This movie is one of my all-time favourites and I feel like a lot of people would agree with me on this. I can’t pinpoint on even a single aspect of this film that doesn’t work beautifully, whether it’s Uma Thurman, John Travolta and Samuel Jackson’s charismatic performances, Tarantino’s masterfully blood stained direction or the hilarious yet puzzle-like unstructured script of the movie. In general, the film is about American nihilism. More specifically, it is about the transformation of two characters: Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Butch (Bruce Willis). In the beginning of the film, Vincent (John Travolta) has returned from a stay in Amsterdam, and the content of the conversation between Jules and Vincent concerns what Big Macs and Quarter Pounders are called in Europe. Characters seem to try to make sense of their lives through transient, pop-cultural symbols and icons.
This pop iconography comes to a real head when Vincent and Mia visit Jack Rabbit Slim’s, where the host is Ed Sullivan, the singer is Ricky Nelson and amongst the waitresses are Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield and so is born one of the best dance sequences in the entire history of modern cinema. There’s something about the way the dance scene has been captured that involves the audience so intensely that one either feels like they’re witnessing the performance live in the diner, or they themselves are tapping their heels with Uma Thurman and Travolta.
Maneuvering around the point to deepen the meaning of a scene, within his dialogue Tarantino maps an outline for characters who later surprise us. Almost every scene begins with an idle conversation that slowly reveals characters whose true natures would never have been guessed based on their initial exchange.
One of the main symbols in the films comes from one of the confessions made by Jules where he admits to not finding any true meaning in the versus he actually recites before killing someone. He says he just does it to intimidate them. The point is that the passage refers to a system of values and meaning by which one could lead one’s life and make moral decisions since Jules doesn’t seem to have a set value system, it renders this passage meaningless. A lot of people can probably relate to this feeling as it is relevant in most of our lives which are blindly led by the religion forced upon us by our family and community at such an early age.
The absence of any kind of foundation for making value judgments, the lack of a larger meaning to their lives, creates a kind of vacuum in their existence which is filled with power. With no other criteria available to them by which to order their lives, they fall into a hierarchy of power, with Marsellus Wallace at the top and themselves as henchmen at his service. This mindless power system has such a huge impact on their lives that slowly they’re wired to give importance to things solely because Wallace has asked them to or himself chooses to. This can be epitomized with the example of the briefcase, which Wallace has asked to return to him and the contents of which remain a mystery, all that is revealed to Vincent and Jules is everyone’s reaction to what was inside the case. It was despite their total cluelessness in this regard that they’re ready to justify any action in order to procure it for Marsellus. It is the absence of this structured framework and value system that prevents them from actually examining the contents and then deciding whether it is worth fighting over or not. This entire theme of nihilism can be contrasted with religion if we water it down and look at it from a real-world perspective.
Besides, the symbolism I personally absolutely enjoy the violence and shooting scenes in the film. They’re a delight and are very well captured. The meticulous use of sound, drama, spontaneity, and humour in each of the action scenes is commendable. It too has a hint of nihilism in a way, given the number of seconds actually given to the shooting or death of a person is rather low and most of Jule’s monologues or dialogues before the execution scenes add humor to each killing. Not to forget the iconic, “I dare you, I double dare you” dialogue.
All in all, I feel that the movie truly deserves the fame and appreciation it has received over the years and has forever set a benchmark in the action-comedy genre.
