I love it, have watched it many times. I didn’t really like the whole back room rape scene, and I don’t love the fact that the scenes are out of order. Actually I watched a cut with the scenes in order and quite liked it.
They have it at breakfast. Tim Roth trying to steal the case is what prompts Jules to pull a gun on him, leading to the Mexican standoff between Vincent, Jules, and the other robber, which ends with Jules’ “I’m tryin’ real hard to be the shepherd,” speech, at which point he lets them go without any extra holes in them.
Yes, they had it at the end of the movie as they were walking out of the diner.
And Jules is carrying the briefcase when he and Vincent go to the bar where Marcellus is talking to Butch about throwing the fight. So presumably they gave it back to Marcellus at that point. ETA: This is chronologically after the breakfast scene, since they’re still in Jimmy’s “dork” clothes.
I liked Jimmie too. One of the few times someone looks like they really just got out of bed.
I also liked how he was dead sure he would get divorced. No if but or maybe. Divorced and he didn’t want to get fucking divorced.
I also like how they’re so freaked out they gotta call The Wolf when…theres a hose. Hose down fucking everything, stuff Phil in the trunk, and then get where you gotta.
Also…whose car was that??? They just lost a car because God doesn’t like mealy-mouths??..or hit a bump if you don’t like my theory.
It’s the most 90’s movie ever. I mean, it kind of screams 90’s cinema to me. I didn’t see it in the theater, but saw it on VHS once it hit tape.
Is there any movie that comes out of the 90’s more than this? Clerks, maybe equally?
It is one of the coolest movies ever made, right down the soundtrack.
Vincent is not exactly a dumb palooka; one does not pick fights with professional boxers in bars very often and live to the age Vincent has reached without knowing how to handle oneself. He is most certainly an employee of Marcellus Wallace, and they were not sent to negotiate a peace treaty. They were given the briefcase before anyone was shot, and still did everyone except their own guy (well, until later that is). Mr. Wallace wanted to send a message to his other business partners and Jules & Vincent were the tools he used to send that message. Vincent’s competence aside, he is most certainly a paid killer. The term hit man perfectly describes the scope and scale of what he can be trusted to accomplish. Having said that, Vincent does take his regularity to absurd lengths, when dude needs to shit his focus suffers. Presumably, he was still carrying the handgun when he went to shit. I imagine he realized the toilet was calling him; he looked around for something to distract him and traded the submachine gun for a newspaper on the counter knowing he was still carrying heat. Not smart, but everyone is casual around the tools of their particular trade. His mistake was not that he didn’t have that weapon – it was that he left it where Bruce Willis could make use of it.
Vincent is certainly overly confident and somewhat haphazard with regard to his professionalism, but he is a dangerous, violent criminal (as is his brother in the other movie). How petty and impulsive people like that can be should not be underestimated. He was pissed at Marvin, and distracted by it. It was bad enough that Jules was on this miracle shit, but other guy was letting him go further down the (obviously to him) wrong path and it bothered Vincent. He was sitting there pissed off and wishing he could shoot this spineless wimp, not believing he is the only sane one left. There is no way the gun should have even been in his hand – at this point it is only a liability, tying him to a multiple murder. And, that particular handgun needs to be in a certain configuration to fire, and he placed it into that configuration exactly. He was not going to shoot Marvin that instant; he was trying to get him to agree with him. He was pressing Marvin to back him up in the argument when they went over the bump or pothole and BOOM!! That is the mark of the lifelong criminal—plausible deniability. He created a long series of circumstances that would lead to this very conclusion – and when it happened he was SHOCKED! The ability to convince yourself that you didn’t mean to is vital. Fortunately, being able to convince yourself is also good for convincing a jury.
In my experience, the difference between the guys on the inside and the guys on the outside is how good they are at having the thing they want to happen, happen by ‘accident’, and how good they are at appearing surprised when those accidents do happen. In that circle life can be plenty cheap. If your job includes sometimes having to snuff out a life – you probably don’t spend much time contemplating the miracle and beauty of life. You probably spend a certain amount of effort trying to avoid philosophical and psychological discussions (perhaps using illicit drugs for example). When one of your own, a fellow hit man speaks of witnessing acts of god and leaving the life, it might threaten your fragile life view, it might even make you feel like just killing something.
But even that is not my argument, it is just that we know he is willing to go that far on the scale of fucked up shit to do to other people, he just did it dispassionately to those frat boy wanna be drug dealers. When he is the only one who is holding to the life view they all held an hour before, he feels betrayed and threatened. It is not that he wants to shoot Marvin (he would much rather have him just agree Jules is trippin’). It is that he has already killed this morning and now this crummy little spy who was with these guys the whole time they were ripping off Mr. Wallace won’t even stand up and say what is OBVIOUSLY the only possible truth. What a little prick he is! In Vincent’s mind he is mocking him (now Vincent knows you aren’t supposed to kill people just for mocking you, but…), in Vincent’s mind he is saying: “Am I funny Marvin? How am I funny, am I a clown for you Marvin? You know what you said, you said it might be a miracle. No, no, you explain to me how I am funny (and how this is a god damned miracle!), Marvin. You said it, you explain it to me!”
Try this for a second, assume I am right, he wanted to kill Marvin for whatever reason (remember- Marvin neglected to tell him there was a guy with a damn hand cannon in the bathroom). So he points a locked and loaded gun at the kid’s head, with the safety off, the hammer cocked, and his grip disabling the other safety. (None of which makes sense – if he was that careless in real life he would have shot his nuts off years ago). So he creates the circumstance, the car hits a pothole and Marvin gets his head blown clean off, what is he going to say? “I shot Marvin on purpose, even though he works for Marcellus too”? No, he claims it was an accident and Jules lets it go (like he had a choice in that situation). If Marvin had said: “Yea, I believe god came down from heaven and stopped the bullets in an according to Hoyle miracle”. Vincent would have shot him, not on accident, and said: “He didn’t stop that one though, did he?” If Marvin had said: “No miracle, he just missed you” , he would not have been shot in the backseat at all. (Although he might answer for bathroom shooter later.)
I suppose one could even argue that he was still distracted by Jules leaving the life they both chose sometime later when he was waiting for the boxer and he lost focus and left his own murder weapon on the kitchen counter. But I will not claim that, too farfetched even for me. He most certainly shot Marvin for neglecting to warn them about the bathroom shooter, but mostly for challenging his view of the world.
You know that quote: “I am a big believer in luck and I find the more I prepare, the more luck I have”? Vincent’s quote would be: “I am a big believer in obnoxious motherfuckers dying by accident, and the more I point loaded weapons at obnoxious motherfuckers while driving on potholed roads the more obnoxious motherfucker’s die by accident”.
The car belonged to Marcellus, presumably one of many in a stable of nondescript (likely stolen) cars for using on jobs and disposable if need be. Likewise for the weapons, which is why they bitch that they should have been given shotguns when they’re pulling their Marcellus-provided weapons from the trunk and going over how many guys are upstairs.
God shot Marvin.
Lemme run you through the events.
God heard Jules making himself out to be Gods avenging angel and all that other bullshit. So God said “Oh you my *****?? Really? All right, well you and your dumbass buddy are about to get shot. So since you my *****, I’m gonna save you and I’ll even save him. But you know what? That MAKES YOU MINE.”
God wants the believers (Jules) and he wants the dis-believers (Vincent)…but he aint got time for the luke-warm (Marvin) He spits those out of his mouth. So the instant Marvin said “Man I don’t even have an opinion.”…God shot him in the face. God gave Vincent a chance to get out of the hoodlum life, but Vincent didn’t take that chance.
I even went as far as to say the blind piano player in Kill Bill was Jules. Cause thats what God does. He uses you and then discards you when he’s done…but since Kill Bill is a piece of fiction WITHIN the Tarantinoverse, that doesn’t hold up.
I still like Pulp Fiction and I think it holds up; the good cast helps a lot. I saw Reservoir Dogs not too long ago, and it didn’t age very well for me: the dialogue seemed very stilted and the limited number of (cheap) sets made it feel a bit like a filmed stage play.
But the movie of the '90s that has aged the worst for me has to be Clerks: lousy acting and dialogue that was only funny the first time around. I tried rewatching it, but I gave up well before the end (and it’s not a long movie).
Wait, what? Didn’t we see him die?
The “God shot Marvin” theory is more consistent with what we see in the movie. Vince is just a stupid fuck:
- Had to go to Amsterdam because he had heat on him (likely because he fucked up)
- Mrs. Wallace and the O/D
- Left gun on kitchen counter
- Picks an argument with the only man capable of getting him out of a murder charge (Mr Wolf)
- Almost gets himself shot by Honey Bunny by interjecting when Jules gives Rico $1,500
- Insults his dealers wife
And he insults Butch merely because he knows he can get away with it, being in the company of Mr. Wallace.
This isn’t a criminal mastermind. Not at all. He’s a dumbfuck, and the shooting of Marvin is the dumbfuckiest thing he does the entire movie.
At the time, I really hated it and thought it was athematic. It’s grown on me, though, and while I haven’t sat down and watched the whole movie again, I doubt a day goes by that I don’t think about some part of it. Jules and Vincent’s back-and-forth patter, or Uma Thurman saying “You boys are more gossipy than a sewing circle,” or Harvey Keitel acknowledging how great Tarantino’s coffee is, or a thousand other little touches. And I can kind of relate to Vincent, that every time something important is happening in his life, he’s off taking a dump.
Well sure, but in his defense he was a heroin addict. That’ll fuck up anyone’s decision making abilities.
I like it. I wouldn’t say it’s the best film ever made, but it’s the only Tarantino film I can stand.
Jules picks Vincent up in a work car, they are surprised that the trunk has no shotguns, and they kill a bunch of people while narrowly avoiding death. Jules immediately sees this as God’s work while Vincent doesn’t care. Vincent kills Marcellus’ informent (“our guy/Marvin”) and Marcellus has the Wolf clean it up. Jules tells Vincent that he’s out of the killing game during lunch. Jules spares the robbers and both return to Marcellus (minus car).
Butch agrees to take a dive. Jules returns the briefcase and quits while Vincent degrades/insults Butch (calls him a bum fighter “palooka”). Vincent meets with Marcellus and Butch leaves (and keys Vincent’s car on the way out). Vincent scores drugs and Mia ODs. Both promise to never talk about it.
Butch wins his fight and runs to his safehouse. Jules had already quit, so Marcellus and Vincent stakeout Butch’s apartment. Butch returns to his place to get his watch and shoots Vincent with his own (or Marcellus’) automatic gun. Butch encounters Marcellus and both get captured by hillbilly rapists. Butch rescues Marcellus and he lets Butch go in return. Roll credits.
I liked it when I saw it the first time and I still like it. Matter of fact I still sometimes recite - to myself - Jules’ little speech to {the character played by Tim Roth} at the end of the movie. One of my favorite speeches of all time.
And it’s “Ringo”, not “Rico” in my above post.
After Butch and Marsellus talk about the fight fix in the club, Jules and Vincent show up with Jules carrying the briefcase. Note they are wearing Jimmie’s cast off clothes.
Jules walks out of the scene and we don’t see him handing it off.
Too much Kathy, not enough Raquel.
I love the dialog between Jules & Vincent mostly because they disagree about absolutely everything: foot rubs, miracles, the proper way to clean blood off your hands, how much respect to show The Wolf, pigs, should Jules quit, whether or not to give Ringo & Honey Bunny $1500, etc. Each defends their position with gusto but they do it in such an amical way that there’s no hard feelings and they never seem to run out of topics I found interesting even if I don’t know who Tony Rocky Horror is.