Pulp Fiction (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

...the hype he did, and Pulp Fiction was released that very year to sweeping critical acclaim. Arguably the finest release of the year for its brute originality, Tarantino had done it again. One could argue that with John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis forming the star leads, it would have been hard for Fiction to not catch on in the first place. But take a look back through the archives of those particular actors' finest work and in the ...
...to the fantastic screenplay that Pulp Fiction stood to become. Written from the ground up by Tarantino and Roger Avary, Pulp follows in the path of Reservoir Dogs as a divulging story of loose ends tying together to create one masterpiece. A whole twenty minutes of the movie takes place in "real time". The rest is spent travelling back to portray the stories of our main characters, and exactly what has brought them to the dance in a rundown ... more

When Quentin Tarantino shocked the movie-going world with his bank-heist translation of Reservoir Dogs, many critics poured scorn on the success as being in the right place at the right time for the aspiring young pretender. A cult hit which swept internationally and wowed millions with its razor sharp dialogue and now legendary torture scene. There was a small crowd waiting shamelessly for the next entry from Hollywood's newest man behind the camera. Moving forward to 1994 and Tarantino had been crafting his latest venture on to the big screen. With a swarm of blockbuster actors queuing up for inclusion in his second script, how was he ever to live up to the building hype?

Live up to the hype he did, and Pulp Fiction was released that very year to sweeping critical acclaim. Arguably the finest release of the year for its brute originality, Tarantino had done it again. One could argue that with John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis forming the star leads, it would have been hard for Fiction to not catch on in the first place. But take a look back through the archives of those particular actors' finest work and in the view of many, Pulp Fiction will rank right up there as a crowning achievement. Naturally, a huge compliment to the prowess of a director and writer in his tender thirties.

Collecting an Oscar for "Best Writing" in 1995 does no justice to the fantastic screenplay that Pulp Fiction stood to become. Written from the ground up by Tarantino and Roger Avary, Pulp follows in the path of Reservoir Dogs as a divulging story of loose ends tying together to create one masterpiece. A whole twenty minutes of the movie takes place in "real time". The rest is spent travelling back to portray the stories of our main characters, and exactly what has brought them to the dance in a rundown coffee house just out of town. For those who haven't seen the picture, such a concept may seem a little airy fairy. Why would we want to spend all that time getting to know the characters, if we're only going to run with them for twenty minutes of significant action? It's the fact that we don't know the order of the events that are being told which makes Pulp Fiction work.

The script aims to tell three separate stories of entirely different characters, and they don't merge together until the very last scene when you'll find yourself pointing towards the screen with a smile on your face that you've finally caught on. Each story has a superstar lead; we can break it down to the Tim Roth story, The Bruce Willis story, and The Travolta/Jackson story. As you can tell by the who's who list of names, each story is extremely spoilt superstar wise and the viewer has instant relation to each of the characters.

Roth plays the seedy small-time criminal, Pumpkin, blessed with the ingenious idea of robbing a coffee house, and clearly he remains one of Tarantino's favourite actors after starring in Reservoir Dogs just two years prior. Willis is also a perfect match for his character. The heavyweight champion of the time, Butch Reed, is coming to the end of his career and he's looking for one last payday. As it so happens, his last payday may very well be his last rites. He finds himself on the run from a ruthless gang leader after misleading him in to paying out money for a fixed fight that was never to be. This brings us to perhaps the most prominent story of the picture. John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson combine to inject tremendous flair in to the central characters of Vincent and Jules - who just happen to be two of the ruthless gang's merry men. As you can probably imagine, these stories are destined to weld together over the course of a movie that stretches close to the three hour mark. It could have gone very wrong. We could have been left chewing the popcorn and shrugging as the story skips from one story to the other, but Fiction is so well crafted that never once in its running time does the pace or frenetic dialogue between the characters relent.

If Reservoir Dogs was a little too graphic for you, I'd advise to steer clear of Pulp Fiction. While Mr. Blonde may be safely blown to smithereens, there's another torture scene which ranks just as high on the risqué scale. To put it simply, it involves Bruce Willis, that bad bloke from The Mask and a rather twisted hick chamber. It might not be quite as graphic, but Tarantino leaves us in no doubt as to what's happening with a typically involving soundtrack and visual depiction of what happens when a cop is as law-bending as the criminals.

Fiction touches plenty of social hot topics so don't expect a movie for the children. We have drug abuse, explicit dialogue and some fairly strong violence. Tarantino has an eye for the politically incorrect and if he thinks that the viewer is going to get something out of the scene, he'll include it regardless of the feathers that he may ruffle. Despite all that, Pulp Fiction received a great deal of acclaim from wide across the board, and rightfully so.

The camerawork is one of Tarantino's finest attributes and he directs the scenes with the authority of a man way beyond his youthful years. The stars clearly respect his way of directing, and they perform for him where so many other directors have failed to get the best out of their all-star casts. A die hard fan of movies in every sense, Tarantino shares a remote passion for influences that rarely rise to the surface in modern day Hollywood. He also has a canny knack for puncturing the dialogue with humorous one-liners which will nearly always provoke a dirty laugh, when you know you really shouldn't be giggling in the first place.

Watching a poor bum get his head dissected in to thousands of itty pieces surely shouldn't be a reason to laugh, but Tarantino executes his men with such laid back assurance that some of the follow-up dialogue is simply too much to hold back from. Travolta and Jackson bounce off each other as if they've been working together for decades, and this will go down as crowning performances in their respective repertoires. Coincidently, Travolta's Vincent Vega is the long lost brother of Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs. We never discover this during the course of Pulp Fiction itself, but Tarantino has since revealed the relation and it makes for another fine example of how these wacky characters of his frightening mind merge together so thoughtfully.

Jackson is cast down to the tee with the ruthless execution chief turned born again Christian. Spitting his lines with such venom that you can't help but buy in to his presence, Jackson also has great comedic timing and some of his greatest one liners were born out of this roaring success.

There truly are too many star performers to name, but special mention has to go to the fantastic Harvey Keitel, who also returns from his Reservoir Dogs venture as the charismatic Mr. Wolf.

Mr. Wolf, you say? Who is Mr. Wolf?

Mr. Wolf is the man to get things done around here. Springing up in the final third, he carries the movie from a brief lull and injects a subtle if hilarious kick up the backside to the proceedings. Not just to the movie, but quite literally to Vincent and Jules as well. I won't spoil the details, but Harvey is perfect as the less talk-more action man on a mission.

One of the first things you'll notice upon first viewing of Pulp Fiction isn't actually the screenplay at all. It'll be the wonderful soundtrack that Tarantino has hand selected for his movie. Pulp Fiction relies entirely on existing music to make up its soundtrack. You won't find any pieced together orchestra noise, or run of the mill suspense tactics. Quentin is a great believer that he's already heard the right music for a movie, and that the task is simply to search it out. As such, there'll be times in Pulp Fiction where the action will glide freely, almost majestically, in to a long lost classic as Travolta and co push the movie along in real art form.

I can't praise the soundtrack enough. It's a quintessential must and engraved in to the success of all Tarantino movies, but never has he surpassed the stylish standards set by the 1994 classic.

The shooting of the movie is rarely challenged, but there are some unquestionable flourishes with the camera which lead me to pay more tribute to Tarantino's hands on approach. In particular, a couple of early scenes with Vincent and the boss's daughter - played by a younger Uma Thurman. Fiction captures the tension perfectly and the camera will slowly relax as our star characters loosen up on their ill-fated dinner date.

If you're going to watch the movie, I'm sure you'll be wishing to view it in all of its glory for the full cinematic experience. That's not to say it can't be enjoyed on a tiny portable screen on the back of a bus somewhere, it most certainly can. Pulp Fiction invents an atmosphere of its own.

The special edition DVD provides a faithful translation to your latest nuclear powered plasma set, and you'll have no complaints with the excellent picture quality or the audio aspect. As far as extras go, the DVD doesn't pack as much as you might expect from such an admired title. But in this day and age, how many times is a Special Edition actually the definitive Special Edition? We're always being treated to new formats and disks full of extra material. Pulp Fiction doesn't rely on its list of extras to sell the DVD itself - You'll be more than satisfied with the viewing experience and the chances are that you'll be replaying the movie multiple times over before you even explore the additional footage.

So what added incentives do we have for the picky at heart? Well you'll find a neat little documentary titled Tarantino Fiction which rarely makes the effort to hold back in its veiled acclaim of Tarantino's skills. We have a few backstage montages and the usual array of television spots, trailers and guest chat show appearances. All of which you probably won't be revisiting after the first time of asking.

It is really up to the standard of being the ultimate special edition set? Maybe, just about. I would have preferred to have seen a detailed audio commentary with several of the major stars, but the best we get is Quentin explaining why he felt the need to cut several deleted scenes.

Inevitably though, Pulp Fiction isn't to be judged by the number of image galleries it packs in its box. A movie of this calibre deserves a place in every devoted cinema goer's collection, unless of course exaggerated violence and fierce offensive dialogue isn't your scene. I doubt many will be too disheartened by the age certificate. Pulp Fiction will go down as one of the finest movies of the 90's, and Tarantino's best title to date.  

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