PULP FICTION: A RESURRECTION
Resurrection.
A phenomenon that happens against all the forces of nature. Against all the rules. Against all the odds.
When you meet god and reject Him. When you give middle finger to heaven. When Madonna is ghosted by you. When all the peace and the morals and the good go to haywire, then resurrection is the new redemption.
Toss all the books, dump all the lovers, shoot adrenaline through your heart and read pulp fiction.
Pulp fiction: A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper.
But why the hell would I read pulp fiction when I got a movie like this one?
Year 1994: New York Film Festival: A young man passes out while watching a scene of the movie. Screening is halted as young man is taken to hospital. Screening continues after his well-being is announced.
It would have been a difficult choice to decide which one to worry about. Life of the young man or resumption of the film.
Same Year: Cannes: After much of speculation, Pulp fiction is awarded Palme d’Or and the jury head Clint Eastwood proves to be the same No-Nonsense-Guy as he played in his movies over the decades.
Same Year: Oscars: Maintaining the status of lickspittle once in a while. This year they decided to perform.
Why this film is SO SO SO GREAT?
European Cinema’s sensibilities: Checked
Hollywood’s sensibilities: Checked
Indian Cinema’s sensibilities: Checked
South East Asian Cinema’s sensibilities: Checked
Iranian Cinema’s sensibilities: Checked
Indie Cinema’s sensibilities: Checked
Anything which is cinema is hard not to find in it. From the amazing action and violence to the peppy dance and songs, from philosophical monologues to nerve damaging conversations, from nail biting story to the raw smell of film, everything is in here.
Talking about aspect of film making is a waste of time. It is so on top of the game that you cannot describe the rules here. It is better to watch to experience acting, writing, milieu, editing, processing, maneuvering, music, art and anything and everything we have known about films.
Commercial success: Huge
Critical acclaim: Unprecedented
This was a rebellious movie. Genius writing. Stylish Art. Sophisticated mise en scène. Parallel Universe. Unlikable characters who don’t give a fuck about your liking or being good. A twisted tale with so many layers that even after more than two decades, it caters something new with every re-watch.
It came in a time when bad people were only destined to die or turn into good in movies. They had no other life or no other purpose. Films hardly went into streets. This film gate crashed the party. With small budget and so called ‘indie tag’, this was a behemoth phenomenon. Because of this, a barrage of films came our way and we could relish the ort in new package since then.
It is such a clever piece of writing that it still defies those buffoons who feel invincible by giving away the story of a film while writing a review. They couldn’t write the story because it was so twisted that it would break the nib and taint their pen.
The story is twisted yet simple enough for anybody to understand. The story is from beginning to end yet finding beginning and end is impossible.
The characters are dangerously abominable yet you want to be with them. You get to see characters for only two hour and thirty four minutes yet you know everything about them from their birth to their family to how they like their coffee to be.
And this does not stop here. Time itself is a character here. If you are wondering about this, I wondered too. Satyajit Ray did it first time and nobody even attempted this after him in thirty years.
And then, what unique has been accomplished here, was never done before and is never repeated after this till date. A story told without actually putting it in the dimensions of time. You are told a story without taking a fraction of your time. Is that even possible?
Yes, if you have watched the movie, you will understand how filmmaker has played with your mind since the beginning without your consent.
The supremacy does not stop here. There are three stories as you will see in the film, however actually there are four. The fourth one is there all along, you learn everything about it, yet you never realize while knowing everything about it. And that happened because studio did not approve the fourth story and the writer took his revenge by putting it into the film which they bought.
There are stories within stories. Then stories within stories within stories. But all make sense, like your life. Not some scientific complex bullshit. It is like your friend’s friend’s friend. As simple as that. And Amidst all these stories, amidst all the dialogues, monologues, characters and settings, like a true auteur, He gives you the clues. Clues to follow His mind, His world.
THIS WHOLE THING GOES AS INSANE AS WRITING OF THE FILM. SO PROCEED ONLY IF YOU ARE INTO INSANITY.
If you have already watched it again and again and remember every minute details about it, you deserve some examples.
LEFT: Is the time 7:22 is chosen randomly? Is there any significance? Why 7:22 ain’t quite time yet for this man?
RIGHT: Why is she having Pie for breakfast? Is there any significance? Why pie is good for any time for this woman?
Read the sentences carefully and you don’t have to be a mathematical genius to figure it out.
Antwan Rackamora AKA “Tony Rocky Horror” was thrown from the balcony of the fourth floor. He fell four stories.
These two hitmen go to waste their target on the fourth floor. Again fourth story.
See how elevator passes through each floor by the little skylight visible behind on left side of the screen. It stops at fourth floor.
Now, why everybody is going to fourth floor? Why fourth story is mentioned again and again?
Apparently “Tony Rocky Horror” gave foot massage to the lady and was thrown from fourth story.
Again fourth story!!
And what kind of a name is “Tony Rocky Horror”?
The first story is about a ‘date’ between one of our hitmen and the lady.
They dance together in a live musical event and later enter the house with an award.
Any guess, what kind of award they give for live musical performance on the stage?
Then second story is about this boxer who fights against all the odds and wins the game.
Remember any boxer in movies having the same story, winning against all odds?
Then the third story is about hitmen who try to dispose a body which they kill by mistake. The whole gore involved in this killing makes them horrified although they just killed three men few minutes ago. They are in horror.
These are the three stories that movie depicts before its ending.
So where is the fourth story?
Again fourth story!!
And what kind of name is “Tony Rocky Horror”?
Tony is award given to recognize performance in Broadway, live theater musical performance.
Rocky is the name of the boxer who won against all the odds.
Horror is what hitmen felt surprisingly when the boy is killed by mistake.
Now if you can figure out, “Tony Rocky Horror” is nothing but combination of the three stories shown in the film. In final words, it is the film. And since fourth story was not allowed to be included in the film, “Tony Rocky Horror” (= “Film”) jumps (= moves away) from the fourth story. However, it does not kill itself but develops a speech impediment. All because he gives foot massage to the lady.
Falling from fourth story, why he developed speech impediment? Why not fractures or dead?
Because this is an indication of how the writer was made to dissolve a lot of his words. Why? Because he was trying to make studio’s happy. He didn’t obliged and completely changed the story to please studio (which means “Tony Rocky Horror” didn’t have sex with the lady) but He did some modifications to please studio (which means “Tony Rocky Horror” gave a foot massage to the lady).
Hell of a symbolism!!
And if you now see the two hitmen as two writers of the film, you can figure out what writers were trying to figure out as these two hitmen talk about their differences of opinion on foot massage.
This was one aspect where the sheer brilliance of the writers can be seen.
There are so many hidden messages and clues in the movie, references to the pop culture, religious themes, society debacles, feminism, relationships, ownership, psychology, wars, politics, socialism, movies, music, science, art, consumerism that it would take volumes of books to explain only the writing of this movie. And writing is just one aspect of the film.
Include every aspect of film and you have a life dedicated to this work.
In simpler words, this film is nothing else but resurrection.
An art work, so complex yet so simple that it defies even God to make another one like this.
Twenty three years and still struggling.
