the usual, mindless, boring, gettin’-to-know-you chit chat,” using dialogue as a source of viewer entertainment in itself, Bible verses and lengthy conversations about foot massages and fast food abound. That, however, is not to discount the importance of the cast, as every actor on screen portrayed their roles with every ounce of humanity and believability needed to bring Tarantino’s creations to life. These characters feel like real, genuinely interesting people whose life extends far past what is shown on screen, with the movie simply serving as a small sneak peek into a day in their lives.
Pulp Fiction is the kind of movie that needs not some rambling five-hundred or so word review to convince moviegoers of its ingenuity. It stands as one of a small handful of pictures that has revolutionized not only the film industry, but pop culture as a whole — a timeless classic that should be enjoyed by any and everyone. Seeing it in the theater is a rare and unlikely opportunity for those born in a later generation, and one that should be capitalized upon.
Five stars (out of five).
