# Picking Nits with Pulp Fiction
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 23, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192 "2010-12-23T17:10:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/1 "2010-12-23T17:10:48Z")
I watched this last night for the first time in many years. It’s still a great, great movie, but there are a couple of things that bothered me:
The bullet holes in the wall in the room where Jules and Vincent retrieve Marcellus’ briefcase - they are already visible behind Jules before the shots are fired at him.
When the Wolf is explaining to Jules and Vincent how they are going to get from Toluca Lake to the auto body yard in the tainted car - there was extreme caution in cleaning out the car and getting the bed spreads to cover up the blood so as to not attract any attention; why would the Wolf “drive real fast”?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/2 "2010-12-23T18:43:42Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#):
>
> I watched this last night for the first time in many years. It’s still a great, great movie, but there are a couple of things that bothered me:
> The bullet holes in the wall in the room where Jules and Vincent retrieve Marcellus’ briefcase - they are already visible behind Jules before the shots are fired at him.
> When the Wolf is explaining to Jules and Vincent how they are going to get from Toluca Lake to the auto body yard in the tainted car - there was extreme caution in cleaning out the car and getting the bed spreads to cover up the blood so as to not attract any attention; why would the Wolf “drive real fast”?
Look at the brain on **The Other Jeffrey Lebowski**!
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/3 "2010-12-23T19:45:22Z")
To answer the 2nd question, he drove “real fast” in getting to Toluca Lake, but probably drove normal speeds once the Marvinated car was in motion.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/4 "2010-12-23T21:28:17Z")
When The Wolf is giving Jules and Vincent their instructions on how they’ll be transporting the Marvinized car, he says to Vincent that he is to drive the Wolf’s Acura, and make sure that you keep up, cause I drive real fast.
Also, one other thing - when Mia and Vincent are in his car outside Jack Rabbit Slim’s , she says don’t be such a (rectangle)?
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/5 "2010-12-23T21:35:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#):
>
> When The Wolf is giving Jules and Vincent their instructions on how they’ll be transporting the Marvinized car, he says to Vincent that he is to drive the Wolf’s Acura, and make sure that you keep up, cause I drive real fast.
> Also, one other thing - when Mia and Vincent are in his car outside Jack Rabbit Slim’s , she says don’t be such a (rectangle)?
Square. Don’t be such a square (Daddy-O).
mmm
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### Author:  [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/6 "2010-12-23T21:48:40Z")
Vincent is also blasted on smack when she says that so it’s possible he hallucinated the lights. Heroin doesn’t cause hallucinations? Well, this is movie grade super heroin so anything is possible.
There’s a lot of great little details to counter the nits:
After Butch gets oral from his girlfriend we see her brushing her teeth.
Butch is the one who keys Vincent’s car.
Marcellus was watching Butch’s apartment with Vincent. Marcellus went out to get coffee and donuts and that’s why there was an SMG sitting on the counter when Butch came in.
Another nit, although apparently it was intentional: When Honey Bunny gives her robbery speech in the diner she changes the order of her words around the second time we see it (from “every motherfucking last one of you!” to “every one of you motherfuckers!”).
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### Author:  [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/7 "2010-12-23T22:24:20Z")
> [@DWMarch](#):
>
> Another nit, although apparently it was intentional: When Honey Bunny gives her robbery speech in the diner she changes the order of her words around the second time we see it (from “every motherfucking last one of you!” to “every one of you motherfuckers!”).
I remember hearing somewhere that this, and the bullet holes mentioned in the OP, were intentional. Inconsistencies such as this added to the pulpiness.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/8 "2010-12-23T23:23:29Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#):
>
> Square. Don’t be such a square (Daddy-O).
>
> mmm
I’h hip to the jive, Jack, but she creates a rectangle when she makes her hand motion.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/9 "2010-12-23T23:25:44Z")
> [@unwashed\_brain](#):
>
> I remember hearing somewhere that this, and the bullet holes mentioned in the OP, were intentional. Inconsistencies such as this added to the pulpiness.
Thanks for that **unwashed brain** ; that seems perfectly reasonable.
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/10 "2010-12-24T00:02:13Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#):
>
> I’h hip to the jive, Jack, but she creates a rectangle when she makes her hand motion.
It was a square in the original widescreen movie format. When they compressed it for TV, it became a rectangle. (Just a WAG).
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/11 "2010-12-24T00:09:16Z")
I do love this movie, but it always bothers me when The Wolf has Jimmie get a bunch of sheets/linens/blankets to mop up and cover up the blood in the car. Jimmie says that some of it was a wedding present from Bonnie’s relatives. The Wolf gives Jimmie money to replace it all.
The problem to me is that, if the whole point of what they’re doing is to head off The Bonnie Problem, get it all cleaned up and everyone out of there before Bonnie comes home so that she doesn’t divorce Jimmie, how do they think she’ll react when she finds her best linens gone, her wedding presents gone, and how will Jimmie explain their absence? “Oh, sorry honey, we had a dead guy in the garage and needed them to clean up the blood.”
Even keeping what really happened a secret isn’t that much better. “Oh, sorry honey, some friends came over and tracked in some crap. I used your beloved wedding presents to clean it up.” No matter what Jimmie says, Bonnie is going to be livid. The Bonnie Problem is hardly solved just because the dead guy is gone.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/12 "2010-12-24T00:11:35Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> It was a square in the original widescreen movie format. When they compressed it for TV, it became a rectangle. (Just a WAG).
Nah, she’s waaay off.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKxEvN8LETA)
I’m guessing adding the line may have been an afterthought.
Or, she was just making the motions and not paying attention to the four sides, like one might do IRL.
Also, the windshield is longer then it is tall, an actual square would have been fairly small.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/13 "2010-12-24T00:15:20Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> It was a square in the original widescreen movie format. When they compressed it for TV, it became a rectangle. (Just a WAG).
I\m guessing you’re just kidding with that, but since _Pulp Fiction_ is loaded with cinema-geek jokes, I have always assumed that this was an intentional aspect ratio gag.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/14 "2010-12-24T00:28:11Z")
Uma, doing a wild-eyed gangster moll, and you want good geometry? Don’t be a parallelogram. 😛
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/15 "2010-12-24T05:05:03Z")
> [@DWMarch](#):
>
> Another nit, although apparently it was intentional: When Honey Bunny gives her robbery speech in the diner she changes the order of her words around the second time we see it (from “every motherfucking last one of you!” to “every one of you motherfuckers!”).
The explanation I’ve read for this (from Ebert?) indicated that, while it was the same scene, we are experiencing it from different perspectives. In other words, the general events are re-told intact, but subtle variations are inevitable when the same incident is recalled by different folks.
mmm
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/16 "2010-12-24T05:26:36Z")
> [@Equipoise](#):
>
> I do love this movie, but it always bothers me when The Wolf has Jimmie get a bunch of sheets/linens/blankets to mop up and cover up the blood in the car. Jimmie says that some of it was a wedding present from Bonnie’s relatives. The Wolf gives Jimmie money to replace it all.
>
> The problem to me is that, if the whole point of what they’re doing is to head off The Bonnie Problem, get it all cleaned up and everyone out of there before Bonnie comes home so that she doesn’t divorce Jimmie, how do they think she’ll react when she finds her best linens gone, her wedding presents gone, and how will Jimmie explain their absence? “Oh, sorry honey, we had a dead guy in the garage and needed them to clean up the blood.”
>
> Even keeping what really happened a secret isn’t that much better. “Oh, sorry honey, some friends came over and tracked in some crap. I used your beloved wedding presents to clean it up.” No matter what Jimmie says, Bonnie is going to be livid. The Bonnie Problem is hardly solved just because the dead guy is gone.
I’m sure that, on balance, it would be easier to concoct some sort of story to explain the missing linens than to explain three hoods and and dead body in the garage.
I always do wonder exactly _what_ Jimmy could have told Bonnie, though. I’ve even considered starting a thread about (“Imagine you are Jimmy. What do you say to Bonnie?”).
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/17 "2010-12-24T06:13:17Z")
The bigger inconsistency to me is that Jimmy, who is married to a black woman, would throw around the word nigger so much. Look, I’m the biggest critic of political correctness there is, but did the movie _really_ benefit from having Quentin Tarantino’s character uttering that word so much? The scenes with Jimmy were the weakest part of the movie.
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### Author:  [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/18 "2010-12-24T06:21:58Z")
I see two possibilities regarding Jimmy’s casual use of the N-word. Either Bonnie lets him get away with it or he was intentionally trying to offend Jules for putting him on the spot.
As for what he would have said to her, I speculate that Jules is actually the one who introduced him to Bonnie in the first place. Bonnie as such knows exactly who Jules is. So Jimmy is going to say “Jules dropped by today… he needed our best linens. He gave us $5000 and he would appreciate it if we didn’t ask any questions.” She would raise an eyebrow and go on with life.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/19 "2010-12-24T06:41:17Z")
I always figured that Jimmy throwing the word around so much was just for… perhaps not “shock” value… but to drive home how upset he was. Sort of like when someone is upset and says “So this fucking asshole with his fucking car manages to fucking hit my fucking bumper…” Just sort of a semi-impotent bad language rebellion to prove that you’re really upset.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2010, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picking-nits-with-pulp-fiction/565192/20 "2010-12-24T06:45:42Z")
Take the five grand, spend $125 on new replacement “wedding” linens to stuff into the closet and the rest on cocaine and high quality coffee.
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