It is impossible to think of a list of great films without including Pulp Fiction (1994). With its striking cinematography and its non-scored soundtrack, Pulp Fiction was a revolutionary motion picture because it popularized non-linear storytelling in film, and borrowed elements from postmodernism, genre films, and arthouse films, and blended them into something completely unique to Tarantino’s personal style (Berg, 2006). From many influences of foreign and niche films, Pulp Fiction was born, but it was the way Pulp Fiction combined these influences that was so intoxicating and revolutionary (BBC, 2014). The cultural significance of Pulp Fiction is evident by examining its influence on other films and cultural phenomena, as it popularized
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Intertextuality, or one work making references to others, is central to Pulp Fiction’s dialogue, and is one of the reasons so many of the lines are as iconic as they are. The film also makes use of parodied suspense, particularly in the scene where Jules and Vincent remove their guns from the trunk of their car. “The whole sequence is the precise execution of a narrative scheme, taken from the poor quality films, in order to make a parody out of gangster’s behaviour" (Berg, 2006). In essence, the characters in Pulp Fiction are created from characters left over from other cinematic productions. “The artistic value does not result from their complexity, but from their simplification, from the fact that their actions are merely a pretext for their dialogues, for the small-talk about life experiences, about American popular culture, about the faith in divine providence etc” (Giroux, 1995). Finally, Pulp Fiction, like postmodernism itself, is not bound by logic. Events occur in a non-linear order, and the narrative completely coincides with what Tarantino wanted for his film. Pulp Fiction serves as the paradigm for “the postmodern appropriation of elements from the popular cultures of the past” (Booker, 2007). How Tarantino reconstructed and wove together generic styles to create new content is what establishes him as an innovator of postmodernism in film, and his work, specifically Pulp Fiction, paved the way for other filmmakers like him (Wucher,
Intertextuality, or one work making references to others, is central to Pulp Fiction’s dialogue, and is one of the reasons so many of the lines are as iconic as they are. The film also makes use of parodied suspense, particularly in the scene where Jules and Vincent remove their guns from the trunk of their car. “The whole sequence is the precise execution of a narrative scheme, taken from the poor quality films, in order to make a parody out of gangster’s behaviour" (Berg, 2006). In essence, the characters in Pulp Fiction are created from characters left over from other cinematic productions. “The artistic value does not result from their complexity, but from their simplification, from the fact that their actions are merely a pretext for their dialogues, for the small-talk about life experiences, about American popular culture, about the faith in divine providence etc” (Giroux, 1995). Finally, Pulp Fiction, like postmodernism itself, is not bound by logic. Events occur in a non-linear order, and the narrative completely coincides with what Tarantino wanted for his film. Pulp Fiction serves as the paradigm for “the postmodern appropriation of elements from the popular cultures of the past” (Booker, 2007). How Tarantino reconstructed and wove together generic styles to create new content is what establishes him as an innovator of postmodernism in film, and his work, specifically Pulp Fiction, paved the way for other filmmakers like him (Wucher,