Pulp fiction [DVD]

Tarantino’s amoral black gangster movie pilfers cinematic conventions from a diverse range of sources: from Hong Kong karate cinema to Orson Welles, from Godard’s “Breathless” to B-grade film noir. The mix is intoxicating. Three pulpy stories form the centre of the film. John Travolta plays a mafia hood with a keen addiction to heroin, who is asked to entertain for an evening the girlfriend (Uma Thurman) of his mobster boss; Bruce Willis is an ageing boxer who is asked to throw a fight; and Travolta and Samuel Jackson have to hide the body of a conman they accidentally shot. Surrounding these basic plot contrivances Tarantino creates a charged, constantly shifting narrative that introduces highly eccentric characters drawn from the extremes of popular music, junk and drug culture. The supporting cast is astounding, from Harvey Keitel and Tarantino himself, to Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer’s surreal performance as amphetamine-hyped killers. By introducing peripheral subcultures to the Hollywood mainstream, Tarantino’s film marked a generational shift in American movies. Not the Vietnam generation but the video generation. (Awards: Winner of Palme d’Or, Cannes, 1994).