Written by Andreas Babiolakis

This review is a part of the Palme d’Or Project: a review of every single Palme d’Or winner at Cannes Film Festival. Pulp Fiction won the thirty ninth Palme d’Or at the 1994 festival.

The film was selected by the following jury.
Jury President: Clint Eastwood.
Vice President: Catherine Deneuve.
Jury: Pupi Avati, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Kazuo Ishiguro, Alexander Kaidanovsky, Marie-Françoise Leclère, Shin Sang-ok, Lalo Schifrin, Alain Terzian.

“ ‘The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.’

I’ve been saying that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass.

I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this morning that made me think twice.

Now I'm thinking: it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 45 here: he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness.

Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish.

I'd like that.

But that shit ain't the truth.

The truth is you're the weak, and I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.”

-Jules Winnfield; Pulp Fiction.

What else is there to say about Pulp Fiction? As it is nearly thirty years old, Quentin Tarantino's greatest achievement has experienced every piece of praise under the sun, and for good reason. It is a rare film that has intrigued all kinds of cinephiles: mainstream fans and art obsessives alike. So, what is it about this film that is so special? Again, it has all been said before, but I'll gladly use this opportunity to get into what it means to me. Firstly, it was a significant time in my life as a budding film fan. I would always see it at the very front of the local HMV (may these stores rest in peace) when I was a kid. After having seen Kill Bill (both parts) and feeling like I had earned my stripes, I would purchase the film at around the age of thirteen or so. I knew very little about it, but I needed to see more from this Quentin fellow. I wasn't prepared for the electricity of this film. It was one of the most singular cinematic experiences I ever had as a kid (good news: I still feel this way). I couldn't tell you why I loved it, but I did. I loved it so much that I bought a new copy after one of the many people I lent it to at my high school didn't give it back (I never forgot, Rebecca). I loved it so much that I bought a "Bad Mother Fucker" wallet and used it until it fell apart. I didn't know exactly why then. I completely understand why now.

Tarantino is to directors what disc jockeys are to music. He compiles all of his favourite references, images, and sounds into his films. He honours his influences quite blatantly. I can point to one such example. I loved the Vincent-Mia dance as a teen, but can now thank both Fellini and Godard (8 ½ and A Band of Outsiders, respectively) for the inspiration of that moment. You can really pick apart the film more than this, but I'd like to use the latter filmmaker to segue into the fact that Pulp Fiction is America's greatest response to the French New Wave movement (many years after its peak, but better late than never). Tarantino uses a limitless form to create an anarchistic story of crime for a Hollywood-loving audience that wasn't prepared for something as poignant as it was excessive. If anything, whilst trying to revive French New Wave, I feel like Tarantino may have forever changed the crime film as we once knew it. How many crime films since have had as much of an effect on you?

For me, this is because Pulp Fiction deals with ramifications better than most crime pictures. The perfect screenplay – cowritten by Roger Avary – is fragmented into non-chronological chapters, but each section is placed exactly where it should be. The chapters, in the order of being shown, go from Vincent Vega having to take Mia Wallace out to dinner, to Butch Coolidge dealing with the comeuppance of winning a fight he was meant to throw, and wrapping up with Jules Winnfield's religious awakening during the Bonnie situation. When broken up in this way, we get an anthological set of stories like a good old beach read: a fun escape more than anything. Then you begin to boil it down into why we see these stories as they are, and the genius of Pulp Fiction's writing comes to light. It's all about fate: the kind that Winnfield goes on about in the third chapter. We see a character die, only for them to continue living later on in the film because of this sequencing; we calculate their every move knowing that they will wind up a goner (and they haven't a clue as they tempt fate). We try to figure out the film's chronology and find all of the missteps of these characters in the process. Pulp Fiction could only exist this way. We wouldn't get the same look at chance if it didn't. You can hear me go more into the screenplay and this topic here.

Tarantino's obsession with film goes beyond even just how it looks, sounds, and reads. It boils down to even the casting. With John Travolta obliterating his Hollywood image as a New Wave symbol (and an unforgiving, violent one at that) to Bruce Willis' ushering in of the new generation of action stars, you'll find a lot of calculation here. Additionally, there are the characters as well, and why we get these stories; the humanizing of the filmic gangster in the most casual ways; the reminder that there are always worse people than the worst figures you know of; our connection to the underworld is actually right next door. We get invited to a reality that we (hopefully) will never be a part of, and we find out a lot of it is just like ours: arbitrary discussions about cheeseburgers and foot massages, preferences about facial piercings, coffee making skills on full display, and love even in the darkest times (amongst many other instances). There just happens to be a lot of dying, chasing, and torture in there as well.

Like most of you, I love this film. Pulp Fiction is that one flick that stood on its own when I first watched it, and it continues to do so after having seen virtually thousands of films since. It has my favourite dialogue of any film within a deceptively profound experience. These characters are some of the best you'll find. The cinematic throwbacks all smashed together make for an experience of the future. This is as good as cinema in the 90s got. Whether you're a casual movie watcher that has a lot of fun here, or you're a film snob that finds that there still is so much to deconstruct, Pulp Fiction speaks to you. For such a beloved, iconic film, it's actually surprisingly difficult to narrow down, as it is so multifaceted despite being idiosyncratic. From that opening usage of Dick Dale's "Misirlou" on top of the takeover of a coffee shop, to Vega and Winnfeld leaving said establishment in the worst of beach attire, there's nothing but magic in between. Even chronologically, seeing a young Butch Coolidge glued to a TV screen, and seeing him close the story off with that "Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead", Pulp Fiction seems perfect this way as well. No matter how you slice it (choice words when attributed to a Tarantino film), Pulp Fiction is the gift that keeps on giving.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.