If you search the Internets you will find discussions of damn near every second of Pulp Fiction. There are lists of the dozens or hundreds of the movie references and inside jokes. But I noticed something the last time I watched it a few days ago and cannot find any mention of it.
When Vincent Vega goes to pick up Mia Wallace she talks to him over the intercom. Those closeups of her red lips against the mike are a tribute to “The Warriors”, of course, and perfectly done. She tells him to make a drink. Vincent sidles over to the bar and picks up a bottle of McCleary Blended Scotch (a director’s fake name, used in other movies). He pops the top and slowly sniffs the bottle. Why does he do that? It’s just a blended Scotch, nothing unique.
Some people like the aroma of scotch, which can vary greatly. I certainly do!
When I was teaching English as a Foreign Language, I’d show the movie to my classes each year. Around the tenth time, I finally realized it has a lot of religious connotations. F’rinstance:
The structure of the film gives a kind of God’s-Eye view of events.
Jules is always quoting the Bible. (Kind of an obvious example.)
Marvin is a Judas to his friends.
Vincent injects himself with heroin, another “opiate of the masses.”
Mia is tempted and seduced by a “false” narcotic.
Mia “dies” and is “resurrected” by a guy who looks and dresses like Jesus.
Butch “betrays” Marsellus for money. He’s marked for death but is “redeemed” and finds “salvation” as Marsellus’s “savior.”.
In the end, Butch acquires “Grace.”
I notice something new every time I see the movie. There are probably other subtle points I’ve yet to pick up.
One more: Jules “repents” and goes on to become a “monk,” like Caine on Kung Fu. Vincent does not repent and meets a grisly end. I like to think this is an allegory to the two thieves at the Crucifixion.
One thing that bugged me, and probably only me, from the first watching is that the “Deliverance” guy in the basement got shot in the crotch. Isn’t he going to bleed out before Marcellus even begins to “get medieval on his ass”? Who knows which artery was in the way.
And the hidden violent revenge filled person inside me was upset that only one of the three survived to get tortured. Zed and the Gimp are dead. I blame Tarentino.
Vincent’s kind of a pretentious – Jules calls him out on it in the whole “I don’t watch TV” exchange. He probably sniffs the scotch because it seems to him like something a connoisseur would do without really understanding why.
Reviving my own thread to comment on Just_Asking_Questions “hidden violent revenge filled person inside me”. I can’t think of another movie scene where the hopeless dread of the victims escalates so rapidly as the apartment scene.
They know they are in deep trouble from the start but perhaps some fancy talking can allow them to avoid a horrible fate. Vincent and Jules are reasonable guys, right? Then the shock of Vincent turning to Flock of Seagulls and exploding, “I don’t remember asking you anything!” A minute later Brett is stuck for an answer and Vincent just swings that big .45 towards the couch and casually blows Flock of Seagulls away. “Perhaps that will refresh your memory?” Brett can barely function and that becomes the whole, “Say what one more time!” And his complete open mouthed bewilderment as Vincent goes into his Biblical rant. Vincent slowly raises his huge freakin pistol and it’s over.
I always figured Jules was making the common mistake of thinking he was the central character. When something happened, he assumed it was happening to him and the reason for it happening involved him. So when those bullets missed him and Vincent, he interpreted it as a message from God telling him to reform.
Mia Wallace was the real protagonist of Pulp Fiction. The central event of the story was her near-death experience. The reason the bullets missed Jules and Vincent was because Vincent needed to be alive to bring about that experience with Mia. Once Vincent had fulfilled that role, his purpose was done and he could die. Jules just got lucky by standing next to a guy who happened to be temporarily under protection.
The problem with this theory is that when Jules and Vincent first enter the apartment, there clearly aren’t bullet holes in the wall. Then they appear in the background of a shot where they’re talking to Marvin (before bathroom guy comes out shooting). That’s what makes it an unequivocal goof.
That’s an interesting idea. I’ll have to think about it.
I was surprised when one of my students (normally a very passive and quiet guy) suggested that Marsellus was the central character, since all events revolved around him. It was he who set the actions of Butch, Jules, Vincent, Marvin, Winston, and even Mia into motion.
Twenty years later, I’m still thinking about that one.
I’d have thought Marvin was more in the “Doubting Thomas” mold. In the car, Vincent asks Marvin if he believes in the miracle. Marvin doesn’t even have an opinion, and quickly dies.
For a movie that’s criticized for its violence and debauchery, it’s strangely moral. Vincent rejects the miracle and dies, while Vincent recognizes it and lives. Butch risks his live to save Marcellus, and is rewarded for it.
I always wonder if the events in the pawn shop become part of the story of the watch when Butch passes it on to his son.
It’s Butch’s memory of the dream that gives him the courage (or guilt) to rescue Marsellus when he could easily walk away. He recognizes it as a premonition telling him that “two men in a desperate situation don’t abandon each other.”
This is especially poignant, since he had just told Fabienne “I don’t remember my dreams.” A denial akin to Vincent’s “I don’t watch TV.”
Sure you don’t, Vincent. Just cop shows where people shoot at each other but don’t get hit.
Butch doesn’t necessarily need the dream to remember how important the watch is to him. I assume he remembers the actual meeting with Captain Koons in his childhood, and maybe dreaming about it just reinforces the memory.
Yes, he demonstrates how important the watch is to him. The watch is really the driving force behind this segment of the movie. (The MacGuffin, if you will.)
I’m sure Butch remembers the meeting with Koons from his childhood. (Though I sense his memory may have lapsed until the dream reminds him of it.) I also think doesn’t really grasp the lesson Koons was trying to teach him until he has the option of running away from the pawn shop. Up to that point, he’d been screwing Marsellus too, just in a way different from the Hillbillies’. His memory of the dream finally stirs feelings of guilt, and he knows he can’t just run away.
At last it’s his opportunity to be a hero instead of Marsellus’s “Ni**er,” another thing he’s ashamed of. I especially like how he goes through all the weapons at his disposal, trying to decide just what kind of hero he’s going to be. He finally settles on a Samurai sword, the elegant instrument of an avenging warrior.
I don’t think his memory lapsed. He has the dream in the dressing room just before his fight. Immediately after the fight, he leaves the arena and takes the cab to meet Fabienne. She has packed some of their belongs to take on the lam. Butch specifically told her to get the watch off the kangaroo next to his bed. He must have told her that before the fight, which means it was before his dream.
Bathroom guy fires the gun six times and there are six bullet holes in the wall. Have to really reach to get past that beyond acknowledging a goof. Not like it’s noticeable until multiple viewings.
Never mind them; what about Pumpkin? And what about Honey Bunny?
The movie opens with the two of them about to commit a crime; we then get a looong flashback explaining why a couple of gunmen were in the right place at the right time to do something unusual, having just witnessed a miracle — and, sure, we even wind up flashing forward to see yet more of their story, but, like I said, never mind that now; since we’re caught back up, we see Pumpkin and Honey Bunny get given a chance to turn their lives around by the guy who’s suddenly trying real hard to be the shepherd.
Vincent, who didn’t really get the message, soon winds up with an untimely death while still mired in his life of crime; Jules, who did get the message, sets out to Walk The Earth You Know Like Caine From Kung Fu; but Pumpkin and Honey Bunny just got the message from the guy who got the message, is what I’m saying.
