Perspectives: Pulp Fiction and Postmodernism

This review will analyze the factors that make the film Pulp Fiction a postmodern film. Directed and written by Quentin Tarantino. The main reference sources will be John McAteer’s
Three Stories about One Story: Postmodernism and the Narrative Structure of Pulp Fiction, Vikram Murthi’s The Eyes Behind the Mask: “Pulp Fiction” and Postmodernity 20 Years Later, and Sabina Easmin’s Film and Postmodern Culture. This will explain, how at any moment of the film there is something that backs up its postmodernity.

Figure 1

Pulp fiction carries a schizophrenic, yet at the same time relatable air, by showing mundane situations or conversation, followed by a clashing of not so mundane scenarios. I.e. the first scene leading from Vincent and Jules talking about Europe and foot massages, leading into a violent confrontation during breakfast. (see Fig.1)

“Postmodern cinema is characterized by disjointed narratives, a dark view of the human condition, images of chaos and random violence, death of the hero” (Easmin, 2014) The way Sabina Easmin notes the possible postmodern characteristic, precisely fits several quirks of Pulp Fiction. The film follows the stories of a number of characters, whose storylines intertwine, but in a broken up timeline. Moreover its focused around the stories of violent roles such as hitmen, boxers, gangsters, and robbers, which ultimately lead to gruesome and unnecessarily violent visualizations, as well as a just as violent death of a hero, although the idea of hero here would be wildly interpretable. Tarantino does not shy away from depictions of death and gore. (see Fig. 2)

Figure 2

Its ambiguity is another of its key factors of postmodernism. “Right from the opening title, the film emphasizes the multiplicity of possible meanings, and it ends with a discussion of an ambiguous event that may or may not have been a miracle.”(McAteer, 2015) All throughout the film its established that the interpretation of any situation depends on the person as well as the knowledge of the narrative. Jules insists on the incident in the first scene, where they didn’t get shot by the man hiding in the bathroom, to be a miracle, while Vincent likes to think it's a lucky coincidence. This also ties in postmodernism's fashion of often being blasphemous, as the theme of religion repeats throughout the film.

John McAteer explains, “postmodernism rejects the existence of an autonomous self and the ability of the artist to impose absolute meaning. Postmodernism aims to deconstruct itself, revealing itself to be just another construction.” (McAteer, 2015) That is unlike modernism, which focuses on the purity of the medium itself as an art form. McAteer continues to exemplify, that the films most cited and influential postmodern elements are its self-awareness and irony when using pop-culture references. “This sort of technique is associated with many terms in academic jargon: pastiche, homage, intertextuality, bricolage, metafiction, etc.” (McAteer, 2015)

The film is filled with recognizable political, pop-culture and historical references and symbols that are taken out and isolated from their actual historical context. “It’s a pastiche of various cinematic modes—film noir, B-movies, samurai films, Blaxploitation—coupled with a disregard for coherent historicity” (Murthi, 2014) Vikram Murthi points out the scene in Jack Rabbit Slim’s diner, which is filled with ’50s iconography, followed up by the ’60s pop music and topping off with the ’70s “cool”, that the characters hold. (see Fig.3) These normalized absurdities and playing with cliches is one of the defining factors of Tarantino’s worlds. “They all take place in a world Tarantino supposedly calls the “movie-movie world.””(McAteer, 2015)

Figure 3

In conclusion, Pulp Fiction embodies postmodern qualities not only with its unconventional narrative and storyline progression, but also with complex yet seamless pastiches, weaving in pop-culture and history, without dwelling on their context. The film covers controversial topics of religion and race, without dwelling on the controversy with no sense of consequence.



Bibliography:

Easmin, S. (2014) Film and Postmodern Culture [M.S. Dissertation] BRAC University. At: http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10361/3944/12163011.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Accessed on 5 October 2019)
Murthi, V (2014) At: http://moviemezzanine.com/the-eyes-behind-the-mask-pulp-fiction-and-postmodernity-20-years-later/ (Accessed on 5 October 2019)
McAteer, J. (2015)
Three Stories about One Story:Postmodernism and the NarrativeStructure of
Pulp Fiction. At:https://www.academia.edu/8365999/Three_Stories_About_One_Story_Postmodernism_and_the_Narrative_Structure_of_Pulp_Fiction_ (Accessed on 5 October 2019)

Illustration List:

Figure 1. Double dare scene. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvEik9N_xWI
Figure 2. Vincent Vega death scene. At: https://imgur.com/gallery/jJVMx/comment/73643799
Figure 3. Jack Rabbit Slims diner. At: http://movielistmania.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-is-jack-rabbit-slims-pulp-fiction.html