"Pulp Fiction" 1994

“Pulp Fiction”

I remember the weekend “Pulp Fiction” came out. It wasn’t on my radar. I had been waiting with breathless anticipation for “Shawshank Redemption.” My husband and I were at a bookstore, riding the gap between dinner and the movie when we ran into a couple we knew doing the same thing. The guys were both going to movies of their wives' choice.

“What are you going to see?” The other man asked.

“Some prison movie. What are you going to see?” My husband asked.

“Some gangster movie, with John Travolta.”

I will write about “Shawshank Redemption” another day. It was a few months before I saw “Pulp Fiction”. I was working at the movie distributor and brought it home. It sat for a while until I popped it into the VCR and gave it my Sunday morning test. I would put in a movie that I didn’t really have an interest in and watch it while I read the Sunday paper. If it grabbed my attention away from the paper it was a good movie.

“Pulp Fiction” didn’t just grab my attention, it commanded it. From the opening scene, Bruce Willis as Butch, making a deal with Marsellus Wallace to the final scene of Jules and Vincent leaving the diner it was incredible.

We quote this movie in our house all the time.

“I don’t think Buddy Holly is a very good waiter.”

“I don’t know if it’s worth five dollars, but it’s pretty f**king good.”

“Do you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in France? A Royale with Cheese.”

This is my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie. I am not a fan of violence without reason. There are a lot of movies out there that want to see how much blood they can put into a movie. But here is a great example of the story driving and the violence feeds the story. No person is portrayed as all good or all bad. But they all stay true to their character and motivations.

This is now one of those movies, if I am checking the guide for something to watch and this movie is on, I will stop there and watch. It doesn’t matter if it just started or is almost over, it is a classic.