This year marks the 30th anniversary of Quentin Tarantino's cult film Pulp Fiction. Over the course of these three decades, it not only established itself in the list of the most outstanding films of our time, but also became an integral part of pop culture, which is quoted, analyzed and discussed to this day. One of the most memorable scenes in the film is the dance between Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) at a dance competition at Jack Rabbit Slim's restaurant. It still causes many interpretations and questions about its deep meaning.
To the 30th anniversary of the cult "Pulp Fiction", let's find out why Quentin Tarantino's second film is still considered his best work? "Pulp fiction" is in the top 10 of the IMBD rating, on Rotten Tomatoes critics give the film 92%, viewers - 96%. And everyone admits that the most unusual scene for an action movie is the famous dance between Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman). However, many claim that this is an "insert" episode — for originality. The focus will prove that there is nothing accidental here - this is the key scene of the film, where the director gave his characters the last chance to change.
Tarantino is a postmodernist. The guy worked in a video studio and started making movies after watching American, European and Asian movies. He took lessons from outstanding directors. For example, the six novellas are not in chronological order, as in the French classics of Jean-Luc Gadard and Francois Truffaut. The range of genres used by Tarantino is extremely wide: from westerns to torture porn. It seemed that such a mess should lead to the fact that the picture will fall apart. But what keeps it all?
Tarantino chips
- First, virtuosic dialogues seem to be "about nothing": about food, drink, pop culture. These dialogues, unlike the plot life of the characters, are real. Quentin himself loves to analyze the subject of these conversations. When he puts these thoughts into the mouths of gangsters or boxers, the words acquire special significance, losing their "common-law" origin. The "small truth" gives meaning to the "big one": the gangsters' conversation about the different readings of the name of hamburgers in the US and in Paris becomes important when played before a deadly case or at gunpoint. And it brings the viewer closer to the criminal heroes on the screen - because in such everyday things, everyone intersects. This technique was later used in their films by other directors, for example, Guy Ritchie in the film "Cards, Money, Two Barrels" (1998) or Martin McDonagh in "Lie Down in Bruges" (2008).
- Secondly, Tarantino skillfully creates an intrigue: events change one another rapidly. For example, when the gangsters in the director's first film "Mad Dogs" could not figure out who among them was a police agent - the suspicion shifted from one to another every minute.
- Thirdly, the weapons in Quentin Tarantino's films are just hell, the scriptwriter is on the verge of death: it constantly adds tension and sharpness even where you least expect it - like Vincent's accidental shot in the head of a henchman in a car. Tarantino's Chekhov's gun has not just been removed from the wall for a long time, it is constantly being fired from.
- Fourthly, and this is probably the most important thing, having made a cool tangle of storylines, Tarantino, albeit with sarcastic movie quotes, arranges convincing metamorphoses with the characters on the screen - it makes an incredible impression.
- And fifthly, surprisingly, Tarantino's author's plot is such that each of the characters gets what they deserve, as if by fate.
At the beginning of the film, a couple of small-time robbers Ringo (Tim Roth) and Yolanda (Amanda Plummer) decide to "shake up" the visitors of the cafe over a cup of coffee in a roadside tavern. Deciding, they pull out their pistols: at this point in the tape, the opening credits begin - the intrigue has begun. Then two gangsters appear, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson). But we will not retell the plot - everyone knows it. Let's go straight to the dance to answer why this is the key episode of the tape.
Twist
The novel about Vincent Vega and the mobster's wife Mia (Uma Thurman) begins with Vincent stopping by to pick up the boss's wife. She is an actress who did not gain recognition (starred in the pilot of the series, which was rejected), married a mobster out of desperation, which she herself told in the restaurant. Vincent is an extremely useless killer. We understand this after analyzing his actions: he is aggressive, intemperate, short-sighted and makes a lot of mistakes: he accidentally killed a henchman in a car; rudely insults the boxer Butch, provoking the future conflict between the boxer and the mafia; stupidly dies on the toilet while reading a comic because he left a machine gun in the ambush apartment on the stove. Even heroin was not sold to him in "balls", because of which Mia got an overdose, thinking that it was cocaine. On the good side: he saved Mia by injecting adrenaline into the heart. But, it is clear that if the boss's wife died, Vincent would also be in trouble.
At a dance twist contest in a restaurant (by the way, "twist" in film parlance is an unexpected move) — Vincent and Mia suddenly find themselves. Why?
Mia dances professionally, although she did not become a movie star. And Vega - it suddenly turns out - is an excellent dancer. Who, of course, is John Travolta himself, the star of the musicals Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Briolin (1978). He even walks in an action figure, dancing gracefully.
Finally, they do what they do best, breaking the well-deserved ovation from the audience, and bring home the trophy for the number. But, as the Chuck Berry hit song they danced to, You Never Can Tell, says: Mia will soon almost die of an overdose, and Vincent Vega will. However, Vincent could have survived if he had paid attention to the signs of fate.
Lessons of fate
The robbers Yolanda and Ringo were insolent, but ran into a criminal "big man" and barely escaped alive. This shock will give them a chance to assess the risks of such a lifestyle. Are they made for this?
Gangster Jules, perceiving the passage of bullets past him as a miracle of God, follows this sign of fate from crime - to a much brighter future than he had.
Jules asked the guys who took the diplomat with the money from his boss: “Is Marcellas Wallace a bitch? Did you want to trick him? No, he has everyone here." But the pervert Zed raped the boss of the mafia, the one who "had them all". However, fate in the person of Butch gives the mobster the opportunity to execute the rapist.
Boxer Butch (Bruce Willis), having accomplished his exploits and proved that he is a real fighter, escapes on the motorcycle of the murdered pervert Zed with a kush, a beauty and a father's watch on his hand. The mafia boss promised to forget him. Butch is the biggest winner in the movie.
Vincent Vega, who is deaf and blind to the signs of fate (although he gave a brilliant definition of God's miracle in the coffee shop: "When the impossible becomes possible"), dies in the most senseless way, because he is engaged in a business for which he is not suitable.
Quentin leaves the further fate of Mia in doubt: the choice of the girl. But the cup for dancing, which is at home, may remind her that it is time to return to the career of an actress.
You will laugh, but who will say after this that Tarantino is not a moral director? The formula of "Pulp Fiction": active heroes are tested by fate, which sends signs - to each according to his merits.
