Getting Over the Timeline

I think it is safe to say that for the most part, people enjoy watching movies.  In the duration of a film, we laugh, we cry, we scream, or we sigh as we experience a variety of emotions.

Basically, we react.

We react to the plot, to the dialogue, to the characters, to all parts of the film so meticulously crafted by the director.  But reactions are unpredictable, meaning that the way we react to something once is not necessarily how we will react the second time around.

I am a firm believer that it is important, if not crucial, to watch movies again and again to experience the different reactions each viewing brings.

Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) is a film that evokes a different reaction each viewing.  The movie depicts the lives of four individuals whose paths cross at various points in time.  The film is shot out of chronological order, introducing first a couple planning their robbery of a restaurant they are eating at.  At the height of the action of this robbery, the film stops to introduce two hitmen on an assignment.  After completing the job, one of the hitman, Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta), takes his boss's wife, Mia Wallace (played by Uma Thurman), on a date.  Next the film proceeds to introduce another set of characters: a boxer named Butch (played by Bruce Willis) and he and his girlfriend's escapades after Willis' character kills his opponent in the ring.

(Obviously there is a lot of action between these changes in scene, but I don't want to give away too many spoilers.)

These events are presented as chapters, indicating that it is not the big picture that matters, rather the individual stories themselves.  It is up to the viewer to put the puzzle pieces together, a task we are often too lazy to do and instead deem the movie "too confusing."

To the lazy viewers, note that I agree with you.  The transitions between chapters are as confusing as they sound when watching the movie for the first time.  The effort involved trying to keep up with the plot itself leaves little room to pick up on the details that make it such an engaging film.

But after watching the movie for a second, or even third time, we are no longer forced to focus so much on the confusion that erupts from the lack of sequence.  Instead we notice things such as the character growth demonstrated by Jules, as he decides he wants to quit his life as a gangster. Similarly, we are able to understand the symbolism of Mia and Vincent's date in a diner based off 50's pop culture.

Perhaps most entertainingly, we pick up the stylistics elements that only a Tarantino film can have, whether that be the exaggerated violence (because is it really a Tarantino movie if there isn't blood and guts galore), the classic worm's eye view shot, or even Tarantino's own cameo.

Fun Fact: Director Quentin Tarantino has been known to use this shot in most of his movies.

All of the things that distinguish Pulp Fiction are easily lost as we attempt to place all the scenes on a timeline.  However, after watching the movie more than once, we pick up on the little details that make this film what it is:  funny, riveting, and even insightful about human emotions and behavior.