Profile of Vincent Vega on Famous Like Me

For other uses see, Pulp Fiction (soundtrack) or Pulp magazine

Pulp Fiction
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Quentin Tarantino Roger Avary
Starring	John Travolta Samuel L. Jackson Uma Thurman Ving Rhames Eric Stoltz Harvey Keitel Tim Roth Amanda Plummer Maria de Medeiros Christopher Walken Bruce Willis
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	October 14, 1994 (USA)
Runtime	154 min. (168 min. deluxe edition)
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
IMDb page

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and written by Tarantino and Roger Avary. It was released to critical and public acclaim and is regarded by many as a milestone in movie history, helping to establish an ascendant independent film movement in the United States. Its fragmented storyline, eclectic dialogue, irony and camp influences, unorthodox camerawork, and numerous pop culture references have since colored countless movies.

The name of the film refers to the pulp magazines popular during the mid–20th century, known for their strongly graphic nature.

Reception and influence

Pulp Fiction is perennially found on both critics' lists (such as the AFI's One Hundred Years, 100 Movies List) and in popular rankings, placing consistently in the top 20 on the IMDB Top 250 List. It won the 1994 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It was named Best Picture by the L.A. Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics. Many critics, including Siskel and Ebert, have compared Tarantino's success with Pulp Fiction to that of Orson Welles after the release of his Citizen Kane.

The movie was moderately controversial at the time of its release, partly due to the graphic (though largely off-screen) violence and partly due to its perceived racism, as Jackson and Travolta played moderately sympathetic characters who freely used the words "motherfucker" and "nigger" (along with variations of the word).

The success of Pulp Fiction spurred studios to release a slew of "copycat" films soon after that tried to duplicate the film's formula of witty and offbeat dialogue, an elliptical/non-chronological plot and unconventional storyline, and gritty subject matter. Most, if not all of these films, did not fare well at the box office and were dismissed by critics as inferior and derivative, though the raver film Go received some acclaim, and Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was a successful transplant of the film's basic premise into the underworld of London.

The unconventional attitude of the movie, in particular its lack of a standard chronological structure, has often lead the film to be cited as an example of a postmodernist film.

Storylines

Half film noir and half black comedy, Pulp Fiction weaves through the intersecting storylines of Los Angeles gangsters, fringe characters, petty thieves and a mysterious attaché case. Following Quentin Tarantino's more traditional crime movie, Reservoir Dogs, the storyline is chopped up, rearranged and shown out of sequence, a technique borrowed from French nouvelle vague (New Wave) directors such as Jean Luc Godard and François Truffaut and from low-budget American crime films such as Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956) and Don Siegel's The Killers (1964). The highly stylized and fluid action sequences and deadpan dialogue were inspired by Italian neo-realist director Sergio Leone's famed spaghetti western pictures of the 1960s.

There are four main storylines in Pulp Fiction: Vincent and Jules; Mia Wallace; Butch Coolidge; and Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. All four are intertwined, although Vincent is the only one of these six characters to meet all of the five others during the film.

Vincent & Jules

Hitmen Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) head to a Los Angeles apartment to retrieve a briefcase that was involved in a failed deal for their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). They also have to kill Brett (Frank Whaley), the one who was supposed to have set up the deal, and his cohorts. The briefcase is a classic MacGuffin, whose contents are never revealed except indirectly as a glowing yellow light (a homage to the 1955 Robert Aldrich film Kiss Me Deadly and the 1984 Alex Cox project Repo Man). There has been speculation among fans that the case contains something of supernatural origin, possibly Marsellus' soul; see The mysterious briefcase.

After a long and bizarre conversation led by the Scripture-spouting Jules, the pair shoot and kill Brett and two of his accomplices, quickly departing with the last of the gang, who in fact is Jules's informant, Marvin. Shortly afterward, while in Jules's car, Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin in the head, killing him, and the two hitmen quickly try to find a place to hide and clean up the mess in the car with the aid of snotty suburbanite Jimmie Dimmick (Quentin Tarantino) and the associate/henchman of Marsellus, the dapper and mysterious Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel). Jackson's and Travolta's characters had been reportedly inspired by the pair of hitmen played by Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager in Don Siegel's 1964 film The Killers and the obscure 1965 French actioner Je vous salue, Mafia! starring Henry Silva and Jack Klugman.

Mia Wallace

At Marsellus' request Vincent Vega shows his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) a good time while he is out of town. They head to a (fictional) restaurant by the name of Jack Rabbit Slim's, a slick 1950s-themed restaurant with lookalikes of the decade's top pop culture icons as staff (e.g., television impresario Ed Sullivan as the maitre d', and servers such as singer Buddy Holly and actress Marilyn Monroe), an option for patrons to eat at a booth or a car refitted as a booth, and the famous five-dollar milkshake.

Vincent and Mia make small talk, wherein she recounts her experience as an actress in a failed television pilot, "Fox Force Five." The show followed the exploits of an all-female team of secret agents, each having a particular specialty (this premise inspired the theme for the Spice Girls' 1996 music video for their song "Say You'll Be There" in which the girls adopt similar fictional identities). Mia's character, Raven McCoy, was raised by circus performers and (according to the show) was "...the deadliest woman in the world with a knife." She also knew a "zillion" old jokes her grandfather, an old vaudevillian, taught her, though she refuses share with Vincent the joke Raven tells in the pilot out of fear of being embarrassed.

Mia then demands that Vincent dance with her in the Jack Rabbit Slim's twist contest. Back at the house, she is seen carrying the trophy they won. Mia overdoses after snorting heroin, believing it to be cocaine, and a fearful Vincent tries to save her life with the aid of the small-time drug dealer (Eric Stoltz) who had previously sold him the heroin. Mia is finally revived after Vincent, at the climax of a painfully comic and suspenseful scene, stabs her in the heart with a syringe full of adrenaline. Upon arriving back at the Wallace residence, Mia finally reveals her corny joke: "So there's Papa Tomato, Momma Tomato and Baby Tomato walking along the street. Baby Tomato starts lagging behind, and Papa Tomato starts getting really angry. So, he turns around and squishes Baby Tomato and says, 'Catch up. Ketchup.' "

Tarantino has noted that he first thought of the premise and main character (The Bride) of Kill Bill during the writing and filming of this scene. The "Fox Force Five" bears a striking resemblence to the "DiVAS" of Kill Bill.

Butch Coolidge

Aging prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) accepts a large sum of money from Marsellus, agreeing to "take a dive" (deliberately lose a fight) by allowing himself to be knocked out in the fifth round of his upcoming match. However, Butch double-crosses Marsellus, instead betting the money he received from Marsellus on himself (with, due to the fight's being fixed, presumably very favorable odds) and winning the bout, accidentally killing his opponent in the process. Although now flush with cash, Butch must quickly leave town, as a vengeful Marsellus is hot on his trail. (Butch's character and his situation appear to have been inspired by a similar character previously played by Robert Ryan in the 1949 film noir classic The Set-Up.)

There is also a flashback at the beginning of the "The Gold Watch" storyline (Butch's story), in which the child Butch Coolidge receives his watch from a buddy of his father's (Christopher Walken), his father having died in a Vietnam War prison camp. This gold watch, which has been passed down from father to son since his great-grandfather fought in World War I, is understandably of great sentimental value to Butch.

Compelled to return to his apartment to retrieve the wristwatch, which his girlfriend (Maria de Medeiros) has forgotten to pack, he comes across Vincent Vega. Butch grabs a silenced MAC-10 submachinegun on the kitchen counter left by Marsellus, who had left to get coffee for himself and Vince. (Although it is never shown that Marsellus was at Butch's apartment there are clues in the scene. One is that after Butch leaves his apartment he will find Marsellus walking across the street holding two cups of coffee, one for himself another for Vince. This would also explain why Marsellus is in that area at all. Also one would wonder why a professional such as Vincent would not keep his gun on him: the answer is that it was Marsellus' gun. And yet another clue is that Vince does nothing when the door to Butch's apartment opens: he thinks he knows who it is.) Butch picks up the gun just in time to encounter Vincent coming out of the bathroom. The toaster pastries in the toaster pop up, startling Butch into firing and killing Vincent.

While driving back to the motel from the apartment complex, Butch accidentally (and literally) runs into Marsellus himself. (The scene of Marsellus crossing the path of Butch is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.) Following a scuffle replete with car collisions, gunplay and fisticuffs, Butch and Marsellus are captured and tied up by a couple of hicks (a pawnshop owner and a security guard) who turn out to be sexual predators and sadists. They take Marsellus into the back room and rape him; Butch escapes his bonds and in a disturbing, comic, and somewhat surreal scene, he is faced with the choice of saving himself or aiding Marsellus. He chooses the latter and attacks the rapists with a katana while Marsellus frees himself. Marsellus allows Butch to keep his money, as long as he never returns to Los Angeles and keeps the whole affair to himself.

Pumpkin & Honey Bunny

Over a late breakfast in a diner, a pair of petty thieves Pumpkin/Ringo (Roth) and Honey Bunny/Yolanda (Plummer) discuss the merits of robbing restaurants instead of their usual targets, small banks and liquor stores. After establishing that restaurants are far easier and more lucrative to rob (the employees are less invested in the business, and there are plenty of customers with fat wallets), they spontaneously decide to hold up the diner, demanding all the patrons' money and valuables. Vincent and Jules (fresh from Jimmie's house, wearing a couple of "dorky" borrowed T-shirts) happen to be among the diner patrons. When Ringo demands that Jules hand over the case, Jules holds him at gunpoint in a semi-Mexican standoff with Yolanda (and Vincent, who emerges from the restroom with gun drawn and pointed at Yolanda; in this standoff not everyone will die, because no one has a gun pointed at Vincent). Jules explains his ambivalence toward his life of crime, takes his wallet back from Ringo (sans the cash inside), and lets the pair go free.

It is interesting to note that the Biblical quote recited by Jules is an altered form of the real Ezekiel 25:17.

Plot devices

The mysterious briefcase

The only obvious observations about the stolen attaché case recovered by Jules and Vincent are that its latch lock combination is "666", the "number of the Beast" (Satan) as given in the Biblical Book of Revelation, and that the contents of the case glow. Whenever asked, director Tarantino has replied that there is no explanation for the case's contents: it is simply a MacGuffin. The case is most likely a nod to Robert Aldrich's 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly, in which a similar briefcase glows because it contains a small nuclear device. Originally, the Pulp Fiction case was to contain diamonds, but this was seen as too mundane.

That said, fans have offered up several theories, the most popular of which says that Brett had made a deal with Marsellus Wallace for Marsellus's soul. According to this theory, the exit point of Marsellus' soul was in the back of the neck, explaining the conspicuous band-aid on that spot. (The bandage's actual purpose was that actor Ving Rhames wanted to cover up a visible keloid scar.) When Brett is killed, a golden light similar to the briefcase's glow flares across the screen; according to the theory, the light is Brett's soul departing from his body. Of course, the various other characters who depart this world during the course of the movie do not end with flashes of light. It may be that the light in the gunfight is actually intended to be be a dramatization of the blast flames from Jules' and Vincent's guns. The lock combination of "666" also suggests a spiritual explanation, and that the contents are bound up in evil deeds.

Other theories involve the golden Elvis Presley jumpsuit from True Romance, the severed ear from David Lynch's Blue Velvet, the stolen diamonds from Tarantino's earlier film Reservoir Dogs, the Sankara Stones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the dead aliens from Repo Man, a Royale with Cheese, the Holy Grail, or simply gold. Some suggest it was a would-be present from Marsellus to his "party girl" wife Mia: a stolen Academy Award. The fact that Tarantino sensed beforehand that he might be "robbed" of his Best Picture Oscar adds a tiny speck of credibility to this theory.

The Urban Legends Reference Pages have a page on the contents of the Pulp Fiction briefcase here.

Jules' Bible passage

As explained by Jules in the final scene in the diner, he recites a passage from the Bible — Ezekiel 25:17 — every time right before he kills someone. The passage goes as follows:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities 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 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 my name is the LORD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

This is, in fact, not an actual passage from the King James Version of the Bible, but a collage of several passages. Ezekiel 25:17 in the King James Version reads:

And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

This is actually a typically obscure reference to Karate Kiba / Chiba the Bodyguard, a 1976 film starring Sonny Chiba (whom Tarantino has hailed as "the greatest actor to ever work in martial arts films"), which opens with a nearly identical misquote, likewise attributed to Ezekiel 25:17:

The path of the righteous man and defender is beset on all sides by the iniquity 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 darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper, and the finder of lost children. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious anger, who poison and destroy my brothers; and they shall know that I am Chiba the Bodyguard when I lay my vengeance upon them! (Ezekiel 25:17)

Connections to Reservoir Dogs

In Tarantino's 1992 mainstream directorial debut Reservoir Dogs, Michael Madsen plays a character named "Vic Vega"—suspiciously close to Travolta's "Vincent Vega." Tarantino would later confirm that the two are brothers.

Tarantino's Jimmie Dimmick character in Pulp Fiction has the same last name as Harvey Keitel's Reservoir Dogs character Larry Dimmick (Mr. White); however, the two characters are apparently not related in the universe of the films, especially as Tarantino and Keitel appear in both movies, in different roles (Tarantino in Dogs as Mr. Brown and Keitel in Pulp Fiction as Winston Wolfe).

There are some who think that the briefcase contains the diamonds from Reservoir Dogs. Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink in Dogs) in a cameo as a surly waiter at Jackrabbit Slim's is also interesting—could it actually be Mr. Pink, who escaped from the police and went to a place where no-one would look for him (in Dogs, Mr. Pink refuses to tip waiters)? Tarantino, however, confirms that Reservoir Dogs is meant to end with Mr. Pink's capture by the police.

Other details

Time setting

Set in early-1990s Los Angeles, Pulp Fiction nevertheless lends itself a timeless quality by drawing on themes from most eras of the 20th century:

• Mia Wallace looks something like a silent film character from the 1920s or earlier—note her bobbed hair, which some have claimed is a reference to silent film star Louise Brooks. However, some of her scenes and the look of her character directly reference Anna Karina's character in Jean-Luc Godard's film My Life to Live (1962).
• Jack Rabbit Slim's is a nod to the 1950s.
• The Wolf drives an Acura NSX, which first debuted in 1991.
• Both World Wars and the Vietnam War are referenced.
• Marcellus Wallace makes reference to Indochina.
• The sign outside Butch Coolidge's fight ("Wilson vs. Coolidge") is a play on the names of former U.S. presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge.
• The "Wilson vs. Coolidge" sign says that the bout takes place on Thursday, July 16. The most logical time for the events of the film, then, is July, 1992 (the two other dates closest to the year of filing are 1987 and 1998). 1992 also fits with Butch's being a young boy in the early 1970s.
• The marquee where Butch boxes, advertises "Vossler vs Martinez. This is a reference to Rand Vossler and Jerry Martinez, two friends of Tarantino's from when he worked in a video store.
• During the taxi ride away from the fight, the background is blurry and in black & white, as if in an old movie.
• Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield appear to be a nod to 1970s-era Elvis and Blaxploitation tropes.
• Mia Wallace has an antiquated reel to reel tape player and a record player.
• Vincent Vega makes a call to Lance from a cellular phone.
• If you look very closely at the bottom of the film's premier poster (the one with Mia on the bed) there is a soundtrack notice at the bottom. The film's soundtrack was originally released on audio tape, CD and LP - rather unusual for a movie this far past the heyday of the long-playing record.

Influences

Pulp Fiction features many direct references to other films. Tarantino (a former video store clerk) is well-known for having watched every movie in the store before going off to make his first mainstream film, Reservoir Dogs. The influence of this broad viewing remains prominent in Pulp Fiction.

• The passage from the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel 25:17 was first read in the 1967 film Karate Kiba.
• The line "with a pair of pliers and a blow-torch" was originally used in the 1973 film Charley Varrick.
• As noted above Kiss Me Deadly and Repo Man both feature a case/container opening with nothing seen but a bright light.
• The 1978 film American Boy by Martin Scorsese features Steven Prince telling the story of a time when he had to inject his friend with adrenaline. He marked his friend's heart with a red magic marker, used a long-needled syringe, and injected the dosage directly into his friend's heart, after which he immediately became conscious again.
• The animated 1957 film Three Little Bops features the drawing of an animated square in mid air. So does an episode of The Flintstones.
• The exterior shot of Jack Rabbit Slim's is a reference to the 1973 film American Graffiti.

Trivia

• Pulp Fiction was originally titled Black Mask.
• Mia Wallace's suit reappears in Tarantino's next flick, Jackie Brown.
• When Butch is in the car listening to "Flowers on the Wall," the line "It's good to see you..." is sung when Butch and Marsellus spot each other.
• Some believe that the organ player from Kill Bill Volume 2, Rufus, is actually Jules—who after "walking the earth," has settled down in the small town of El Paso Texas. Rufus is played by Samuel L. Jackson.
• Chronologically, the last lines of the movie are spoken by Butch Coolidge immediately before riding out of L.A. on a stolen chopper: "Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."
• Opening Titles music: "Miserlou" by Dick Dale and The Del-Tones
• In "Die Hard with a Vengeance" Bruce Willis says " Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" which is part of a song he sings "Flowers on the Wall"
• When Butch decides to go back and help Marcellus, he passes a wall with Tennessee license plates decorating it (he mentions on the phone with his brother that he is from Tennessee. He remembers his father's ordeal in Vietnam and how men are supposed to help each other in tough situations.
• The majority of clocks in the movie are set to 4:20

Thematic analysis

Three main themes found throughout Pulp Fiction are intervention, redemption and error. Death is the punishment for characters who refuse to redeem themselves despite being given several opportunities to do so. Most of the major characters have committed major crimes: Vincent and Jules are hitmen, Ringo and Yolanda rob liquor stores, and Butch swindles Marsellus. During the movie each of them experience distinct, possibly divine interventions and are challenged to grapple with these opportunities for forgiveness.

The most obvious intervention is pointed out by Jules himself, after he and Vincent are fired upon repeatedly from point-blank range yet remain unharmed. Jules promptly understands the pair's good luck to be a miracle—a divine intervention made on their behalf. The film goes on to show how Vincent, who doubts the miraculous nature of his survival, accidentally kills another person while doubting Jules' belief and is later killed himself while hunting Butch.

Other close calls stem from this "miraculous" bullet-dodging incident. Finding themselves with a blood-soaked car in broad daylight, after Vincent accidentally shoots and kills the passenger riding in the back seat, Jules and Vincent are bailed out under dubious circumstances by Marsellus' mysterious "clean-up man," Winston Wolfe. Later, Jules decides not to kill Pumpkin when confronted with the robber in a diner, instead giving him a new lease on life as Jules himself contemplates his decision to give up being a hitman.

A clear instance of redemption ensues when Butch, having been captured with Marsellus and in danger of being sodomized and killed, is able to free himself. Instead of fleeing, Butch turns back to save Marsellus from further torture, despite the fact that he had cheated Marsellus out of a lot of money and was being hunted by him for that reason. Marsellus forgives Butch for scamming him, and the two permanently part ways.

The third theme, that of error, is more subtle but also much more persistent. Virtually every character in the film has something (frequently a large thing) go wrong for them: Mia almost dies from a drug overdose, Butch finds himself watchless and Pumpkin and Honey Bunny have their robbery cut short. Marcellus is betrayed in a crooked betting game, Zed and the shop owner have a rape go horribly wrong, Jimmy has his morning ruined, Marvin is shot by accident by Vincent, Vincent is shot by accident by Butch and various minor characters are victimized at the expense of the major players. Probably the only character who walks in and out of the movie with no problems is Winston Wolfe: "I fix things."

Cast

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