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Pulp Fiction

Inhalt & Kritik

Die Profikiller Jules Winnfield (S. L. Jackson) und Vince Vega (J. Travolta) sind Männer fürs Grobe, die die Gegenspieler von Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), einem Gangsterboß in Los Angeles, umnieten. Vince erhält außerdem den Auftrag, Wallace´s betörende Frau Mia (U. Thurman) auszuführen. Aufgerüstet mit Koks und Heroin, liefern die beiden eine großartige Tanzeinlage in einem Restaurant. Danach rauscht Mia durch eine Überdosis ins Koma, und Vince muß sich als Lebensretter betätigen. Szenenwechsel: Der abgehalfterte Boxer Butch Coolidge (B. Willis) hintergeht Wallace und will sich mit Freundin Fabienne aus L. A. absetzen. Die Sache läuft natürlich aus dem Ruder, und Butch stolpert mit Wallace in eine Falle. Zum Schluß befinden wir uns wieder in dem Imbiß, in dem alles seinen Ausgang nahm. Dort sitzen Honey und ihr Freund Pumpkin (T. Roth). Das ausgeflippte Pärchen will das Lokal ausrauben. Am Nachbartisch sitzen Jules und Vince...
"Wenn du es tust, mach es cool!" Killer Jules weiß, daß er seinen Opfern noch ein Stück Lebensphilosophie schuldig ist, bevor er sie umlegt. Partner Vince trumpft dagegen mit vermeintlicher Weltgewandtheit auf: "In Paris nennen sie den Quarter Pounder Royal mit Käse - wegen des metrischen Systems."Mit grotesken Dialogen wie diesen konterkariert Regisseur, Autor und Nebendarsteller Quentin Tarantino einige Szenen von extremer Brutalität. Gleichzeitig entfaltet er eine brillante Story, die die herkömmlichen Erzählstrukturen des Kinos sprengen. Wo sich andere Filme mit eindimensionalen Action-Orgien begnügen, springt Tarantino virtuos zwischen verschiedenen Schauplätzen, Zeiten und Handlungen hin und her, um endlich den Bogen zu schließen und die losen Handlungsstränge zu einem großen Ganzen zusammen- zufügen. Für das Gangsterfilm-Genre kam das 1994 einer Revolution gleich, die inzwischen unzählige Kopisten gefunden hat.

TV Spielfilm

Auszeichnungen

1995 Academy Award (Best Screenplay directly for the Screen) Roger Avary & Quentin Tarantino
1995 Nominierung Academy Award (Best Actor) John Travolta
1995 Nominierung Academy Award (Best Director) Quentin Tarantino
1995 Nominierung Academy Award (Best Film Editing) Sally Menke
1995 Nominierung Academy Award (Best Picture) Lawrence Bender
1995 Nominierung Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor) Samuel L. Jackson
1995 Nominierung Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress) Uma Thurman
1994 Boston Society of Film Critics Award (Best Film)
1994 Cannes Film Festival (Golden Palm) Quentin Tarantino
1995 Golden Globes (Best Screenplay - Motion Picture) Quentin Tarantino
1995 Nominierung Golden Globe (Best Director - Motion Picture) Quentin Tarantino
1995 Nominierung Golden Globe (Best Motion Picture - Drama)
1995 Nominierung Golden Globe (Best Performance Actor - Motion Picture - Drama) John Travolta
1995 Nominierung Golden Globe (Best Perform. Supporting Actor - Motion Picture) Samuel L. Jackson
1995 Nominierung Golden Globe (Best Perform. Supporting Actress - Motion Picture) Uma Thurman
1995 Independent Spirit Award (Best Director) Quentin Tarantino
1995 Independent Spirit Award (Best Feature) Lawrence Bender
1995 Independent Spirit Award (Best Male Lead) Samuel L. Jackson
1995 Independent Spirit Award (Best Screenplay) Roger Avary & Quentin Tarantino
1995 Nominierung Independent Spirit Award (Best Supporting Male) Eric Stoltz
1994 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (Best Actor) John Travolta
1994 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (Best Director) Quentin Tarantino
1994 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (Best Picture)
1994 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (Best Screenplay) Roger Avary & Quentin Tarantino
1995 MTV Movie (Best Dance Sequence) Uma Thurman & John Travolta
1995 MTV Movie (Best Movie)
1994 National Board of Review Award (Best Director) Quentin Tarantino
1994 National Board of Review Award (Best Picture)
1994 National Society of Film Critics Award (Best Director) Quentin Tarantino
1994 National Society of Film Critics Award (Best Film)
1994 National Society of Film Critics Award (Best Screenplay) Quentin Tarantino
1994 New York Film Critics Circle Award (Best Director) Quentin Tarantino
1994 New York Film Critics Circle Award (Best Screenplay) Roger Avary & Quentin Tarantino
1995 Nominierung Screen Actors Guild Award (Best Supporting Actress) Uma Thurman
1995 Nominierung Screen Actors Guild Award (Best Actor) John Travolta
1995 Nominierung Screen Actors Guild Award (Best Supporting Actor) Samuel L. Jackson
1994 Stockholm Film Festival (Best Actor) John Travolta
1994 Stockholm Film Festival (Best Screenplay) Quentin Tarantino
1994 Stockholm Film Festival (Bronze Horse)

Triva

• John Travolta first met Quentin Tarantino to discuss his part in the film at Tarantino's L.A. apartment. It was the same apartment in which Travolta once lived as a struggling Hollywood newcomer.
• Quentin Tarantino hesitated over the choice between the character he was going to play: Jimmie or Lance. He ended up choosing Jimmie's role because he wanted to be behind the camera in Mia's overdose scene.
• Tarantino originally wrote the role of Jules specifically for Samuel L. Jackson, however it was almost given to Paul Calderon after a great audition. When Jackson heard this, he flew to LA and re-auditioned, getting back the part he was supposed to play. Calderon ended up with a cameo as Paul, the bartender.
• The parts of "Honey Bunny" and "Pumpkin" were written specifically for Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth.
• Jules' character was originally written to have a gigantic afro, but a crewmember obtained a variety of gerry-curled wigs instead, apparently unaware of the difference. The production schedule did not permit correcting the mistake.
• Quentin Tarantino wrote two of the three stories before he wrote Reservoir Dogs (1992) and True Romance (1993). After the success of those films, he decided to write a third story, intending to have each segment directed by a different person.
• The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia's chest was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards.
• Steven Martinez (brother of chief graphic designer, Gerald Martinez) is credited under "Very Special Thanks" and painted the portrait of Mia (Uma Thurman) that hangs in Marcellus' house.
• When Captain Koons visits the young Butch to give him his father's watch, his recollections refer to an airman named "Wynocki" who transports the watch back to safety. "Wynocki" is the name of John Garfield's character in Howard Hawks' film Air Force (1943). Hawks is one of Tarantino's favorite directors.
• After Butch kills Maynard, Marsellus Wallace says that he's going to call some friends "to go to work on [Zed] with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch." In Charley Varrick (1973), a character named Maynard warns a bank manager that some mobsters "will go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch."
• Wilson is the name of the fighter to whom Butch is instructed to lose. Wilson was also the name of the fighter against whom Terry Malloy took a dive in On the Waterfront (1954).
• The marquee where Butch boxes advertises the following fights: "Coolidge vs Wilson" and "Vossler vs Martinez". The first is a reference to United States Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson, the second is a reference to Russell Vossler and Jerry Martinez, who are two friends of Tarantino's from when he worked in a video store. See also Crimson Tide (1995).
• The book that Vincent reads is "Modesty Blaise", by Peter O'Donnell. In that book, a killer indulges in a Biblical rant very similar to that of Samuel L. Jackson's character.
• When Vincent calls Lance on his cell phone, Lance is eating a bowl of Fruit Brute, a cereal from the older moster cereal family. Fruit Brute (which, along with Frankenberry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula, make up the monster cereals) was the first of the type to be discontinued. Quentin Tarantino has held onto a box and drops it into scenes from time to time. It appeared in Reservoir Dogs (1992), too.
• Producer Danny De Vito starred in Twins (1988), whose main characters were Vincent and Julius - almost the same as Vincent and Jules in this movie.
• Mia calls Vincent "cowboy" - John Travolta starred in Urban Cowboy (1980). Vincent calls Mia "cowgirl" in return; Uma Thurman starred in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993).
• The Big Kahuna burger was also eaten in the movie From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and first appeared in Reservoir Dogs (1992).
• Knoxville, Tennessee, where Butch was meeting his connection and where his great-grandfather bought the gold watch from born, is also Quentin Tarantino's birthplace.
• The innocent bystander shot by Marsellus Wallace is the same actor pulled out of her car by Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs (1992).
• Mia asks Vincent "Can you dig it? I knew that you could" - a dialogue reference to Saturday Night Fever (1977).
• When Butch is approaching his apartment, there is an advertisement for Jack Rabbit Slim's on the radio. An ad for "Jack Rabbit Slim's" can also be heard during the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs (1992).
• Butch smokes "Red Apple" cigarettes. The same brand is smoked by Tim Roth's character in Four Rooms (1995).
• Fabienne says, "Any time of day is a good time for pie." Alabama also says this in True Romance (1993), also written by Quentin Tarantino.
• Harvey Keitel's character in this movie has the same specialized job as his character in "Point Of No Return (1993)".
• In a cut scene Vincent tells Mia he's been fantasizing about being beaten up by Emma Peel of the Avengers. In 1998 Uma Thurman starred as Emma Peel in the movie Avengers, The (1998).
• John Travolta's character, "Vince Vega", is the brother of "Vic Vega", aka "Mr. Blonde" from Reservoir Dogs (1992).
• When Butch goes through the alley, the radio says that the dancing trophy from Jack Rabbit Slim's had been stolen. So you might think that Mia and Vincent did not win, but in fact stole the trophy to make it look like they had won. But the trophy they take home is not the same as the one we see in the diner (see Goofs).
• Speculation abounds as to the nature of the mysterious glowing contents of the case:
• Could it be Elvis' gold suit, seen worn by Val Kilmer (as Elvis) in True Romance (1993)?
• The most persistent theory, though, (most usually attributed to a friend of a friend who saw it posted on a message board by someone whose brother had read a report of a radio interview with Tarantino himself) is that it is Marcellus Wallace's soul. It is an ancient belief that when the Devil takes a person's soul, it is removed through the back of the head. When we see the back of Marcellus' head he has a Band-Aid covering the precise spot indicated by tradition for soul removal. Perhaps Marcellus sold his soul to the devil which would also explain why the combination to open the briefcase is 666.
• Mia Wallace's comment "An Elvis man should love this" is a reference to an earlier cut scene where Mia claims that everyone can be classified as either an "Elvis" person or a "Beatles" person. She bets Vincent that he is an "Elvis", and he confirms it.
• When Vincent and Lance are attempting to give Mia the adrenaline injection, the board games "Operation" and "Life" are visible in the background.
• Jimmy (Tarantino) is wearing a t-shirt bearing the logo of "Orbit", a local alternative newspaper in Metro Detroit, for which Tarantino did an interview when he was promoting Reservoir Dogs (1992). See also the WWW-links section.
• The word "fuck" is used 271 times.
• The show on the television behind young Butch is "Clutch Cargo" (1959).
• In real life, Vincent Vega's 1964 Chevelle Malibu convertible belongs to Quentin Tarantino.
• In the edited-for-television version of the film, extreme measures are taken to erase all evidence of "the Gimp." All mentions of him and all his scenes are deleted. In one scene with Zed talking, where in the original film a small portion of the Gimp's shoulder is visible the bottom right corner of the screen, the television version removes it by zooming in on Zed a bit more.
• During the scene where Bruce Willis is drying himself off after the shower, the TV version digitally stretches his towel so it covers him up.
• There was originally going to be footage of the Three Stooges playing on the TV in the background in the scene in which Vincent (Travolta) is trying to restart Mia (Thurman)'s heart. Unfortunately Tarantino, who is a big Three Stooges fan, could not get the rights for the footage.
• In the opening sequence with Honey Bunny and Pumpkin, Jules can be heard talking about quitting "the life".
• Every time Vincent goes to the bathroom, something "bad" happens.
• You can see Vincent entering the bathroom at the beginning of the film, when Pumpkin and Honey Bunny are talking about robbery.
• Cameo: [Lawrence Bender] film's producer is one of the long-haired yuppies at the coffee shop.
• Cameo: [Steve Buscemi] as Buddy Holly in Jack Rabbit Slim's. However, as Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs, he refused to tip waitresses.
• A scene removed from the final film involves Jules trying to consider what to do while Pumpkin and Honey Bunny rob the diner. In the scene, Jules points his gun at the bottom of the table and fires up twice, hitting Pumpkin and killing him. He then spins around and shoots Honey Bunny three times, killing her. As she falls her gun goes off and hits the Long Haired Yuppie Scum, who dies screaming on the floor. The scene then cuts back to Jules talking to Pumpkin in the diner, revealing the shootings to have happened entirely in Jules' mind.
• The band-aid on Marcellus Wallace's neck was there because actor Ving Rhames had a scar there that the makeup people felt wound be too distracting during that scene.
• The cab driver, Esmeralda Villalobos (Angela Jones) appeared in a 30 minute short called 'Curdled' in which she played a character who cleaned up after murders. This makes her fascinated by the idea of murder. Tarantino saw this film and decided to include this character in Pulp Fiction but as a cabdriver.
• When Butch goes to leave the pawn shop after freeing himself, he pauses for a moment - He can either go to Tennessee and collect his money, or go back and help Marcellus. Near where he pauses are a Tennessee license plate and a neon sign for "Killian's Red" on a shelf. The only letters that are still lit spell "Kill ed". We are then shown a shot of Zed's keyring with the "Z" trinket: we are left with the subliminal message "Kill Zed", which is exactly what Butch proceeds to do.