Movie Review: Pulp Fiction

Movie Number 32 of 2024

The Movie: Pulp Fiction

The Cinema: The Deckchair Cinema Darwin

Stars: 5

Pulp Fiction is thirty years old. I remember seeing it at the Swiss Cottage cinema back in the day, and I was blown away by it, mostly for its incredible structure and the fact that I could tolerate a very violent film without having to run out of the auditorium. Since that first viewing, I’ve seen it on television and DVD countless times. It’s a film I can recite the lines from throughout.

It seems the audience of the Deckchair Cinema in Darwin could do this too.

Pulp Fiction gets better with age. It’s not only a classic, but also a cult classic. It has a 92% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com. It’s never been out of the imdb.com top 100%. It’s a freaky, funny, dreadful tale of retribution and redemption. It’s grouse.

There is something wonderful about seeing a well-loved film on the big screen. I remember seeing Branagh's version of Hamlet at the Astor in Melbourne. And Stop Making Sense on the big screen a few years ago was amazing. I'd love to see Casablanca... my list goes on. 

What makes Pulp Fiction stand out is all the fine details that are found in the two hours and thirty-four minutes of screen time. Even better, you get to watch as all of those little things you'd forgotten screen in front of you. Oh, and then there's the Deckchair Cinema experience in Darwin, sitting outside with my supermarket popcorn and a bottle of water watching as a gecko on screen climbed into John Travolta's nose. 

Of the movie, it's still wonderful. I'd forgotten how hot Bruce Willis was back then. Vincent Vega's (John Travolta) haircut is still awful.  And Samuel L. Jackson gives a gravitas to Jules, along with a sense of inevitability. And The dance scene at Jack Rabbit Slim's is one of the most joyful things you're ever going to see. (I saw a documentary about this once. Tarantino give Travolta and Thurman the direction to go have fun. They did.)

And I still want to know what's in the briefcase, and why Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) has a bandaid on the back of this neck, or what else Honeybunny (Amanda Plummer) and Pumpkin (Tim Roth) gave up their life of crime, or whether the gimp as really dead. And where do you find a Mr Wolf (Harvey Keitel). So many questions. Still not answered. 

But it doesn't matter. I loved every minute of this showing, even if it was 30 degrees and 80 percent humidity and I was covering in bug spray. 

With its quirky humour and killer soundtrack, and screenplay which is like no other, Pulp Fiction doesn't age. It's still a magic, all be it extremely violent, blackly humorous and quirky (The scene in the back yard where Vince and Jules get hosed down by Tarantino...brilliant)

Best $20 I've spent in a long time. 

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