Pulp Fiction and the Power of Characters

Last week I had the not so fun experience of getting my wisdom teeth removed. Getting teeth ripped out of your mouth or drilled out in multiple pieces, as was the case with me, is a pretty awful time. Certainly not the way you want to spend the last week of summer break. But I had big plans for this week, plans that involved smoothies and movie binging, with Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction being at the top of my list. Many view this as one of Tarantino's top films and I was tired of the criminal look flashed my way when mentioned that I hadn't seen it. So I popped a few pain killers, pressed an ice pack to my cheek and settled onto the couch for this 2 hour 34 minute film.

A lengthy Tarantino movie is not unusual as most of his recent films are over 2 hours, sometimes pushing 3. I personally struggle at times sitting through long dragged out movies, but have never really had a problem with Tarantino. Both Django and Inglorious Bastards had a rich plot that carries the viewer through the experience, so I was unfazed by the long run time of Pulp Fiction.

The film draws you in quickly with it's strong dialogue and early action, bringing you into this dark and seedy world. Each seen brings a new circumstance that makes you question who's good and who's bad, what the consequences will be for each character and overall where is the plot heading? Every time I tried to convince myself that the story was leading to something big, it cut to something else, something new. It wasn't until around the 1 hour mark that I accepted the fact that plot was secondary in this film.

The thing that makes Pulp Fiction so captivating are the many personalities throughout. Each scene is pretty much used as a character piece giving the actor a spotlight to shine. Every character is so interesting and unique in their own way that as a viewer you stop thinking about the plot and more about the people. Tarantino doesn't diverge completely from formulaic story arcs as each little part of the film has a climax that is resolved before moving on to the next sequence. And things throughout the film are not actually in chronological order which is nowhere near as confusing as it sounds. Tarantino does a great job in navigating the viewer through by breaking up the different plots by titling each sequence change. For instance we see "The Golden Watch" flashed over black before jumping into Bruce Willis' story. Thanks to strong writing and direction all the actors in this piece were able to shine in this film.

What Tarantino has also done well in past is his ability to write and make a movie within a genre. A recent example is his most recent release, Django. In this film he was able to create a new and creative twist on the old school Spaghetti Westerns. With Pulp Fiction, Tarantino does a great job of creating a film that falls within the Pulp Noir genres. For those like me who didn't know what that means I looked it up. According to the internet, "Pulp noir locations are often seedy, run-down and degraded urban landscapes, where the lack of law, morals and even the proliferation of crime and drugs are common themes. Another common trend in pulp noir is the glorification and/or demonization of its urban locations." This definition almost perfectly represents the world created within the film. In Pulp Fiction, Tarantino was able to create an all time great movie built on it's characters and setting.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Over spring break, I watched Kingsman: The Secret Service in theaters with a few friends. Overall, I thought it was an interesting take on the spy genre that delivered a lot of great action sequences along with a not-so-terrible plot. While Kingsman may have been overshadowed by Oscar nominees this year, it delivers enough fun to make it worth the price of admission.

The movie centers around Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton), a rebellious teen who gets roped into the secret society known as the Kingsman. Throughout the film, Eggsy is mentored by Harry Hart (Colin Firth), a skilled assassin and saboteur who is in debt to Eggsy's deceased father. Eggsy needs to overcome challenges and outlast the other contestants as he tries to become a official member of the Kingsman. Meanwhile, Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), a tech savvy billionaire leaves a trail of bloodshed and bodies as he leads up to his greatest, and most cynical, invention to date and it's up to Eggsy and Harry to thwart his malicious plans.

Going into the film, I really didn't have high expectations. Once the characters and plot were established, I thought it would be pretty predictable for the most part. However, there were a lot of twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. Deaths of major characters and complete 180s in the plot were a few of the things that kept me excited.

Although at first glance the movie might seem family friendly, it has a R rating and it has rightfully earned it. The action scenes are brutal to say the least. With decapitations, loss of limbs, and more blood than a slaughter house, this movie is definitely not for those with weak stomachs. Overall, this film had a lot more than I was expecting. While I may not recommend it as the greatest spy film, it is a film you can have a lot of fun while watching.

Die Hard 5? <--- Really?

     Okay so one of the most well known acton series is the Die Hard series.  Bruce Willis plays the role of John McClane, a New York cop saving the world.  The first Die Hard movie was unlike anything the theaters have seen before.  The non stop action and comedic language that Bruce Willis is noted for makes this movie a classic in action movies.  Since the first movie came out 4 others have followed.  The second film was not as good as the first but they came back with a third where Samuel L. Jackson co-starred with Bruce Willis and was a slight continuation of the story line from the first movie.

<---FIRST MOVIE

     The story of John McClane ended in 1995 until in 2007 when a forth movie came out to try and re-amp the series that everyone loved.  Live free of Die Hard was a good forth movie for not filming anything in 12 years, but that should have been it, there is now a fifth Die Hard movie!  There is a sense of over kill that has hit this well known and respected series.  A Good Day to Die Hard has been hammered by the critics and the script is said to be uninspiring.  Making Bruce Willis look like a bad ass has been done before!!!  For most of the time on set, articles have said that Bruce Willis barely acted, he really didn't care at al about the film, the producers should have just stopped then, if your starring actor doesn't care about the movie then there should be no movie.

   

<---FIFTH MOVIE
(See the difference)



     I am disappointed in the sense that a fifth movie was done, they should have left the series at 4.

Django!

Quentin Tarantino is truly a bold filmmaker. If you couldn’t tell he really, loves spaghetti westerns. But for his version of a spaghetti western, he doesn’t just explode the conventions of the genre; he uniquely and creatively molds all aspects of the genre into a sincerely fun experience. 

Django Unchained stars Jamie Foxx as a slave who is purchased by a roving dentist/bounty hunter named Dr. King Schulz (Christoph Waltz), who agrees to free him and help him find his wife (Kerry Washington) if in return he will help track down a trio of killers called The Brittle Brothers. What proceeds is the growth of an unusual friendship and a whole lot of violence and excitement. 

This film is beautifully constructed in which, Django goes from being a slave to being not only a free man, but also a professional bounty hunter, trained by Schulz and becomes his partner. There are encounters with an amusing predecessor of the KKK (played by Don Johnson), a small town sheriff who is not what he seems and, the very proper southern plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), along with his right hand man, house slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), who is absolutely hilarious in every one of his scenes. 

Frequently, Tarantino gets us to laugh at the most outrageous situations and then we stop for a second feeling uncomfortable, just before going ahead and laughing at the next shocking situation. But there is not that is exactly the reaction he wants. 

He also wants the audience on the edge of their seats in tense moments and very emotionally touched in others, and it’s his use of completely inappropriate humor in such a deliberate manner, and to such a brilliant effect, that makes his films what they are. His ability to do this is just one of the things that separates him from his imitators. 

Another one of his great qualities is his ability to fold quotes from other films (and even his previous work) into his movies. In this film there’s one particularly moment that comes directly from Kill Bill. The moment takes barely a second, but it’s a moment of great violence and beauty.Tarantino also uses music from his favorite other films and recreates them in clever ways to enhance his unique way of directing even more. The soundtrack for Django Unchained makes use of music from a number of westerns in a mix with a few original songs and splendid mash-ups but everything seems to flow together genuinely. 

Django Unchained is kind of a typical Tarantino film in that it’s a lot of violent, bloody fun, BUT also in that it deals with a very serious topic in a mocking manner. Nevertheless I advise everyone to go see this film whether you like Tarantino or not!

Django Unchained and Christoph Waltz

Over the holidays, I managed to make it to the movies three times. Two of those three times were to see the new Quentin Tarantino spaghetti western flick “Django Unchained”. Django was an absolutely brilliant film, combining all the qualities you expect from a Tarantino flick and then some. You were given the proverbial Tarantino gore, witty banter, and slew of absolute brilliantly written characters, but also saw the intertwining of an unforeseen amount of humor (the KKK scene? BRILLIANT) with a compelling love story that drove the film’s protagonist throughout this entire elaborate and entertaining plot. All while taking place in the cruel and slavery infested era that is the 1850’s south.

What made “Django Unchained” even more incredible, and what I personally loved about it, was the absolute exceptional casting and performance by the actors. While they were all brilliant, Christoph Waltz (Dr. King Shultz) was on another level as far as I’m concerned. What astounded me about Waltz’s performance was that he was not only able to portray this very intellectual character so fluidly with his unconditional charm and enunciated vocabulary, but also capture the roughness and danger that is the bounty hunter. As you know, he won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for this performance and still awaiting to see if he can go for two for two with his Oscar nomination in the same category. Waltz won the Oscar two years ago for his role as “Hans Landa” in Inglorious Basterds. I think it’s safe to say that if Waltz should work exclusively on Tarantino films for the rest of his career, well he’d be just fine.

M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable

Recently, I revisited the movie Unbreakable (2000, M. Night Shyamalan). The movie is centered around David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price aka Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). M. Night Shyamalan is not my favorite director due to some of his poorly executed works (ex. Devil) but some of his movies, such as The Sixth Sense (1999) and Signs (2002), are my favorite films. Samuel L. Jackson hasn't exactly been in the best movies but when he is in a well directed and well written movie, he does an amazing job (ex. Pulp Fiction). Bruce Willis has been in multiple movies that include Samuel L. Jackson but he is also an actor that seems to waste his talent in nonsensical blockbusters that include corny one liners and gratuitous explosions. Unbreakable highlights Willis's and Jackson's talents and is unlike any super hero movie I've ever seen.

The movie starts by showing the unusual birth of Mr. Glass, followed by the title sequence, and then shows Bruce Willis in a train. He removes his wedding ring as an attractive woman sits  in the open seat next to him, indicating that his relationship with his wife is disintegrating. He tries to seduce her but he says all the wrong things and she moves to another seat. The train starts to make strange noises and speed up and the scene cuts abruptly indicating a crash. The first shot is a one shot sequence and is about ten minutes long. The next shot is of Willis in the hospital and the doctor explains that he was the only one to survive on the entire train and walked away with no injuries at all. Willis leaves the hospital and passes all the families in the hospital mourning their lost ones. This sequence is one of my favorite shots ever.



The movie is about David Dunn (Willis) being indestructible and having super strength and Mr. Glass (Jackson) is extremely fragile and breaks bones often. Mr. Glass works in a comic gallery and when he hears about David Dunn surviving the train wreck, he finds him and explains that he believes he is a superhero. Dunn denies it and thinks that Mr. Glass is a freak. Dunn has the ability to sense what people have done wrong in the past by touching them and is able to bench press upwards of 600 pounds. He looks into his past and discovers that he was the only one to survive a car accident, a fire, a plane explosion, and has never been sick. The only incident where Dunn almost died is when he nearly drowned in a lake as a child. Dunn ends up saving a family from a murderer but almost dies when the murderer pushes him into the pool (water is his only weakness). Jackson's character is obsessed with Willis's. At the end of the movie, the audience learns that Mr. Glass (Jackson) has been following David Dunn (Willis) for his entire life and caused all the catastrophes to prove that David Dunn is truly "unbreakable."

Many shots in the film are long one shot scenes. Shyamalan also includes many indirect reflection shots such as a long shot pointed at a TV that shows the reflection of the characters in the room. Shyamalan also idolizes Alfred Hitchcock and pays homage to him by making a short appearance on screen. In Unbreakable, he plays a man that is suspected of selling drugs and says only three lines to Willis's character.

Unbreakable is by no means a traditional superhero movie and each character is unique and well developed. Shyamalan's cinematography is exceptional and unique and it is obvious, through each shot sequence, that he idolizes Hitchcock's style. There is no ridiculous action scenes and it focuses on the personal life of an unlikely superhero. Watch Unbreakable.

-Matthew Hadley