media

1. PulpFiction
Lydia Cooke
Pulp Fiction is a popular Action Thriller movie,starring John Travolta, Bruce Willis,
Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and many more famous actors. The film was
publishedin 1994, directed by the famous Quentin Tarantino and was a huge hit
with the public; it’s non - linearstoryline left the audience’s mind scrambled. With
differentstorylines about differentcharacters, its popularity still grows to this
day.
As I watched the film,it was hard to piece each scene in the correct order. With the filmsnon –
linear theme running throughout it took a lot of concentration to figure out what scene came
first. It isextremely unconventional for an Action Thriller to be non – linear, and not have a clear
narrative structure. Other famous Action Thrillers such as Leon and Scarface have a very clear
linear structure including all of these sections; exposition,inciting incident, rising action, climax,
fallingaction and finallythe denouement. However this filmbreaks the rules of a conventional
Action Thriller movie,and succeeds at it. The filmjumps from scene to scene, each scene being
about a completely differentcharacters life.We don’t know who these characters are, and we
don’t know how they are all related to one-another.
One example of this non-lineartheme is when we see Bruce Willischaracter on the hunt to
collect his watch from his apartment knowing that Jon Travolta’s character is waiting
somewhere in his apartment to assassinate him. However Butch (Bruce Willis) see’sVincent
(John Travolta) gun lay down on the kitchen table. Butch then hears the toiletchain flush;
watches Vincent walk out and shoot Vincent clean dead. Then as this scene ends, a new scene
begins were Vincent is alive and hasn’t been shot yet by Butch. This is just one example of this
filmsnon-linear structure. This must confuse the audience as surely the question they would be
asking themselveswould be ‘How is Vincent now alive?’‘Has the shooting from Butch not
happened yet in this part of the film?’so by the film’s narrative structure beingso
unconventional, it creates tons of enigma codes leftfor the audience to try and find an answer
to.
A particular scene with John Travolta and Uma Thurman that was interestingwas when they
were sat in the car together, very cosy watching an outside screen movie.Straight away the
audience begin to make a connection to a scene in the filmGrease, which John Travolta was the
star of, also this was his peak time of fame when Grease was realised as it was such a successful
filmwith the public. The intertextualityof this scene in Pulp Fiction is very clear when the scene
starts. The position of the two characters sat in the car also is the same position the characters
sit in Grease. John Travolta is also wearing a similar outfit to the one he wears in Grease, which
also makes that connection of intertextuality. Another example of intertextualityand post
modernism withinthis filmwould be the scene wear both again John Travolta and Uma
Thurman are dancing in a restaurant in a very old fashioned, recognised way. This scene almost
re – creates the scene in Saturday Night Fever the movie,another filmthat John Travolta was
known for starring in. This again made audience recognise what it’s trying to relate to. I think
also the scene with Travolta and Thurman dancing could also be classed by the audience as a
parody of Saturday Night Fever. As both characters can’t really dance
in this scene, and the way they are dancing is in a fun, humorous way.
This reallycontrasts to Saturday Night Fever as Travolta was always
known to be a good, professional dancer and was always recognised
for this, as he always did a lot of dancing in Grease.

2. This filmalso presents to the audience iconography, through what the characters wore, and
what they related to and reminded the audience the connection between the films,such as the
car scene as you can see on the left. John Travolta’s character in both films wears very similar
costumes. This is so the audience can make that connection of the two films easily.Both
costumes are black and white,In grease Travolta’s character wears a black leather jacket, white
tight t shirt, and his hair slick back. However Pulp Fictions character that Travolta plays wears a
black and white suit, his hair is a lot longer and sometimes looks a bit wild.This really letsus
know the time both filmswere created, as Travolta’s look in Grease was very popular back then,
especiallythe leather jacket. However it really clashes with the modernism of Pulp Fiction as
Travolta’s style in this particular scene is quite smart, and on trend. The audience easilycan
make this connection as they instantly remember Travolta’s character in Grease as he was
highly popular.
In conclusion, Tarantino really went against the conventional linear of an Action/Thriller movie,
which his unusual structure of the films scenes on a whole.However really succeeds at this as
the film has beena huge hit to this present day. Tarantino creates lots of enigma codes
throughout the filmfor the audience the keep interestedand intrigued. The filmswith holds lots
of examples of intertextualityand post modernism throughout which gets the audience thinking
about previous films certain actors have been successful in. The iconography presented makes
the audience look at the costumes, and settings of this characters and the film. This film makes
the audience respond in a positive way, and this is what makes Tarantino’s hit filmPulp Fiction,
still a hit to this present day.