Pulp Fiction: 30 Years Apart

I had no business buying Tarantino films thirty years ago. Pulp Fiction was my second Tarantino film. The first was Reservoir Dogs. Tonight I rewatched Pulp Fiction and I was struck by how tightly it played. He’s always been strong with dialogue.

When I first watched this film I just thought all of the characters were cool. It was partly the music, and partly because it was pulp Hollywood.

Tonight I appreciated it for its originality, but thirty years apart you see things differently. The first viewing - an odyssey of characters interconnected through a cool city. Tonight, snappy dialogue and a lot of chaos.

Ironically, I thought Christopher Walken’s character was weird the first go. I now think he’s the only normal character in the whole film.

Rapid thoughts not fleshed out:

• He got that adrenaline shot directly into her heart on the first go and she didn’t end up in the ER?

• Perfect monologues on life delivered by a group of people in the span of 24 hours - I’ve never seen that happen.

• Uma Thurman walking into a restaurant with a lit cigarette to order a burger. Oh, the 1900’s.

• Bruce Willis, wow.