Pulp Fiction Essay

 ‘Experimental film is often the result of an auteur challenging established conventions​ with fresh ideas.’ With reference to your chosen film option, how far do you agree​ with this statement? [20]

To make an experimental film, an auteur would often challenge established conventions, such as a linear plot or Hollywood stock characters, in order to subvert the spectator's expectations and, in doing so, criticise the established doctrines of society. In Pulp Fiction, Tarantino interrogates the American ways of patriotism, religion, and its fascination with violence through experimental techniques such as simulacra; symbolising America with its cultural icons across time. By doing this, he employs a contemporary perspectives on outdated ideas in general society and in cinema and, at least theoretically, creates a film that stretches the boundaries of cinema. 

In the diner sequence, Tarantino crafts a bricolage of American cultural iconoclasms and ideals through the contradictions and ironies he presents, bringing fresh ideas to popular symbols and, as such, being experimental. The traditional 1950s diner sees a cultural clash with the 1990s context that Pulp Fiction was created in, the drug-fuelled culture of the 1980s as exhibited in Mia Wallace's heavy cocaine use, and the cinematic inspiration taken from 1960s cinema, most notably with the dancing being a homage to Godard's A Bande A Part. Tarantino finds contradictions within these cultures and places these at the forefront of his character interactions, this time with Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega. Their contradiction comes from the sexual tension between them contrasted with the fact that Vincent is following orders to be there and must refrain from engaging in any sexual activity with Mia, and vice versa. Using simulacra, like the five dollar shake, Tarantino combines the childlike naivety of a very expensive milkshake and the sexual imagery of Mia drinking it, and sharing it with Vincent. However, by framing the sequence through the male perspective of Vincent, the feminist reading that could be made on how these contradictions are faced by the female icons of America, such as Marilyn Monroe who is in the scene, Tarantino is not being experimental but, rather, reinforcing the dominate perspective throughout all of Hollywood. Whilst Tarantino uses this scene to point out contradictions in American society, the scene itself centres on a dance homage to a film from the French New Wave; Tarantino references experimental films and yet does not experiment himself when it comes to this element of Pulp Fiction.

However, Pulp Fiction's key point of experimentalism comes with the irregular narrative structure, editing sequences out of the order in which they originally related to each other. Where the typical Hollywood plot structure, usually fitting into the form of Todorov's equilibrium theory, is what the spectator has come to expect from films, Tarantino requires the spectator to order the sequences themselves during the film. He does this in order to highlight the futility of the violence that is displayed in the film, most notably in the death of Vincent Vega, which takes place in the middle of the film. The character of Vincent is seen from the second scene across to the last scene, despite his death, due to its out-of-order placement. Specifically, this parallels the idea of the American patriot - of a soldier dying for their country and living on afterwards, a plot device comically parodied in a scene where Christopher Walken's character hands Butch a watch from his grandfather and explains the mock-heroic tale of the watch's importance. In a way, Vincent becomes the American hero by dying and yet continuing to live, which is specifically a critique of this value as his death is pointless and framed in a toilet. Once again, Tarantino combines experimental film features with critiques of American society, something especially notable in 1994 where Forrest Gump - an uncritical showcase of American values - beat Pulp Fiction for Best Picture at the Academy Awards: proof of the film's counter-cultural nature.

Nevertheless, the experimental nature of Pulp Fiction, in particular, does not fall into the definition as stated above insofar as Tarantino's ideas can be perceived as original. The subversive moments in Pulp Fiction can all be found in other films, such as playing with narrative order and violence in Goodfellas (1990), or violently killing a main character midway through the film in Psycho (1960), and, most notably Tarantino himself has worked with all these experimental techniques in Reservoir Dogs (1992). Whilst this doesn't reduce the value of Pulp Fiction as a significant film in mainstream cinema, it does call into question its nature as an experimental film when its ideas are not fresh to either a film spectator or the auteur. 

In conclusion, whilst Tarantino, as an auteur, combines experimental film features such as bricolage and simulacra, and playing with narrative sequencing, with critiques of the American way of life, he does not do this with fresh ideas. As such, Pulp Fiction is indicative of a film being seen as experimental without contributing fresh ideas, as stated initially, especially as Tarantino offers no new perspectives and frequently chooses to homage older films rather than present novel cinematic techniques.