BLU-RAY REVIEW: PULP FICTION: TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION / CERT:18 / DIRECTOR: QUENTIN TARANTINO / SCREENPLAY: QUENTIN TARANTINO / STARRING: JOHN TRAVOLTA, SAMUEL L. JACKSON, UMA THURMAN, BRUCE WILLIS, HARVEY KEITEL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
You know how it is when you revisit a favourite film – something wonderful, something which made your personal earth move, something that smashed you around the face because it just reinvented the whole stinking idea of cinema – years after the event and you get that sinking feeling? “This hasn’t aged well, it’s not as good as I remember, it looks really hokey now…” Forget about it; twenty years on Pulp Fiction is as bright, audacious, iconoclastic and downright ruddy brilliant as it was when it first exploded into our lives back in 1994. It remains Quentin Tarantino’s one inarguable masterpiece; the killer follow-up to his sensational, sit-up-and-take-notice classic Reservoir Dogs debut, which made it quite clear that here was a maverick new talent who could very possibly redefine cinema for an entire generation.
Regardless of your opinions of Tarantino’s subsequent oeuvre, there’s no doubt that Pulp Fiction is the sparkling, sizzling ultimate embodiment of Tarantino’s genius for smart, whip-crack pop culture dialogue, here combined with an extraordinary non-linear narrative. The iconic prologue as Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honeybun (Amanda Plummer) prepare for their daring diner heist turns into the captivating, ultra-cool story of Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and his near-disastrous ‘date’ with mobster Marsellus Wallace’s wife Mia (Thurman). Then, we twist and turn our way through extraordinary escapades with aging prizefighter, Butch Coolidge (Willis), the eye-watering story of the fate of young Butch’s father’s watch as told by Christopher Walken’s deadpan Vietnam colleague Captain Koons, and “the Bonnie Situation” in which Harvey Keitel’s “cleaner” Winston Wolfe is called upon to clear up the bloody debris of one of Vincent’s hits with his partner Jules (Jackson). But none of this unfolds with any logical progression; characters drift in and out of storylines, one character in particular is killed in one segment before reappearing later in a segment which takes place earlier. Pulp Fiction is impossible to second-guess and it’s astonishing and heartening to report that it’s as fresh, funny, inventive and endlessly-quotable now as it was twenty years ago.
What better way to celebrate two decades of Pulp Fiction than with this sharp and displayable new anniversary edition? Housed in a sleek black faux attaché case, the collection includes the already-available 2-disc Blu-ray of the movie (which looks stunning in HD) along with a replica Jack Rabbit Slim menu, Big Kahuna Burger carry-out bag, souvenir photos, Pulp Fiction-illustrated twenty-dollar bills and a metal ‘Z’ key ring (“Zed’s dead, baby“). But, of course, the film’s the main attraction here; the rest of the package is just window dressing best enjoyed over a Royale with Cheese…
Special features: Interviews, Retrospective, behind-the-scenes footage, featurettes, Siskel & Ebert feature, Awards show footage, stills gallery, deleted scenes.
