The Complicated Legacy of Pulp Fiction

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People have turned on Pulp Fiction in recent years... why?
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SOURCES:
Lisa Coulthard, “Torture Tunes: Tarantino, Popular Music, and New Hollywood Ultraviolence,” Music and the Moving Image, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Summer 2009).
Todd F. Davis, and Kenneth Womack. “Shepherding the Weak: The Ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction.’” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 1, (1998).
Pat Dowell and John Fried, “Pulp Friction: Two Shots at Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” Cinéaste, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1995).
Todd Gilchrist, The Inside Story of ‘Pulp Fiction’: 20 Creatives Break Down Making the ‘Tarantinoverse’ Look and Feel,” Variety (2024).
William Grimes, “‘Forest Gump’ Triumphs With 6 Academy Awards,” The New York Times (1995).
Gary Groth, “A Dream of Perfect Reception: The Movies of Quentin Tarantino,” The Baffler, No. 8 (1995).
Wook Kim, “1995: ‘Pulp Fiction’ vs. ‘Forrest Gump’” Time (2013).
Anthony Lane, “Degrees of Cool” The New Yorker (1994).
Derek Malcolm, “Pulp Fiction” The Guardian (1994).
Janet Maslin “CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; The Good, Bad and In-Between In a Year of Surprises on Film” The New York Times (1994).
Peter McAlevey, “All's Well That Ends Gruesomely” The New York Times (1992).
Adam Nayman, “Forrest Gump’ Won the Battle, but ‘Pulp Fiction’ Won the War,” The A.V Club (2019).
Mark Seal, “Cinema Tarantino: The Making of Pulp Fiction,” Vanity Fair (2013).
Chris Vognar, “He Can't Say That, Can He?” Transition, No. 112, Django Unpacked (2013).
Cynthia Young, “Other Side of a Badass Coin: Racial Doubling and Cultural Contestation in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,”” Dispositio, Vol. 20, No. 47, Postcolonial and the Americas (1995).

[@tzimaka]

33 mins of Tarantino talk and no feet mention, is it a post-modern choice? edit: Okay the "ethics of a foot rub" line goes hard.

[@samuelbarber6177]

Because that joke is so done to death. Yes, he likes feet, we know. Next thing you’ll tell me he enjoys violence and the N word.

[@jasonblalock4429]

At least in Pulp Fiction he mostly kept his foot thing under control. It wasn't prominent enough to stand out, anyway.

[@osmanyousif7849]

“33 minutes? Should’ve got it down in 10.”

[@RandalGravesNN]

​@@jasonblalock4429 it was very obvious from the weird foot talk in pulp fiction

[@foxfoxelliott]

@@RandalGravesNN Yeah I was gonna say there is literally what- 5 minutes of conversation about a whether a foot massage is the same as going down on a woman, which heavily demonstrated what Tarantino feels about feet...

[@notoriousrrz]

It's kind of shocking to me that so many people seem to be saying that the film is devoid of meaning when it feel like it wears the whole redemption thing on its sleeve, to the point where i feel like that very obviousness could be its own criticism of the movie. It's been more than a decade since I've seen this movie, but coming back to Vincent after his death felt less like "Oh, he's alive, it's fine" and instead made Jules's redemption all the more powerful and poignant: Vincent has been given multiple chances to chose a different path, but he never did.

[@calypso4882]

Absolutely, the movie ends with Jules' big speech, the sentiment of which Vincent never once takes seriously when arguing about it with Jules, and it's clear who we are meant to side with.

[@samuelbarber6177]

People will say “it’s only violence” when the ending is literally about avoiding a violent shootout. And it doesn’t happen. Tarantino IS a gorehound but he’s more intelligent than people give him credit for.

[@confusedwhale]

Of course, if Jules didn't "redeem" himself, he would have been with Vincent at Butch's apartment, and both might have still been alive. This would have made it so Butch wouldn't have run into Marcelus. Then, both Butch (now dead in this hypothetical) and Marcelus wouldn't have been captured by the sadist corrupt officer. Basically, everyone except Butch would still be alive instead of this purification through blood that we got.

[@UrbanDecayLova247]

Yea, the redemption thing is very in your face…but so are all his films 😂

[@jnnx]

@@samuelbarber6177The most r/im14andthisisdeep take of all time.

[@bbyjirl]

Getting the Mia Wallace bob is a rite of passage for any vaguely artsy alternative teen girl born in the 90s

[@Li_Tobler]

Your comment makes me want to get one again (I've been meticulously growing out my hair for the past 3 years)

[@fernandomaron87]

My grandma has a picture of her in 1929 using the exact same hairstyle

[@mmps18]

Did this as a teen too (born 1990).

[@CommonContentArchive]

Louise Brooks bob

[@CommonContentArchive]

@@fernandomaron87 It was a fairly popular hairstyle in the 20s. One of the greatest film stars of the silent era was famous for it, Louise Brooks. She was a dancer, rather than a "trained actor" exactly, but in that era she was just phenomenal. She also wrote an autobiography, "LuLu in Hollywood", which is considered one of the best books about early Hollywood

[@leonel87658]

"Because it's so much fun Jan, get it!" That has to be the quote that embodies the way Quentin Tarantino does movies

[@houseonsand]

I am fucking screaming

[@josephcorridon9314]

As someone who only got around to watching Pulp Fiction in 2024, people were right to love it in 1994, it really is that good. I get the reasons why people would say it's aged poorly, but those are mostly academic discussions. Even though I'd seen other Tarantino films, and probably a dozen more movies that were directly inspired by Pulp Fiction, nothing prepared me for how much fun I was having watching it, the whole things is just thrilling.

[@dreaziemobbins]

you are literally a baby-aged person who literally cares what you think though. say less lol

[@josephcorridon9314]

@@dreaziemobbins I cannot imagine writing something as embarrassing as this comment.

[@dreaziemobbins]

I think when people say something "did not age well" it's mainly a reaction they're having that something doesn't feel right and doesn't stem from academic discussions. Maybe if you are in clown college, this is the kind of academic discussion you're having. I think you should read my earlier post about uma thurman's feet if you want to see a more embarrassing comment. You're funny cuz you act all serious. That's bout all. olkay thank you

[@darko1295]

@@dreaziemobbins what is bro yapping about 😂

[@DrunkJester]

Jebus Christ

[@mcnooj82]

I haven’t gotten a sense of people recently turning on Pulp Fiction in my general bubble

[@Zilch.0]

My thought as well. But I'm older millennial. Maybe its a Gen Z thing?

[@mabusestestament]

@@Zilch.0 Gen Z doesn’t deserve this movie.

[@DXCary10]

@@Zilch.0I’m Gen Z and haven’t seen that at all

[@mmps18]

Same with my general bubble. I was born in 1990 though so I wonder if it's a generational thing.

[@antonio97b]

Calling Marvin a “young black boy” is… interesting. For one, he was a grown adult. Or at least that is the assumption since everyone else in the room was an adult. Two, he was just a guy. Calling him a “young black boy” in a context where race has _zero_ to do with story or the situation is like that weird uncle who talks about his black coworker all the time calling him by calling him his “black coworker” when he refers to all his other employees as simply, “coworker” While it’s not outright racist, there is this weirdly coded/unsaid thing when you constantly refer to one group of people specifically (ex: “black” insertthinghere) but everyone else is just a person.

[@maiyorha]

every time i see uma thurman as mia wallace i just want to completely take over her look. what an absolutely iconic character. also maia, you look stunning too but jesus christ i hope your back is alright after filming in that position LOL

[@CommonContentArchive]

I'd bet that Tarantino is a Louise Brooks fan. That's probably where the "look" comes from, which was indeed iconic in the 1920s

[@celeritas2-810]

Laura Lee in Khruangbin

[@daniellekoonce607]

I think critics look to all movies as 'film' as to say art...high brow art, evoke something. But Tarantino grew up in the age of VHS, he can absorb film, binge it, be influenced by it and most importantly, entertained. He was able to say "I love that, I want to do that" and he did it better than most. He created art for entertainment's sake from the POV of a fan. We want to make movies with our favorite scenes, he did it.

[@matthews7805]

All of the films Tarantino ended up loving were films his mother and her black boyfriends took him to see when he was young. He never really had a choice. And that's according to him in his book Cinema Speculation.

[@samuelbarber6177]

To be fair, a lot of critics love Tarantino, especially Roger Ebert who defended Pulp Fiction especially.

[@matthews7805]

@@samuelbarber6177 Ebert did a shot-by-shot analysis of it. It's worth watching.

[@mabusestestament]

Tarantino grew up in the 70s, before VHS. Before working in a video store later on, he even worked in an adult movie theater.

[@stephennootens916]

​@@matthews7805yes and he still has the same juvenile view when it comes to films.

[@huberthubert87]

there's a very good, simple reason Jimmy uses the N-word in that scene - to accentuate how uncomfortable it is for Jules to ask this favor from him, and show how much constraint he's willing to show to solve his and Vincent's problem, as opposed to Vincent. that's the whole point of this story - Jules is willing to put his ego aside and be a good man, unlike Vincent who is more concerned about looking cool and not showing any weakness, shame, or regret, which earns him a humiliating and very uncool death on the toilet. He is killed by Butch, by the way, another character who wanted to be cool by being uncaring about killing another innocent person, but ends up redeeming himself, first by sacrificing himself to save his dad's uncool, sentimental, stinky ass watch, and then of course by saving his super cool arch-nemesis from being uncoolingly raped, showing uncool army-like comradery like the story about his dad taught him, instead of cool, cynical self-preservation and ruthlessness, like all the other cool characters in the movie. are you starting to sense a theme here?)

[@thirdeyezennicai]

uncoolingly raped??? I get what you're going for but that's crazy phrasing lmao

[@Wesker10000]

Wow, that's a good argument. Thanks for sharing that

[@mav9987]

"uncoolingly raped" what

[@dunnowy123]

Great take

[@mav9987]

what is this comment bruh

[@cthulujesus404]

I did it. I’m the first person to comment on something significant ever. Thanks for syncing your upload schedule with my work bathroom schedule

[@lilpetz500]

Ey, good job buddy! (Also not me at the bathroom woken up at 2.30am with awful period cramps, just in time for the video)

[@user-vw2jq3to5e]

Hope you had a nice poop

[@bizooty]

Badass

[@osmanyousif7849]

In the bathroom? Meanwhile…. The sound of a toaster is heard.

[@Mighty_Atheismo]

You did it fam! And you did that other thing too! 🎉🎉🎉

[@lynnpehrson8826]

I don't think people are turning on pulp fiction, I think people are turning on dudes with pulp fiction posters and tarantino as a person.

[@theitalianalien8477]

What complicated legacy? Everybody loves Pulp Fiction!

[@CC3GROUNDZERO]

What Tarantino said about well-meaning parents depriving their kids of the popcultural social "glue" of their generation by not letting them watch tv is a really great observation that reveals a lot about Tarantino's overall artistic intention. Thank you for including that quote for those of us who would never voluntarily listen to JRE.

[@penelopephelange]

"those of us who would never voluntarily listen to JRE" lmao piss baby

[@scottt7517]

'Never voluntarily listen to JRE'... tell me you're an ideologue without telling me you're ideologue

[@mikesmith542]

@@scottt7517 BUT . . . HORSE DEWORMER!

[@SteveS-xq9im]

hes monetarily inclined to say that as well as to justify and give meaning and power to his life.

[@CC3GROUNDZERO]

@@SteveS-xq9im Yeah keep voting Trump.

[@gusandthetv]

The character deaths aren't meaningless. Some are spiritually redeemed, while others face the consequences for their actions

[@mabusestestament]

Yes, it’s like many younger people don’t understand Pulp Fiction.

[@jackbradbury2229]

It’s a distillation of Gen X apathy where it collects all the stuff you know and like and combines it into a cynical picture. Every teenager loves Pulp Fiction because when you’re a teen, you also hate everything and want to watch a movie where average people do crazy stuff.

[@matthemming9105]

Damn. As someone who WAS a teenager when Pulp Fiction came out, that's a brilliant summation of why it seemed to be so popular amongst what would later come to be known as "edge lords."

[@merryharrypop]

i first watched pulp fiction when i was 14 and i wanted to turn it off 30 minutes in, i just didn’t get anything from it

[@Li_Tobler]

That was the same for me with Natural born killers

[@tajcee]

@@Li_ToblerTrue.

[@tajcee]

It’s probably why it doesn’t resonate now as much as I’m steadily approaching 40. In my teens and 20s, Pulp Fiction hit just right. Now, it’s not quite hitting the same (still a great film). I’m feeling that way towards a lot of the “film bros” movies, like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Scarface, etc.

[@Ruleof2Review]

Pulp Fiction *AND* Forest Gump are both masterpieces.

[@thatguyseb8824]

When a piece of art is as overwhelmingly popular as Pulp Fiction it's sort of inevitable that its detractors will feel compelled to justify their dissent. Nobody likes feeling like they're missing out on something everyone else gets. But when someone's criticism goes beyond their own subjective tastes and begins dwelling on things like "morals" and "implications" it starts to feel like they want the art to meet them on their terms and not the other way around. People don't like John Wick for its introspective themes and nuanced characters, they like it for its well-shot and entertaining action scenes. You can judge the movie for lacking meaning or substance, but if you're gonna sit there and try to convince me it's objectively bad for not conforming to a different set of standards that just tells me you're unwilling to engage with the work and I immediately don't care about anything you have to say.

[@PapillonBleuNoir]

Well said. Who said movies HAD to always have depth to be good? Maybe there is another set of standards or things that movies that are good in their own way are going for. Even if Tarantino's movies were only stylistically, visually, compositionally etc. excellent but lacked depth and complexity - who says that makes it a flaw? Monet painted water lilies beautifully. Who says water lillies need to send some kind of moral message. Maybe they were just painted beautifully and that's enough?

[@chairmanro1012]

Yes indeed

[@probablythebug]

idk who is saying its objectivlely bad. It is regressive. It is "shit" in some ways but idk anyone at all who would call it that. I know based on this comment that you did not watch the video. long ass comment though

[@thatguyseb8824]

​@@probablythebug "objectively bad" was probably not the best choice of words, I'm referring to those who seek to invalidate other people's experiences with a piece of art because they don't share that experience.

[@twix2615]

That's just what criticism is though; thinking and asking questions about what a work of art is and does and exploring its implications beyond a surface level. Nobody is forcing you to not like a movie or saying you can't just enjoy an action movie for what it is, but the point of critique is to go beyond that.

[@acespectre5461]

Nobody I know has “turned” on pulp fiction

[@crablegs.]

anyone that i’ve heard hate on QT is due to everything but his movies

[@DzikiDelfin]

For real

[@bbyjirl]

@@crablegs.the crazy thing is that Tarantino is undoubtedly a huge weirdo, but very tame in the context of Hollywood weirdos as we know in 2025

[@samuelbarber6177]

Honestly, the only people I’ve seen turn on it actually seem to be more angry with the people who like Pulp Fiction than the film itself. The type of people who call it a “filmbro movie” without really engaging with it or looking at it further than it confirms their presuppositions about its fans. Admittedly, those people do exist, but allowing the fans of a work to dictate how you feel about the work isn’t really constructive.

[@nataligabriel1323]

Out of all the twenty somethings I know, they’re all still pulp fiction truthers. I don’t know anyone who has turned on it either.

[@TanyaUrrutia]

Came to say that only a takedown of "The Shawshank Redemption" is left, the other other movie from 1994 that lost to Forrest Gump.

[@samuelbarber6177]

Oof, that’ll be difficult, ‘cuz it’s the best one.

[@franciscoduran4618]

Not a BP picture (unfairly), but Hoop Dreams if you wanna be incendiary

[@maxkproductions]

@@samuelbarber6177 Shawshank blows. Most white bread dull film ever.

[@insertarticlename.4957]

​@@maxkproductions why is that?

[@maxkproductions]

@@insertarticlename.4957 Very dull picture. Nothing about it is remotely interesting, in terms of its cinematography, editing, storytelling or so on. Takes zero risks, which is normally fine, but for a movie which is touted as the greatest of all time its ridiculously dull. Plus, the whole emotional arc feels like a generic Oscar bait flick.

[@Reinshark]

I am here for postmodernism. When you started discussing the apparent lack of context which lends to the quotability of the film, I immediately thought: “It’s not a true lack of context; it’s a juxtaposition, highlighting the banality of both Quarter Pounders AND dead young black men in the lives of these criminals,” which is very postmodern. I see strong parallels to Camus’ L’Étranger here.

[@gilburtfilburt8779]

Yeah, though people are pretty good at misinterpreting absurdist philosophy as well

[@shahsadsaadu5817]

​@gilburtfilburt8779 isn't much to misinterpret. Absurdism is only worthy of pop culture magazines.

[@gilburtfilburt8779]

@@shahsadsaadu5817 ayy there we go

[@warmjets45]

as i’ve gotten older, my fondness for postmodernism has waned. makes for interesting art sometimes but postmodern philosophy is ultimately not challenging of the status quo in any meaningful way so what’s the point? philosophy is meant to change the world…

[@Reinshark]

@ The goal of philosophy is to explain the world, not to change it. An explanation of the world may be capable of fomenting change in and of itself, but that is not philosophy's "goal". You seem to be approaching the subject with some ill-informed, pre-conceived notions.

[@pleebianmusk]

Pulp Fiction hasn't lost an ounce of its greatness

[@eoinoconnell185]

Aged like a fine wine, especially in comparison to the cookie-cutter superhero movies churned out.

[@Breakfastststst]

Overrated

[@TurkeyMarvin]

The constant labeling of moments as vapid, cynical, and/or contrived is projection. There’s no serious effort to engage in sub textual analysis. This is safe. I love hearing and engaging in criticism of things I love, but the conversation should be sincere. This is why film is in a horrible place.

[@destinypirate]

What a sad exploitation of ''film critique'' to forward word-cult thinking. Of course ''the critics/professors'' will project their ideology, as a means to assign themselves as authority. If these people are old enough, they either were completely sheltered (from the streets of the 7Os and 8Os( or they are trying to bury reality. People talked that way, especially people of the street. Not only the "N" word, but all types of words that the new cult has used to prosecute others of heresy. If a 2-bit guy (LIke Tarantino's character( wasn't using foul language, he wasn't speaking normally - for the time. That's all. And that's what Tarantino meant when he said ''the power'' should be taken away from weaponizing words at the hands of this new word-cult. In terms of a period-set piece like Pulp Fiction, the harsh language of the time is both authentic, making the film more than cosplay of current-speak in old styles of clothing, and it serves to re-temper the audience to the free use of language. If someone is ''triggered'' by a word, they need to check into how/who programmed them. It's not some meta-narrative scheme. It's a gangster movie, incredibly well written and directed. And no, no one is turning on Pulp Fiction, nor FIght Club. There are those who are being raised brainwashed by the word-cult, but we cannot blame them - mostly Millenials as the Gen Z kids are already seeing through the perverse power plays of the word-cult. Those who are accountable are the boomers and Xers who disemminate this brainwashing - against great films, and all forms of history. In the end it doesn't matter. Real history and great art will stand the test of time. Disengenious attacks will just reveal people who are manipulators.

[@toothbrushfromnisemonogatari]

Honestly I don’t know what you’re talking about when you say people have started turning against Pulp Fiction. People still regard that movie as a classic.

[@fondajames]

I've seen a lot of criticism show up in the past decade. A lot of the points brought up in this video have been going around though not as well communicated or thought out as here

[@foxfoxelliott]

I have always assumed this movie was, "Well, well, well! If it isn't the consequences of your own actions!" And whether people actually learn from them. But that's just me.

[@CoolChannelDreadTube]

I was on a podcast a few years ago where we discussed the final point about how the 80s was a dividing line between Pop Culture Immigrant and Pop Culture Native the way people divided Digital Immigrants and Natives in the early 2000s. Having VCRs, which allowed us to RE-consume media over and over again, led to us creating a language around that media. There was something exhilerating about hearing someone say, "Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?" and knowing that you have a connection with that person. It didn't need informational content because it had relational content.

[@mommybloggerlila]

crazy that you posted this today cuz i just watched pulp fiction for the first time yesterday

[@NicheCaesar]

Thank God, a new Broey Dechanel upload just as I reached my fill of following the news for the day (it is 11am. Send help)

[@dawsonroberts4113]

This is my first video of yours and wow. Great research, writing, delivery and editing. Beyond impressed

[@amayaalmussawir9815]

Oh what I would give to have all of Maia’s videos to watch for the first time again… enjoy your journey! There isn’t a single miss

[@justintroyka8855]

"The proof is in the pudding, the medium is the message, whatever." A+ line

[@florinivan6907]

'deeply unconcerned with morals of any kind' But is that unrealistic?The characters are mostly from the criminal underworld or associated with it. I mean would it feel more believable if character x started to rant about what awful people they are?These are not philosophy grads talking about ethics. Most never finished high school. Expecting them to suddenly talk about morality in a college grad way seems optimistic. And doesn't Jules at the end decide to quit the criminal life?Isn't that taking a stand on morality?Or Butch saving Marcellus even when he could have simply run away?What is more believable a character ranting about ethics or someone simply doing something good?

[@ramflight]

You lost me at 'Pulp Fiction hasn't withstood the test of time'

[@timothysmith8320]

I'm not exactly sure what has motived this essay. Perhaps its just annoyance with film bros or perhaps its the need to be a moral scold. Neither is a new motivation for criticism, but I think we can do better. I did enjoy this essay, though. It made me think and that's a worthwhile thing. Thanks. As a Gen X'er who had an ideal first watch of Pulp Fiction in the theater and at the perfect age, let me say that it's impossible to overstate Pulp Fiction's impact or influence. Along with Seinfeld and The Simpsons, Pulp Fiction really shaped pop culture for the next generation. It permeates so much of what was made and what was popular. One can decry that, but you can't deny it. No doubt the N-word usage has not aged well, but otherwise it's still an amazing piece of work. Claiming that it's just a pastiche can't be right because if it were that simple, all the knock offs that followed would be just as good and they clearly aren't. Pulp Fiction's particular mix of cool, humor, energy, violence, and yes, even relatable humanity has not been matched since despite many trying. And it's just not correct to claim that Pulp Fiction's references are a shallow appeal to nostalgia akin to Forrest Gump. For example, Tarantino goes for obscure needle drops compared to Zemeckis who always uses the most on point, cliched music. I think the better comparison is to classic hip hop, which was also once derided for being a pastiche of stolen references. The test of quality or merit isn't whether you've borrowed or even stolen. Everyone does that. The test is in the end result itself: have you recombined them in a new and interesting way? Is it good or not? I think it's clearly yes given it's cultural impact over time, but you don't have to like it. And I think it's a mistake to claim that art needs to be about something larger for it to be deemed worthwhile. Bringing joy, entertainment, and diversion are sufficient. Beauty needs no justification.

[@MrPSBSMR]

If you saw the last 15 minutes you'd see she made exactly the point that is is not just about shallow references.

[@absdyna]

It's been a tough few weeks and for some reason, this was supremely comforting. Thanks Maia!

[@seanthebear5019]

One of the best vids I’ve seen in a hot minute. You do a really good job of communicating the post modern themes present in the film!!!

[@sanshiromotoi1060]

loved your uma thurman fit 😌💌

[@standardqueue]

Pulp Fiction brought having an interest in who the movie makers are into the mainstream or at least popularized its importance outside of the cinephile circles, critics, etc. Before this, for the most part in the nineties, actors had overwhelmed the attention given to the craft, its draw and appeal. I think now we have entered the era of the production co. taking its turn at the center of this kind of focus, in America at least.

[@twix2615]

I don't know if that started with Pulp Fiction though. I mean, Alfred Hitchcock for example was definitely a celebrity and well-known name during his time, and not just in film circles.

[@alexis_sorbanio]

Pulp Fiction didn't comment on culture. It BECAME culture.

[@Ampampas]

Fr generational movie

[@natedogg890]

Facts, Tarantino has become part of Cinema 101. I watched Blue Eye Samurai and realized they were basically copying Kill Bill... And that a lot of Gen Z won't even realize it

[@dragvrallass1658]

@@natedogg890 fitting since tarantino basically copied exploitations films himself.

[@tomlotti240]

Recall seeing this at the theatre when it was released, and it was wild. For whatever reason, the lights didn't dim at the beginning of the movie, and after the couple gives their "stick''em up" speech, some women in the audience, a few rows back, started squealing and screaming (clearly excited to see the movie), and lights went out, and that surf guitar music started playing. So surreal. A lot of dark humor for sure. There were some scenes when the audience were cackling like mad, and myself, and the three people in front of me were slowly looking around, thinking, "Who are these people?" Of course, being a bit older, I sort of get it. What I really liked was the structure. All those odd sequences and time jumps. That and seeing Travolta and John Die Hard. I already like Bruce Willis, but this movie made him a favorite. Insightful as always. Hadn't thought of the parallels with Forrest Gump.

[@Bunch-A-Stuff]

People haven’t started turning on Pulp Fiction. Huh?

[@DustyMusician]

24:36 Every time I hear this line of reasoning all I really hear is "why won't you let me do and say whatever I want without consequence?" They always tacitly admit that words have power but don't want to be honest about who gets to exercise that power.

[@postmodernrecycler]

It's certainly a teenage boy's edgy excuse to be badass. Kinda Tarantino's entire motive in filmmaking.

[@johngleason1776]

Pulp Fiction may be the most 90s movie ever. It encapsulates everything great about the ideas of the time, and as time goes on it also encapsulates the ideas from the time we would like to leave in the past.

[@garki1369]

I'm curious, were you an adult in the US during the 90s?

[@johngleason1776]

@garki1369 No, I was born in 1997. But my parents were, and they talk about the 90s the way the previous generation talks about the 60s. And I think people my age are about as sick of hearing about the 90s as Gen X was about the 60s.

[@keenanvil]

This feels made up. There’s nothing complicated about the legacy of Pulp Fiction.

[@lindenmanmax]

As for Pulp Fiction's repartee seeping into the consciousness of a whole generation, creating a sense of belonging -- boy, did it ever. I spent a year of my life communicating mainly in sound bytes from that film. On the whole, it was a sucky year, but not because my ability to express myself was thus impoverished. I was so stressed out and miserable over unrelated things that my own original thoughts were practically inexpressible. If anything, Tarantino's dialog acted as a net over the abyss of total isolation.

[@C-uz8md]

I’ve always thought the best argument for Tarantino’s greatness is his imitators. Whats great about Pulp Fiction might not be obvious now after 30 years of bad copies but there’s a reason so many people tried to be the next Tarantino in the 90s and he’s the only one who pulled it off. Whatever you think of Pulp Fiction I think we can all agree that 2 Days in the Valley, Things to Do In Denver When You’re Dead etc are a lot worse.

[@endlessnameless6628]

Always thought Love and a .45 was the weakest of the bunch. Walken is in TTDIDWYD which is at least partially redeeming. Oh and I thought Killing Zoe was good but that had Tarantinos writing partner, Roger Avary at the helm. Also had Jean-Hugues Anglade devouring scenery.

[@SlyQueguy]

the idea that a movie needs to "say something" or be political in order to be great or meaningful is so stupid. seems like that's the only reason why people don't like the film anymore

[@samuelbarber6177]

And even so, it’s not like the film isn’t meaningful. People just get blinded by the entertainment factor.

[@loreesnoield]

Art is about structure. If you want to say something, you can just say it.

[@garki1369]

Have you seen Emilia Perez yet? It's transcendent political vision has made it one of the greatest films of all time.

[@abishaipaul2298]

@@garki1369😂

[@lukeshoo]

​@@garki1369 erm

[@DayaVeraS.]

This video is so beautifully made! I love the editing choices and commitment to the Mia pose!! It’s so good

[@rpi4sandman]

It occurs to me that I've watched Pulp Fiction dozens of times. Forest Gump, maybe twice.

[@wyattgranger5870]

I got a be honest ( and I do love your vids Z, as well as many others) but all video essays feel like post modern shrugs to me nowadays. I feel so lost in the amount of content distributing every possible take on other content that I enjoy, I start to feel this emptiness for everything. Anytime watching a movie comes up as an option to me the last few years, I don't feel the pull for it as much and if I am watching a new one (or at least new to me) I feel like I can't get lost in the movie at all anymore, I'm too busy playing post modern, deconstructionist detective on my brain, having soaked up the inner voice that guides the many culture writers and academics to always implode the frame we are perceiving with. As such, I feel like A) I don't enjoy much anything nowadays and B)I never give things a fair shot to meet them on their own terms, etc. Not saying I disagree with the things discussed in your videos. But what happens if you expand the frame of what video essayists are doing? Are deconstructionists and cultural writers really morally superior to the art they are also benefitting off themselves in this weird new paradigm? When are the video essays deconstructing the overall moral values of video essays gonna start mass proliferating? IDK, and maybe it is all just me being me that these issues are surfacing. I just can't help but feel like the world loses so much of it's shine the more content like this I consume. Like I'm getting just as cynical from people saying PF is cynical. I always think when I see another video like this (and I do like them, honestly) my mind says "Great, another reason to stop liking this thing I dig, and there isn't something that takes its place". Anyways, stay well, and thank you for doing what you do regardless.

[@ludovicoc7046]

The worst thing about Tarantino the director is Tarantino the actor.

[@ThirdHandl]

Its funny because most of the problems people find with the movie are the exact reasons why i love it. Its seemingly lacking context, the sporadic energy everything has where shit just happens and you go with it, it feels like its running on its own ttwo legs, not being guided by anyone. It has no moral, political message because that is what life is, you don't live around a moral or political context, you just live and move and do shit every day and there are no rules to life. Many snobbish people say that Pulp Fiction is a begginer movie that only people who haven't seen many movies adore but how can that be the case with a movie that has always been called different from other movies, how can that be the case for someone who hasn't seen any of those other movies? For me its simple, the more movies i watch the better Pulp becomes, it feels more unique each viewing because my knowledge of the movie landscape widens. Sorry for the paragraph, i couldn't resist.

[@lorcan545]

I feel exactly the same. Pulp Fiction is better the more other movies you’ve seen, rather than its effect becoming diluted.

[@stanleyrogouski]

The problem with the N word in this movie is that Tarantino doesn't know how to deliver it. He's not a very good actor so it just seems weird.

[@carolsimpson4422]

That seemed realistic to me. No white person ever sounds natural saying the N word.. I think it shows how dorky the character is, and that he's tolerated because he serves a purpose, not because he's "cool"

[@stanleyrogouski]

@@carolsimpson4422 Compare Tarantino to Dennis Hopper in True Romance. Hopper knows how to deliver the word. But it has a context. He's trying to get Christopher Walken to kill him.

[@JaiProdz]

@@stanleyrogouski Tarantino's original script for Natural Born Killers had the n word in the "eenie meanie" chant Mallory performs. I think T just likes being an edge lord and he feels a sense of freedom to use the word regardless of it's impact, which I find egregious.

[@christopherdavis8248]

@@JaiProdz agreed!

[@Lord-of-the-Pit]

@@carolsimpson4422 white people sound completely natural saying it, what the fuck are you talking about. where do you think it comes from?

[@scottbuck1572]

24:34 But if hes using the word for shock value (which he is), is he not reinforcing the power it has? lol

[@jrd33]

Is he using the word for shock value? The characters in the film don't seem to find the use of the word shocking. You could argue that many of the key incidents in the film are there to "shock", so why single out this one? If you find the use of a word more offensive than the other "shocking" elements of the film, I think that says more about your values than it does about the film. I certainly didn't get the feeling that Tarantino was trying to make a film that had anything to say on the subject of race. Of course, that may just be my ignorance.

[@scottbuck1572]

@jrd33 No you're definitely not completely wrong: he's doing to explicitly shock the audience, but I having no reaction (like at all) from the characters means, like you said, he's not making a commentary on race or even on the word itself. For the characters, he as well have said dude: so it is to shock the audience by using a word the audience is going to think is extremely offensive and explicitly about race, and further shock them by having all the characters treat it as completely normal and acceptable. Basically the whole scene is to make the audience as uncomfortable as possible, which only works if you rely on the power of the word. He's not saying anything about it, so he's also not subverting that power

[@Moribunny8]

Pulp Fiction was also my gateway movie into being an insufferable cinephile. Funnily enough, as a non-American teenager I really didn’t get the references on my first viewing. What I loved was how natural it felt, both the violence and the mundane interactions. The lack of theme was never apparent to me at the time, but I guess that kind of proves that it doesn’t want to say anything in particular. Great video as always!

[@beccasneed7730]

In 1994 or 95 (I was 12) when it was released on video I fell in love with the film and I copied it to vhs, I made my dad watch it and he loved it too. We saw every Tarantino film in theaters from Jackie Brown to The Hateful Eight. He passed before Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

[@coprographia]

Ok… I’m sorry you’re all feeling so terrorized by demonetization and The Algorithm. But if I can’t, as an adult, hear an adult say the mere words, “heroin”, “cocaine”, or “pornography”, then what am I even watching?

[@Alexander_Grant]

KZbin is definitely to blame here, and more specifically, the actions of certain people on KZbin who wanted to hit KZbin where it hurts, in the advertisements, by running campaigns against people they disliked or to drum up attention for themselves. Look up the different adpocalypses. Whatever you think about those events specifically, the online campaigns by people on social media is what caused this. A bunch of people with the most power they'd ever had in their life and they made this entire website worse just because it felt good to have some power over others. Every single one was completely overblown and led to KZbin having too heavy a hand, and so now adults with good channels have to deal with the consequences. The different between that and something like cable TV advertising is ridiculous.

[@jso6790]

Taboo on Screen was a great series and my introduction to your video essays. I never cease to be impressed by your analysis. I wonder just how you developed such insights. Is it University study, or just a passionate pursuit of understanding?

[@jenniferpatton5108]

Take out the visuals of the CIA when he's on the phone too, seeing the sofa, is like seeing jaws, it spills the mystery.

[@rauldjvp3053]

The fact that Pulp Fiction has so much gratuitous violence, drug use, and profanity, to the point that you have to blur out scenes and speak euphemistically about its content and language, just so your video can remain monetizable, proves that the movie is still fresh, still transgressive for all the right reasons, and your little video is pretty much bunk. I hope that you don’t censor your language on Nebula.

[@ArielSpierer-t1w]

Shawshank Redemption should have won the Oscar that year imo.

[@Mokkari77]

If it did people would have gone "The what Redemption?" It tanked at the box office and didn't gain an audience until it got played repeatedly on TNT and TBS on cable a few years later.

[@philmcclenaghan7056]

Good god why do people keep saying that movie hoping it gives them credibility? It's CRAP

[@user61920]

It's not even close to Pulp Fiction, so delusional.

[@downsjmmyjones101]

It sounds lioe fhe general theme is "The world of gangsters and drugs will traumatise you or kill you." Marsellus ends up being "pretty fucking far from okay.", Vincent dies, Mia ODs(neadly dies), and Marvin and crew all die. Jules makes it out okay and Butch mostly makes it out okay. Both of them are in the process of leaving their old corrupt lives.

[@drummersnail115]

Once again, an amazing and thought-provoking video here. But I must say, if you ever read this, that it pains me to see you self-censor yourself and the clips on screen. There’s a degree of credibility lost every time I hear you call Cocaine “C” or blur out the blood in shots from the film. I understand these changes and their root in avoiding the corrupt and stupid system that is KZbin monetization, but I would happily support you and your work in another way where you can speak with the maturity and authority your brilliant ideas deserve.

[@ralphus44]

How long did you have to hold that pose mimicking Uma Thurman's iconic Pulp Fiction poster while you did all that narration? And was your back stiff by the time you were through?

[@DaemonCorps]

I didn't watch Pulp Fiction until well after I was out of college, so it didn't really land with me the same way ive seen it land for others. But I do like the idea of pop culture serving as a gateway to deeper conversations rather than remain as shallow references to toss in to win over an audience like shiny dangling keys. Good video as always!

[@joeywisedrums]

Thank you for this video! I hadn’t truly looked at this film through that lens until now!

[@davidogundare5146]

As usual, an in-depth analysis

[@shrishtigarg3187]

watched the whole video lying on my front like you did and only just realised it at the end

[@samuelbarber6177]

I think its fans have turned people off from it, and this is coming from someone who likes the movie (for my sins, I am a teen male), though its actually far from my favourite to Tarantino movie. It (and Tarantino’s work in general) has kind of gained a reputation for young white male nerds who think violence is the pinnacle of cinema. These people do exist, and they are very weird, but it’s sad to see people decrying the films for this, because Pulp Fiction is actually a lot deeper and more surprising than people give it credit for, in my view. Sure, it is a violent movie, it does have sexy women, and it does wear its post-modernism on its sleeve, but something I remember being shocked about, is just how laid back the movie is. It’s not really an action movie, most of the film is just people talking. And it’s not even plot stuff. They talk about McDonald’s and TV. It’s a comedy more than anything.

[@vidhiv]

I could listen to you all day!

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

Banger video 👏👏👏 The Forrest Gump one too. After watching them I feel like I better understand the template current popular media is working from. That sort of cynical, self aware, shallow feeling that's gotten so tiring. I really appreciate you pointing out what about these movies is still genuinely appealing though and how they won so much favor and influence. We are not immune to well made art even if it's flawed!

[@ru4realzzz]

I largely agree with almost every single point, but, I must say I saw pulp fiction in a packed theater full of all types of people of all ages last year, and I saw it entrance teenagers, middle aged hipsters and the elderly. More than half of the audience raised their hands beforehand and said they haven't seen it before when asked by a presenter, kinda rare experience probably. It works, it's aged very well and audiences certainly have not turned on it, IMO. Pulp fiction is definitely a massively-to-blame influence on the postmodern "shrug" leaving many of us, myself included, largely unsatisfied when watching movies, but I can think of many other similarly problematic nihilistic/postmodern movies/TV that are much, much less fun. :) great video

[@railcatcher2]

Great video, as always. The late screenwriter William Goldman mentioned in an essay back in 1994 how "Pulp Fiction" and "Forrest Gump" seemed to have been the same movie to him. He praised them both, but maybe for a point of view that has certainly changed.

[@DouwedeJong]

i learned so much from this. thanks for making the video.

[@jlovebirch]

Tarantino makes technically brilliant popcorn movies that are about -- other movies. They're all driven by nostalgic references and homages to the "cool" parts of other films and genres. Not much depth, but one hell of a pop culture surface in all of them.

[@houseonsand]

I'm not sure I buy this take. Those references are laden with cultural meaning, values and aesthetic connective tissue to larger ideas that permeate how we understand the world via our engagement with media. He doesn't sit down and try to make a diadatic meta narrative consciously. But he ends up demonstrating those things anyway: the motivations, subversions of cliche and tropes and even just how he moves his camera all have a commentary embedded in them.

[@jlovebirch]

@@houseonsand This sounds like overthinking it a bit. Tarantino isn't that deep. But if people are compelled to find hidden meaning in random references like "Trix are for kids" and the theme to "Ironside", that's their business.

[@DarklordofDOOM57]

I haven’t seen Pulp Fiction since I was 15, but I never “turned” on it, I guess. Same with movies like Fight Club, etc. didn’t rewatch them but have a very fond memory of it

[@ADollOnAMusicBox]

This might be one of my favorite video of yours. Really appreciate your perspective and how you helped me reevaluate/appreciate things about this film. I love it. Thank you, lady.

[@Tony-fq5bn]

I always thought Jules and Jimmy were old War buddies, and thats why the word flew so freely, similar to Full Metal Jacket

[@Jerrycourtney]

*_Maybe the real Pulp Fiction was inside of us all along_* -Broey, probably.

[@maxxtoler3054]

Stumbling across this movie as a teen in the early oughts was like a revelation. First time I got interested not in movies, but the art-side of "film". Caught it partway through on AMC and had to go find a DVD immediately.

[@JoadWells]

There are too many people in the comments that think if they haven’t heard pulp fiction critique then it must not exist

[@seanohalloran384]

Pulp Fiction is my favorite film and this really adds to my appreciation of it. Great video! PS Have you made a video like this about The Royal Tenenbaums? Thanks

[@LisaSantana15]

seems pretty fitting they said to go easy on the drug scene but not the r*pe.

[@ogto]

very brave of you to do a Pulp Fiction poster pose, inadvertently awakening things in your audience. killer look regardless!

[@AI-mg3hy]

I watched this one with my 16 year old a few months ago. Beforehand I told him there's going to be a character in this, a white dude who for some reason just goes ahead and says the n word a bunch of times, and that guy is played by the guy who wrote and directed it, so this guy wrote himself into the movie and had himself say this word a lot, and then he won awards for it and went on to direct more movies and become one of the most revered filmmakers in history. I told him this to give him context for our current attitudes toward race and racism. 90s culture was trying super hard to get us to believe we had already gone through the worst of it. So I think when most people watched this movie and heard him throw the word around nonchalantly, it was like oh, that's kind of weird but it's his character I guess. And then the movie continued and so did we. And we ended up liking the movie. We knew he wasn't really racist and neither were we. We were comfortable in our own non-racism. Then we had this weird window in the 2000s where we were trying even harder to act like we were past it. Comedians were doing blackface and making racist jokes ironically, to demonstrate just how far past it we were. You see if we were actually racist for real, these jokes would be awful and make us awful, but we aren't really racist and we don't actually mean it, so these jokes are good and show us just how far we've come. Progressivism via regressivism.

[@TheGreatSteve]

I'd say Pulp Fiction is timeless. I have no interest in even watching Forest.

[@ronbock8291]

Who is that guy standing next to Tarantino while he accepted an award for his only good movie? I wonder.

[@jberczi6]

I've not heard of a single person turning on Pulp Fuction

[@natedogg890]

It was surprisingly easy to jump into back when cable existed.. though I might have gotten more out of the hilarious cable censorship than the actual movie hahaha

[@christopherdavis8248]

@muvie343nfh I hate all those movies and ESPECIALLY pulp fiction!!!!

[@alelectric2767]

I was 20 in the summer of 94 when this came out. Saw Travolta in the trailer add on tv and figured I’d check it out. Completely blew my mind. Had to go see it again3 weeks later.

[@prabeerbhutani3677]

Pulp Fiction is a popcorn movie inspired by other popcorn movies while knowing it's a popcorn movie and at the same time in its key moments subverting the tropes of the said popcorn movies. Also it's a sophomore indie movie. That thing was revolutionary for its time. I watched it as my first tarantino film and thought it was good. Now watching his other films I realized his best film is Kill Bill vol.1 where he is simply paying homage to martial arts cinema while also being kind of a wixuia film I guess. Also it's taking direct inspiration from Lady Snowbird. So his films do have merit in that they repackage the old and present in a new form while commenting on the genre he is packaging. They don't really offer commentary on the themes or the stories.

[@stephennootens916]

But many of those old films are better. Example Lady Snowblood is s much better movie than the kill bill films and it also hits emotionally were kill bill doesn't.

[@xIQ188x]

I really enjoy a lot of the criticism of Pulp Fiction as entertainment in itself. The people who have the largest issues with it almost never articulate something real about the movie, but rather something deeply personal to themselves that they’ve mistaken for a universal experience.

[@Tony-fq5bn]

Both Gump and Pulp Fiction have stood the test of time. Plenty of people still love those films(I would say way more people like Pulp these days than Gump tho, prob cuz its cooler lol), its just there is a sizable amount of internet people that make their dislike very well known

[@MrGMovieReviews]

People need to get over that scene. Seriously stop bringing it up. We get it you hate it.

[@FauxRomano]

On references as community--that feels like the predominate mode of the internet, and arguably current mono-culture. The references just fly by so much faster. Skibidi.

[@bwen18]

I must be out of the loop. I didn't know ppl were turning on Pulp Fiction.

[@rosebudsavesacat]

This is probably hypocritical but sometimes I feel like professional film critics can be a bit dramatic. Like with some of the quotes in your video it’s like ‘ damn, who hurt you??’

[@zetmarple]

amazing video & look as always!!

[@businessburd2071]

You know, with the benefit of hindsight I understand why when I watched this movie I was just confused the entire time and didn't enjoy myself. I can't recognize faces. I genuinely didn't notice characters or story lines crossing over because I couldn't tell it was the same person from a different perspective.

[@drew8235]

While I don't hold Tarantino in as high regard as I did when I first discovered his films, I don't see how anyone could make the argument that Pulp Fiction has not stood up to the test of time. It's still an amazing film.

[@estebanmartinez5930]

I really feel Tarantino makes art house movies for non art hous movie watchers. Very much in the vain in which Fredric Jameson analysed postmodernism. An easy to get into director that doesn't requiere sitting through some wierd ass or slow ass movie. Still like his movies. They are iconic because they are made to be iconic.

[@strongdecaf3729]

Some great films are very connected with their time. Younger generations won't understand them.