Pulp Fiction 30th Anniversary

EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
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30 years ago one of the greatest movies of all time premiered. It lost to Forrest Gump at the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (John Travolta nominated), lost to Ed Wood for Best Supporting Actor (Samuel L. Jackson nominated), and lost to Bullets over Broadway for Best Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman nominated).
 
I watched this in a private screening with a few colleagues a few days before release. A pack of cigarettes was passed between us (No smoking was allowed of course) but watching the smoke rise up and catch the projector light was so atmospheric for a first watch of this legendary classic.
 
I'm definitely due for a rewatch. Loved the movie but I remember finding it pretty disturbing and not an easy watch or something I really wanted to rewatch often. Looking back at the awards that year is definitely a joke. Always interesting to see what stands the test of time and what doesn't.
 
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Soundtrack is awesome as well.

While I had screened Reservoir Dogs a year or two prior, as well as True Romance, thus had an awareness of QT, this film BLEW OPEN indie film for me, if we can even call it such, maybe arthouse cinema? It made the WRITER the king in ways few other films could, though in retrospect is pretty obvious QT is a master at many disciplines to include cinematography, editing, and music that really brings his films to life.

Saw it FOUR times in theater over the month of its release, only Titanic comes close (that was a loooong date film to use on women but worth it :P It really opened the floodgates for that type of film as so many tried to copy it with varying levels of success.
 
First time I watched it was in summer of 2003. I was 16 at the time. I would stay up late writing or working on DND content. Every night my dad would wake up to get a snack and watch TV.

One night he was checking through the cable guide and saw it was starting at 2 am. He got excited. I had heard of it of course, but hadnt seen it. So i watched it with him. It was sort of a special bonding moment for us.
 
The Ringer celebrated with a two-part four-hour massive podcast on everything to do with the movie. Yes, the pod on the movie is twice as long as the movie. Really good listen.

Also felt one of the coolest aspects was it completely reviving Travolta's career. He was in some good ones in the 70s and 80s and his career was dead. Led to a Travolta-ssance since he got into a bunch of movies from the Pulp Fiction fame.

www.theringer.com

‘Pulp Fiction’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey

In a two-part podcast, Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey discuss Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 masterpiece, ‘Pulp Fiction’
www.theringer.com www.theringer.com
 
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My dad rented it from the local video store in 1995 and let me watch it with him. I wasn't even 13 yet.

And then my mom just happened to walk in during the scene where Travolta is shooting up

Her meltdown was historic and I didnt get to see the movie in full until two years later at a friends house :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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One of the greatest films ever made and it will stand the test of time for the next 30 years.

This scene lives in my mind rent free. Tarantino knows how to direct a scene with brilliant dialogue to complement it.

 
^Love Buscemi showing up for a second as the Buddy Holly waiter...I didn't recognize him the first time I saw it. Apparently he was supposed to have a bigger role but due to scheduling he had to back out so Tarantino tossed him in that scene.

Also, that shake looks so good.
 
Watched it the year it came out and I was 11. In hindsight, I shouldn't have been watching this that young.

But, it's an amazing film that holds up thirty years later.

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I watched it for the first time around 2001-2002. I remember thinking it was an old movie at that time when it wasn't even a decade old yet. But I also knew it was a masterpiece right away.

It's just a perfect movie. Not an ounce of fat on that movie, which is wild considering its runtime and how many different subplots are all occurring at once and interweaving with each other.

Tarantino needs to make a spiritual successor to it before he retires/dies. I think what's really impressive is how much of the movie has entered the cultural zeitgeist and yet it still holds up in 2024 (and will continue to hold up for decades to come). A lot of movies become almost too quotable and iconic for their own good, especially when viewed decades later. But not Pulp Fiction.

Butch's escape from Zed's dungeon and the "choose your weapon" scene in the pawn shop still gets me. Everything about it is perfect.
 
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8bitpill said:
Watched it the year it came out and I was 11. In hindsight, I shouldn't have been watching this that young.

But, it's an amazing film that holds up thirty years later.

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I also watched it quite young and I have to admit the Butch and Marcellus arc that ends in the Pawn Shop scared the shit out of me.
 
near said:
I also watched it quite young and I have to admit the Butch and Marcellus arc that ends in the Pawn Shop scared the shit out of me.
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Can't hear this song without the visual of the Pawn Shop basement scene, fucking horrifying to see that scene play out at that age.

 
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I was watching a Scorsese short a while back called American Boy which is basically 40-minutes of Scorsese's friend Steven Prince telling stories. Turns out Tarantino directly lifted the overdose scene from Prince's story about the same event, even with the bit with the magic marker. Here's the clip of him telling the story albeit with random cuts to the movie. Kind of cool to see the inspiration.

 
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This movie is pretty much responsible for me wanting to work in film. There are two or three Tarantino films that perhaps are even better but this one will always be the most fun to revisit.
 
I saw it opening night because it had a lot of buzz around it. I didn't even know who Quentin Tarantino was before that night. After the movie I went and rented Reservoir Dogs from Blockbuster Video and watched it for the first time as well. That was my beginning with QT.
 
Roberts said:
This movie is pretty much responsible for me wanting to work in film. There are two or three Tarantino films that perhaps are even better but this one will always be the most fun to revisit.
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Which ones would you say are better? I don't think he's ever come close to Pulp Fiction, it's damn near perfect.
 
calistan said:
Which ones would you say are better? I don't think he's ever come close to Pulp Fiction, it's damn near perfect.
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Kill Bill Vol. 1 edges it out at times and is more well rounded. (No pocket watch in the ass scene or anything like that.)
 
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One of my must watch movies, that movie will be talked about for a while, cannot skip Pulp Fiction, Bruce Willis, Uma just everyone were fire, it does not feel aged, scenes still sharp, again a must watch.
 
NeverYouMind said:
Kill Bill Vol. 1 edges it out at times and is more well rounded. (No pocket watch in the ass scene or anything like that.)
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It's a good one, but for me it's just a kung-fu homage and not on the same level as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs. Other than that, he did Death Proof, which was kind of trashy, Jackie Brown, which never really clicked with me, and a load of really unsubtle revenge fantasies.

Pulp Fiction not sweeping the board at the Oscars was a travesty.
 
calistan said:
Which ones would you say are better? I don't think he's ever come close to Pulp Fiction, it's damn near perfect.
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Don't really mind me - I have a weird taste in cinema, but I always had a soft spot for Jackie Brown. It's his most mature film, dealing with ageing in such a delicate manner that still blows my mind. Forster's performance (especially when you look at his past work) is just magnificent in its subtlety. I like to revisit it just as often as PF.

And I went totally apeshit for Once Upon a time in Hollywood. For the first time in my life I went to see a movie in cinema three times. It just touched my cinema nerve in a way not a lot of films do - his confidence of building a rhythm that seems aimless is, for the lack of a better word, wow. Also, the first time when I thought that he is going to be totally OK without Sally Menke as his editor. I mean, none of those films (also IB - another favourite of mine) will ever have the same cultural impact as PF, but I would never put them below it.
 
The movie that inspired uninspired dorks to dance like an idiot when they try to impress a girl in the club. I must know, I was one of the dorks.
 
calistan said:
Which ones would you say are better? I don't think he's ever come close to Pulp Fiction, it's damn near perfect.
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Basterds has some of the most tense scenes ever and the best performance ever in Christoph Waltz. Not sure if it beats Pulp Fiction but it's definitely in the ballpark
 
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