How Quentin Tarantino Helped Me Get Through University

Last night I was cleaning up some files on my relic of a computer.  A while ago I'd taken the last of the 3.5" floppy disks (for those who are too young to remember, we used to fancy storing our data in plastic coasters 12 years ago) and had them all copied to my harddrive (the entire box of discs probably amounted to 2MB), and amidst a mountain of WordPerfect and Microsoft Works files (which I have no idea how to convert) I found some some old papers that I wrote in university.

It's been suggested that I can make an argument for almost anything using Quentin Tarantino's films, and that once you get me started I may not shut up for days.  The paper below is proof.  It was written for a 2nd year film studies course, citing examples of Symbolism in Pulp Fiction.  Pretty mindless fare right?  In my defense, I never meant to regurgitate conversations from the bar (and Art Hall...for those who went to high school with me) and message boards to pass off as research for a university paper.  It was all supposed to have been very different.

There's no polite way to put it, even 12 years later... I hated my prof for that class.  Others loved her, she was my nemesis and to this day I believe she passed me so that we would not have to endure each other again.  There was a variety of possible topics for this paper, but our selection had to be pre-approved by our professor.  To avoid in-person contact (I may have already refused to physically attend her class by this point... that story another time) I fired off an email to her asking for approval to write a paper on Wong Kar Wai (whose films I was only beginning to discover at the time, and really much more appropriate for an arty film theory tie-in than guys wielding guns, and using the N-word 69 times.), and set out with a stack of video tapes and articles.  She replied 2 days before the due date to say I could not write my paper on Wong Kar Wai because she did not have enough knowledge of his films (which I think is b.s., just because she's deeply entrenched in her Eistenstein and Bazin doesn't mean she can't read the contents of my paper and grade my level of success in proving my hypothesis.  Wong Kar Wai was already an established director so clearly I wasn't making up a fictitious filmmaker.  Furthermore, Wong Kar Wai sits firmly on the list of postmodern Auteurs, a theory/movement that Bazin himself championed!  Sorry, I digress, I will go back to speaking like a normal person now...)  She basically gave me 2 days notice to dump all my research and start again!

That was my breaking point, hers wasn't the only course I had, plus whatever exams and productions I was involved with at the time.  So to appease the requirements of the paper I chose one of the simplest theories available to demonstrate, and picked a film that I knew so well, I could recite it backwards.  I didn't even have to rewatch PF (though I would've if I hadn't been so pressed for time), I just sat down and spit out the 2000 words.  I know this isn't profound writing, or ultimately even that informing.  But it's proof that it's advantageous to know your favourite movie inside and out, and demonstrates how I managed to pass a course just by writing about Quentin Tarantino :)  You gotta love that.

So here it is, the late-night bullshitting of a QT-obsessed 21 year old film student:

Random fact about me:  "Honey Bunny" is the only pet name I will answer to

Submitted to:  Dr. Lily Avrutin

Submitted by:  Ada Wong

Course:  MFP 026

Due Date:  Monday, April 3, 2000

The Super Cool Briefcase and Gold Watch of Ezekiel 25:17

The Symbolism in Pulp Fiction

             A movement, which began in the late 1880’s, Symbolism, arose as a result of opposition to realism.  Artists disappointed in the current state of rationalistic and materialistic society sought new values in spirituality and the pursuit of hidden meanings.  Symbolism has been found in film for decades from experimental to narrative, in Hollywood narratives it is most commonly used to add another deeper dimension to the story than that which is being presented on the screen.  A contemporary example of symbolism being used for such a purpose is Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, a seemingly chaotic bloodbath of a film about characters of the thieving, lying, and cheating sort.  Pulp Fiction utilizes symbolism to show cultural representations and underlying themes, it also includes discussions about symbolism and the different ways the characters interpret them.

           

            Symbolic references usually require some kind of pre-established connection between the nature of the symbol and the meaning, even though the actual perception is thought to be an internal relationship between that of the percipient and what is perceived (Whitehead, 8-9)*.  Tarantino, a child of pop culture and mass media himself, gives his audience little room for misinterpretation when illustrating his views on American culture.  Pulp Fiction makes reference to every decade after the Second World War and does so through iconography, showing that America today is nothing but a collage of times past.  Each scene contains elements from different decades be it objects, clothing, music, or verbal references.  Even in a simple setup such as the conversation between Vincent and Lance the drug dealer at Lance's house, there are multiple references to various decades.  Lance speaks of disco, seventies retro, bell-bottoms, and Vincent's car - a Malibu, all in under a minute.  On their date later that evening, Mia convinces her "Elvis Man"  Vincent to have their meal at 50's diner Jack Rabbit Slim's where their waiter is a Buddy Holly impersonator and they dance to Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell".  In the second story, The Gold Watch, Butch runs into the pawn shop owned by Maynard, which is like a collection of all the junk one can possibly collect over that period of 50 years.  In this pawnshop many horrific events take place, while Butch manages to escape, he feels a compulsion to return for Marsellus.  He searches the shop for a possible weapon and settles on a large samurai sword, representative of Asian culture where honour among thieves is seen as integral.

            The Gold Watch segment opens with a Vietnam War Veteran telling young Butch about the history and lineage of his family and this watch, Tarantino chose this particular war as it was around this time that the straightforward fashion that society treated lineage and time with began to disintegrate. (Rushkoff, 104)  Butch certainly did not do honourable battle like his father and those preceding him, but yet he still held on to the importance of lineage during times of chaos as he went back to retrieve his watch.  After the Vietnam War, many were changed, and Butch's family was no exception.  The watch symbolizes here the history and lineage that Butch still respects even after all the social changes that have taken place.  The whole film can be viewed as a sign the changes that have taken place, things are no longer straightforward and black and white, and neither is the arrangement of this film.

            One the themes of this movie is redemption, there are 3 examples that are most notable.  Butch decides to go back downstairs in the pawn shop to save Marsellus, in the process he gains redemption for killing the boxer Wilson in the ring the previous night. Marsellus allows Butch to go after rescuing stating "there is no me and you, not no more", Butch has redeemed himself with Marsellus and is free from him and his men provided he doesn't tell anyone about the events that took place and never returns to the city.  Jules lets Pumpkin and Honey Bunny go at the diner even after they've taken all his money and pointed a gun at him, he talks to them and tries to guide them rather than inflicting violence. He even prompts his partner Vincent not to shoot; he is a recently changed man and hopes to gain redemption in this way.  Less obvious is the needle, it is viewed by the drug addicted characters primarily as a tool for shooting up, but in a twist of fate it is also a giant hypodermic needle that saves Mia during her overdose.  The needle has redeemed itself, showing that is it more than merely an object of destruction.

            Hidden in the plot, one would also find many references to spirituality.  Jules has a preoccupation with his bible passage Ezekiel 25:17, which he likes to recite right before he kills someone.  He does this for the guys in the apartment when he and Vincent are retrieving the briefcase, and he recites it again for Pumpkin but does not open fire this time because he has changed his ways from the 'miracle' he has witnessed.  The briefcase Vincent and Jules go to so much trouble to recover is also a symbol of spirituality.  Its combination is 666 as we can see when Vincent first opens it to check its contents, the number of Satan.  This briefcase is to be delivered to Marsellus, who can be viewed as an evil personality.  The contents of the briefcase has caused much debate, but it is commonly believed to contain either Marsellus' soul or "the evil of all men", the latter adding to Marsellus' link to the devil.  We first see the golden glow of the briefcase when Vincent opens it up on the counter at the apartment, it is much like the glow given off by candles in a church.  The same type of light appears on the film and triggers the fade in of the scene as Jules and Vincent open fire on Brett, suggesting a relationship with the briefcase that is something unearthly.

            In times of trouble, and there are many of such times in this film, it is always important to "stay cool".  Doing so will keep you alive, and losing your cool will often get you shot.  In the apartment during the early morning, Brett is sitting down enjoying his Big Kahuna Burger when Jules and Vincent come busting in.  Brett is doing fine as long as he sits calmly passing his food and tasty beverage over to Jules when requested, but as soon as the gun is in his face and his friend is shot he loses his cool, starts stammering, and then is shot.  After his date with Mia, Vincent hangs around in her washroom giving himself a pep talk on staying cool and not sleeping with the "Big Man's" wife, in the meantime, Mia is outside overdosing on his heroin.  When Vincent and Jules show up at Jimmy's house with Marvin's brains splattered all over the inside of their car all three are on the verge of losing their cool, at which point they enlist the help of The Wolf who remains calm and saves them all from trouble.  Finally in the diner Jules urges Pumpkin and Honey to be cool, like "three Fonzie's", Pumpkin complies but Honey Bunny takes more a little more effort.  Both do end up "chilling out", as do all the customers, hence any shooting is avoided and everyone survives the robbery.

            Time plays the antagonist in much of the film, it is definitely not on Mia, Vincent, Butch, or Jimmy's side.  Like the norm of modern society, they are racing against the clock, only in much more dire situations.  Vincent is speeding down the street in his car while calling Lance on his cell phone with a dying Mia next to him, Lance scrambles around a cluttered room to find a black medical book, and him and Vincent have a hurried debate about who is to give Mia the adrenaline shot.  Butch is on a race for his freedom the moment he flees from the rink after he's killed the boxer, he phones his bookie to find out when he can pick up the money and plans to leave in the morning.  He is further pressed for time the following morning when he realizes that Fabienne has left his watch, the most obvious symbol of time, back at the apartment and has to go retrieve it.  After he successfully retrieves his father's watch, another setback occurs leading him running straight into the events of the pawnshop as he trys to flee from Marsellus.  Jimmy's preoccupation with time stems from the fact that two guys have just shown up at his house covered in blood and brains with a headless body in their car and his wife is due home in an hour.  Thankfully for those involved, each and every one of them managed in their situations.  The focus on time is not simply within the characters' lives but also with the film itself as time is cut up and rearranged, drawing attention to it by doing so.

            Vincent and Jules have on more than one occasion stopped to have discussions about the symbolic significance of certain events.  The first occurred as they waited in the hallway of Brett and company's apartment, they debated whether giving a woman a foot message was a sexual act.  A fellow gangster had just been thrown off a building for giving Marsellus' wife a foot message and the partners were arguing if the man had deserved it.  The foot message is a sign of trouble, trouble in relation to Mia Wallace, perhaps a sign Vincent should have heeded more carefully during their date that night.  Their views clash again in the diner when Jules is convinced that a miracle had taken place while Vincent dismisses it as a "freak occurrence".  There had been a third man in the washroom of the apartment who jumped out and fired straight at them, yet none of the bullets struck Jules or Vincent.  Jules took this as a religious sign, that God wanted him to live, and decided to give up his life as a gangster.  Vincent took this event as "another occasion to express dismay at the way things go in our unmannerly society" (Beebe, 1).  He learnt nothing in his reflections of the event and hence was doomed to repeat his mistakes, his lack of personal progression is what causes him to be killed by Butch two days later during the stakeout.  Jules had quit by this time and was no longer Vincent's partner, therefore his life was spared.  Finally Jules tries to rationize his favourite bible passage and what role he plays in it to Pumpkin as they sit at the table.  He had previously thought of it as only a cold sounding passage to recite before an execution, but in light of the events just past, he now gives it more thought.  Ezekiel 25:17 encompasses many different characters and Jules attempts to figure out who plays who symbolically, he comes up with three different scenarios where he is either the righteous man, the shepherd, or the tyranny of evil men.  He finally settles on the latter and decides to try to be the shepherd.

              In our perception of the external world we are familiar with the immediate presentation of the contemporary world, yet we cannot instantly relate to symbolic references unless there is a common link between the symbol and meaning that can be expressed even "without reference to the percipient" (Whitehead, 9).  Tarantino has painted us with a clear picture not only through his popular culture iconography of  the decades, but also through his characters.  While they may be cynics, mirrored in them sharply are our present anxieties.  Like Jules and Vincent's differing interpretations of the supposed "miracle", viewers tend to be divided on the meaning of this film.  John Beebe of the San Francisco Jung Institute sees the division comprised of those who see it as a "supreme occasion for indulging our regret at the deterioration of our culture's values" and those who make note of the "transformation in this country's historical valorizing of vengeance", although it may be as simple as those who see it only for it's violence and those who actually see the meaning beyond the surface.

* Please pardon the citations, I did not remove, yet do not have my citations list either.  I can provide if any legal types come banging on my door/inbox ;)

Supplementary (aka Better) Reading:
Wong Kar-wai - http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/wong/
Auteur Theory - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory 
ON THE Q.T.: Ch 2: PULP FICTION (The Cool) - http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/video-essay-the-qt-pulp-fiction-and-cool