Beneath The Bondage Suit: Diving Into Tarantino’s Most Enigmatic Character
Theon Greyjoy. Now that’s one hell of a name to lose. If that isn’t enough torment in itself, how about adopting the name “Reek” through a series of mental and physical torture sessions. Aside from his glorious name, the Game of Thrones character lost some fingers, his member, his sanity, and his sense of self. Once his sense of self was lost, calling him anything but Reek would prove to be a waste. Theon Greyjoy no longer exists. He is no longer son and heir of Balon Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands. The story of Theon runs parallel that of the Gimp in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Although we never discover whether or not the Gimp had a badass name, or anything about his past for that matter, we do discover a submissive sex slave with unwarranted loyalty towards his captors.
So what lies beneath the full-body leather sex suit? Tarantino leaves us with virtually no information about who the Gimp is or even how he came to be. Instead he leaves a trail of crumbs — each of which provide insight towards who, or “what” the Gimp is. In order to decode the infamous gimp we must look deep into the themes and patterns Tarantino uses for what is arguably his biggest curve ball. This can be done through first looking into Tarantino’s script. The Gimp himself was given no dialog aside from when he “tries to yell, but all that comes out are excited gurgles and grunts.” While Tarantino never dives into why he doesn’t speak and why he can barely muster out a frantic scream, Stephen Hibbert, who plays the Gimp, goes into his own explanation. In an interview with Vulture, Hibbert explains that he played the part as if the Gimp’s tongue had been cut out and “made noises with my tongue flat against the bottom of my mouth, so there was a sense of there being no tongue movement to help formulate words or sounds.” But even if he could talk we would only hear things like “yes sir, sorry sir.” The script depicts the Gimp as being more than submissive. He is loyal.
How on Earth could such loyalty be derived from what the Gimp was put through? Zed and Maynard, owners of the Mason-Dixon Pawnshop, do so much unthinkable shit to the gimp that he completely loses his sense of self. The mysteriousness of the gimp and his past show he is in no way who he used to be and his lack of even a real name disconnects him from humanity. He is reduced to “merely their play toy.” This submissiveness turns into loyalty towards his “owners” which is shown through him laughing at the rape and Butch’s struggling during it, and his frantic attempt to yell for Zed and Maynard when Butch gets lose. Through such devotion, the Gimp seems to be the victim of Stockholm syndrome, which “explains the apparently irrational feelings of some captives for their captors.” The Gimp’s irrational feelings towards Zed and Maynard led him to to enjoy their little basement operation. To the Gimp, everything was going well and he couldn’t have been in a better place. He was fueled by Zed and Maynard’s disgusting actions.
Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction writing partner, Roger Avary, originally came up with idea for the Gimp. Avary actually wrote an entire different movie script featuring the Gimp, but Tarantino only wanted to run with the pawnshop scene. He saw it as an opportunity for a “flip reworking of something that was a big deal in Deliverance.” How could Tarantino, known for abundantly reworking other parts of films for his own, pass up such an opportunity?
Tarantino turns the disturbing rape scene into a way of incorporating his recurring element of surprise with his audience. But once the sense of surprise blows over, we are left with some really weird stuff. It’s so weird and absurd even, that a comical aspect is tagged on. In an interview with Playboy, Tarantino talks about wanting to make the scene random and funny, similar to the hillbilly rape scene in Deliverance, which Tarantino comments
“wow, he’s made anal rape really funny.”
Aside from the randomness, Tarantino uses music to increase the comical aspect of the gimp scene. He originally wanted to use “My Sharona” by The Knacks because the song “has a really good sodomy beat to it. I thought, oh, God, this is just too funny not to use.” Issues arose in getting the song in such an extreme scene, so Tarantino instead used the diegetic sounds of “Comanche” by The Revels. He says this put off more of the broad comical effect he was looking for than with the cutely comical “My Sharona.”
Everything takes place in the old room of an unidentified “Russell”. All we can infer about Russell comes from the script, which says he was “another who had the misfortune of walking into the Mason-Dixon pawnshop”. Tarantino’s inclusion of Russell is really the Gimp’s origin story. Both characters were likely to be normal, nine-to-fivers who were struck with the worst luck in the world. The randomness of the Gimp’s origin adds to the overall randomness of the scene, which is even further built on through the Gimp’s casting. Tarantino’s peculiarity in almost every aspect of his films is juxtaposed with the casting of the Gimp. He could have been anyone. Stephen Hibbert, who Tarantino befriended on the set of Saturday Night Live, was given the not so coveted role. However, he is a character that really anyone could have played if they had the balls.
Despite the nonchalance of casting the role, playing the Gimp was no easy task for Stephen Hibbert. He was dressed from head to toe in a leather bondage suit from the Pleasure Chest, an actual erotic adult store. The getup was incredibly uncomfortable for Hibbert, who was stuck in it for 2 days. Hibbert credited the discomfort of the suit by saying “I guess that’s all part of that culture, that it’s supposed to be unpleasant and degrading.” However the costume had a much greater effect to Hibbert than simply being uncomfortable.
“Having the mask on and being covered up freed me up to just be a complete weirdo, because I didn’t need to worry about my mom and dad seeing me.”
Tarantino never approached Hibbert for another acting gig despite the director’s tendency to reuse talent. Most would think Tarantino ignored Hibbert in future roles because of his lack of experience or subpar acting. But the role of the Gimp was a one time thing. The Gimp randomly entered Tarantino’s movie when he was awoken from a small box in the Mason-Dixon Pawnshop basement. Likewise, Hibbert randomly entered Tarantino’s life and was casted shortly after the two met on SNL. And just as Tarantino killed off the Gimp, he cut ties with the now “somewhat unemployed” Stephen Hibbert.
Through Tarantino’s techniques in portraying the Gimp, we learn he is the nothing that sends Pulp Fiction to the top. Not only is he the overly submissive sex slave of two nut jobs, but he is an embodiment of many Tarantino themes used throughout all of his movies. This weird sex slave that stirred up the world of film is yet another example of Tarantino’s brilliance.
