Pulp Fiction (1994)
10/10
The one that opens the door for any others
10 January 2007
Many say this movie is overrated, many hate this movie very much, and many walk out of cinema before it's even finished. But, like it or not, Pulp Fiction opens the door for other movies that contains one or more of its formulas to either be enjoyable, or have higher rating, or be looked cool, or even be popular.

Those formulas are: (I cannot mention all of them)

1) Short Stories Plots. Pulp Fiction is just like a book that contains short stories where each has their own plot. All the stories are connected one to another by the similarity of characters and incidents. There are stories of a couple who wanted to rob a restaurant, a gangster's wife and a hit-man's trip, two hit men's silly experience, and a runaway boxer hunted by gangster. They all happens around the gangster's environment. The time line of those stories doesn't have to be time wise, which means the story that happens first doesn't have to be the first to be told.

Maybe Pulp Fiction is not the first movie, but later, many movie uses this kind of plot and become successful. There are Amores Perros, Babel, Antares, Sin City, Kill Bill, Intermission, The Dead Girl, Berbagi Suami, and many others with their own variation. Later, one of the variations called 'post-modern plot'. Maybe they don't have any intention to use the same formula or they doesn't even inspired by Pulp Fiction, for example, Chungking Express launched a little bit sooner than Pulp Fiction. But, it is Pulp Fiction who opens the door for them, it makes easier for others to be enjoyable.

2)Many stories with different Point of View. In each of its stories, Pulp Fiction has a point of view of the third person (audience) that follows the main character. This kind of formula was already popular in the novel, long time before Pulp Fiction, Jeffrey Archer and even Sydney Sheldon wrote this kind of point of view. After Pulp Fiction, many popular movies use the same formula successfully, like The Hours, Crash, 21 grams, Syriana, Traffic, and many others including those're mentioned before. Again, Pulp Fiction just opens the door.

3)Satire to violence. Pulp Fiction is a satire to violence. Quentin Tarantino has always been making satire to violence movies, even sooner when he wrote True Romance a year before. He always makes violence look funny in a dark way, to some people who can enjoy it. After Pulp Fiction, there are movies like Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Cidade de Seus, Brick, Shawn of the Dead, Desperado, etc.

4)Independent Spirit. It is true that Stanley Kubrick has made indie movie long long time before Pulp Fiction. But, Independent Movies have never looked that cool before Pulp Fiction, and later, all the Kubrick's are looked even cooler than before.

I love Pulp Fiction. Even it might not be my number 1 movie, but I have a great great respect and appreciation for it.
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