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| Figure 1: Pulp Fiction Poster |
Pulp Fiction is Quentin Tarantino's 1994 drama/crime film rotating around multiple separate stories that all intertwine to tell the stories of violence and danger that take place within different peoples lives. The film revolves around these unrelated stories with problematic characters and ends up weaving the characters together in mysterious ways to cause several, mixed up incidents.
The film itself is laid out in such a way that it can be argued to be postmodern just in itself by its structure. The film is made up of several intertwining stories, one about two hitmen, a gangster and his wife, and a boxer. These are the three main storylines we see throughout Pulp Fiction, but definitely not the only ones. Tarantino said in an interview 'If a million people see my movie, I hope they see a million different movies.' (Tarantino, Q. N/A) Tarantino succeeds in this statement since, alongside the three main stories, there are also other stories within the film; the two diner bandits that take the beginning and the end of the film, the drug dealer and Marcellus Wallace is in a league of his own. The film itself doesn't follow a typical film 'narrative' with a 3 act structure or following a simple a to b storyline. This in itself can be argued to be a postmodern cinema experience. Pulp Fiction is full of micro-narratives that can almost be disorientating to an audience, this means the film requires the audience to really think about what they're viewing opposed to how some films make an audience comfortable, and able to almost switch off. This completely changes the viewing experience and all in all allows for the film structure/narrative to be called out as being: postmodern. (There can also be a poststructuralism argument, due to the structure differing so vastly from a regular film.) 'Most frequently included within the postmodernist canon is Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. In this case, we can identify all or almost all the “typical” characteristics: a heterogeneity of style and allusion; juxtaposition of the comic and the catastrophic; an apparently casual attitude to violence and drug abuse; an episodic, digressive narrative; a freedom from cinematic convention.' (Norman, S. 2011) The film is full of ideas that pull it away from being a typical film and steer it more in the direction of being a postmodernist film.
Postmodernism critiques the social constructs that society is built upon, this includes things like gender and social classes. Within Pulp Fiction it is hard to get a grasp on who is of which social class, and even if you did, it wouldn't necessarily matter. All the characters throughout the film are presented as equals to one another. The only time there is any issue with class can arguably be seen through Marcellus Wallace, due to him being top dog of the organisation of which he is running. But even so, when it comes down to it and Marcellus is being beaten and raped, he is saved by Bruce, a man of whom was fighting him previously- but this is all put aside and classes are absolutely forgotten. This can be a complicated way to see that, so another view on the social class construct being demolished through a postmodern lens is when we see the policeman violating Marcellus and Bruce, the authority is corrupt and therefore almost doesn't exist. This helps to prove that social constructs do not exist in a postmodern society, or postmodern cinema.
Other features that can help make up postmodern cinema tend to be the lack of an actual message or understanding to be made from the film due to it having so much freedom around how it is laid out and the things it is portraying, 'A postmodern film might not even have a message in particular rather different audience can have their own message by themselves' (Easmin, S. 2014).
To conclude, Pulp Fiction can be viewed through a postmodern lens and visibly be seen as being a postmodern piece of work while being backed up by various academic sources.
Figure 1: Pulp Fiction Poster, Pulp Fiction (1994) [Poster] Available: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/mediaviewer/rm1959546112
Bibliography:
Easmin, S. (2014) Film and Postmodern Culture. [Online PDF] Available: http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10361/3944/12163011.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Norman, S. (2011) Postmodernist Film: A Cinematic Genre. [Online PDF] Available: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/703689
Tarantino, Q. (N/A) Interview Unfound. (I am searching for it)
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