Ezekiel 25:17 The path of the righteous man (Pulp Fiction (DVD))

Member Name: 666disturbed

Product:	Pulp Fiction (DVD)
Date:	14/08/02 (10275 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See op

Disadvantages: Not one for yer granny

WARNING !! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS LOTS & LOTS OF *SPOILERS* DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE FILM IS ABOUT !!!!
Ammended 15/08/02
However, if you've seen it but are a little confused about "the plot", this could be a very useful review to you !
:O) The disturbed one



Back with a film review, because I haven’t finished reading my damn book yet !
I know this is an oldie now, (not as old as the last one I reviewed), but it is in my top 10 of most favourite things ever to grace a Cathode Ray Tube.

Quentin Tarantino produced this movie following the success of Reservoir Dogs, he is quoted as saying “This is the only damn film I ever really wanted to make, and the reason I got into the industry”.
I’m sure glad he did make it, it is a truly mesmerising piece of cinema and a credit to a guy who used to work in a video shop for a couple-o-bucks an hour.

The film opens with a young couple in a restaurant discussing there last heist, “it was a really good idea taking peoples wallets in that last robbery, we made more from the wallets than we did from the cash register”. So they decide to rob the restaurant there currently in. For an opening scene before the credits even roll you know you’re in for something special. The parts of the robbers are played brilliantly by Tim Roth and Rosanna Arquette.

The film opens with part one of the story, there are three parts in all which intertwine wonderfully with each other to create the soup that is Pulp Fiction.

Part 1
Vincent Vega & Mia Wallace

Vincent and Jules, (John Travolta & Samuel L Jackson), are two mobsters that work for Marcellus Wallace, we meet them having detailed conversations about what Quarter Pounders with cheese are called in continental Europe. They seem relaxed and the viewer has no idea they are on the way to a hit.
The main topic of conversat
ion is Marcellus’s wife, Mia (Uma Thurman). Vincent has been asked by Marcellus, (Ving Rhames), to take Mia out for an evening as he isn’t around to look after her.
The problem is that it is rumoured that Tony Rocky Horror was thrown out of a 4th story window by Marcellus for giving Mia a foot massage, this worries Vincent greatly and Jules doesn’t help much by telling him it was probably true.
At the Hit, Vincent and Jules take time to evaluate the situation and accost the young men who have “Marcellus’s property” unreturned. All are promptly dispatched by our duo, but not until someone bursts through the kitchen, fires a fully loaded magnum at the pair at point blank range, empties the barrel and misses them both with every shot. After wasting the unlucky guy with the magnum, Jules finds a new spiritual belief, which is profound and rather odd. Meanwhile Vincent gets to go on his date.

Vincent’s date with the gorgeous Mia Wallace goes well right up to the end of the night (eating, dancing and winning a trophy!). After returning to Mia’s place, Vincent goes to the bathroom in an attempt to convince himself not to shag Mia, but merely to go home and “jerk off” as he puts it. Mia is wearing Vincent’s coat and finds a bag of goodies in the pocket, she thinks it’s Charlie but it isn’t, when she shoots it up her nose and a whole disaster promptly follows. Eric Stoltz makes an impressive performance as the whacked out drug dealer that Vincent takes Mia to for a rather shocking cure !

This part of the film alone could have made an entire plot to a good film, however it is only the opening part to this epic. It is worth pointing out at this stage that the film does not run sequentially, in fact the three stories take place at the same time, so if you only see the film once it gets a little confusing, but makes perfect sense after seeing it for a second time.
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br>There is so much more to the first part of the film, I could go on forever, but I won’t (lucky eh?).
The most famous quote of the film comes in part one from Jules, it is “some cold hearted shit” that he says to people before killing them :
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and a 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."
- Jules' version of Ezekiel 25:17

Part 2
The gold watch

Bruce Willis’s finest hour ! I’ve seen Die Hard, I even remember Moonlighting, but this is Bruce’s finest bit of acting as the indefatigable Butch.
Butch has been paid a lot of money by Marcellus to “throw” a boxing match, however, Butch bets all the money on himself and beats his opposition to death. This is much to the annoyance of Marcellus Wallace who vows to track down Butch and “Pop a cap in his ass!”. Butch has very little time to grab his wife and escape. Butch’s wife (Maria de Mediros), is a bit soft to say the least, and as we soon discover a bit forgetful.
After fleeing there apartment and making it to a motel, Butch soon discovers his gold watch is missing, we rapidly discover just how much this little gold watch is worth to him. He throws a tantrum and sets off back to the apartment to find the missing watch, very risky!!!

We see what Butch is thinking on his way to the apartment, it is the story of how he got the watch;
Christopher Walken makes this scene far more enjoyable than it should be, as we see young Butch listening intently to what h
e is being told. We hear how Butch’s dad and Walken we’re captured together in Vietnam and endured years in a POW camp at the brutal hands of the VC, we also hear how Butch’s dad had been given the watch by his dad and his dad etc…… It was Butch’s birthright that he had the watch, so his father hid the watch up his ass for five long years until he died of Dysentery, and how the good Major (Walken), had hid it up his ass for another two years as a promise to Butch’s dad before he died that his son would get his birthright.
I laugh every time I see this scene, it’s just the way it comes across, so damn funny it’s untrue.
Anyway, we see Butch retrieve his precious Gold Watch. I won’t say what else happens in this scene except when the toaster goes pop, so does the sub-machine gun.

Feeling rather chuffed with his retrieval of the watch, Butch is singing in the car, smiling and looking pleased, when he pulls up at a set of traffic lights. In true Pulp Fiction style, Marcellus Wallace just happens to be crossing the road that Butch is stopped at. The resulting scene ends with both men bloodied and battered in a pawnshop. This where the film gets really bizarre as the shop keeper and his friend Zed decide what to do with the two exhausted and bloodied men. If you haven’t seen the film I won’t spoil this bit, if you have, then all I’ve got to say is “Bring out the Gimp”.

The, er, problems between Butch and Marcellus are forgotten as a result of what happens in the pawnshop basement and Butch ends up with a rather nice Chopper for his troubles !


Part 3
The Bonnie Situation

The film flips back to the moment that we last saw Vincent and Jules together as they were re-acquiring Marcellus’s property, it becomes evident that one of the boys at the apartment is also working with Marcellus (Marvin), so Jules & Vincent take him alo
ng with the mysterious suitcase.
In the car driving away from the hit, Vincent is talking to the youngster in the car who is in the back, he turns round with gun in hand, the car hits a pot hole, and Vincent empties the unfortunate Marvins brain all over the car interior, oops !
So the Bonnie situation begins ! Jules reckons he knows this guy where they could get the car off the streets and get cleaned up, he rings Jimmy, (Quentin Tarantino), and asks for his help. At Jimmy’s it is explained with many expletives that Jimmy’s wife, Bonnie, will be home soon and the dead guy in the car had better be gone along with Jules & Vincent.
Jules rings a Marcellus, Marcellus calls the Wolf, (Harvey Keitel), who is a cleaner and a damn good one at that. The following scene is hilarious as the Wolf gets to grips with the situation.

The film concludes where it starts, in a diner with Tim Roth and Rosanna Arquette, the heist is under way and the wallet taxation begins. What the two bandits don’t realise is that Vincent and Jules are in the restaurant. However like I said before, Jules has found a new spiritual belief and the closing scene is almost pure theology and philosophy.
It makes for amazing viewing !
I only wish I was a better writer so I could have done the film more justice !

Released : 10/7/94
Director : Quentin Tarantino

Available on DVD and VHS for varying prices. (I saw a DVD copy for £12 recently at a book shop !)
Running time : 2.29
Certificate : 18

Conclusion – Tarantino’s finest. Not everybody’s cup-of-tea, strong language, violence, male rape, murder, all make for a roller coaster ride of a film. It does however offer so much comedy and thrills that the two and a half hours that the film is on for just fly by !
The film encompasses all the great aspects of the film industry, it deals with so many real issues in a way that only Tarantino could have mad
e work successfully.

That’s all folks !

The Disturbed One :O)

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