In late 1992, Quentin Tarantino left Amsterdam, where he spent three months on and off in a studio apartment without telephones and faxes, writing the script that became the Pulp Fiction.
Tarantino, 30, wrote the script for the film in a dozen notebooks on a plane to Los Angeles. Tarantino gave the script to typist Linda Chen, his good friend, for proofreading.
The script was completed in May 1993 . A year later, Pulp Fiction hit theaters, and Stanley Crouch in the Los Angeles Times called it "the pinnacle of youth." "It's like a shot of adrenaline going straight to the heart," declared Time magazine. In Entertainment Weekly, Owen Glieberman said it was "no less than a revamp of mainstream American cinema."
The film cost $8.5 million to make and grossed $214 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing independent film at the time.
Legendary film critic Roger Ebert called the film the "most influential" film of the 1990s, " written in such a scribbled, charming way that it can be so well-written that you're on "Scriptwriting Class"
'Pulp Fiction' revives John Travolta's career, stars Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, gives Bruce Willis a new life at the box office, gives Miramax's Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein became independent film giants. Harvey called it "the first independent film to break all the rules". It has a new dial on the movie clock. "
"It's unbelievable that Quentin Tarantino, a largely self-taught, inexperienced audio shop employee, could come up with a script with such depth, intelligence, and fiery creativity that brought him to America. Filmmakers at the forefront!" Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times.
Jon Ronson, a critic for The Independent, declared, "Since Citizen Kane came out...no one has emerged from a relatively obscure role to redefine the art of filmmaking."
1. Screenwriter
In 1986, just seven years before the film was released, Tarantino, 23, was a part-time actor, a high school dropout, broke, had no apartment of his own, and rarely showered.
In the absence of an agent, almost no one reads the scripts he writes. "Too mean, too vulgar, too violent" was the usual reaction, he said later. According to Wensley Clarkson's "Quentin Tarantino Biography," his repeated use of foul language in his script, "True Love," led a studio rep to write to him early on The agent, Kathryn Jaymes, expressed strong anger and dissatisfaction.
"Like a lot of people who've never made a movie before, I've been trying to figure out how to trick people into letting me make a movie," Tarantino said. While there is no doubt that he is the king of all film knowledge at the Video Archives in suburban Los Angeles, he is a nobody in Hollywood. He's surrounded by movies he's seen, and suddenly he comes up with an idea to recycle three of the book's most clichés: like the ones you've seen countless times -- boxers should fight but don't; thugs should take bosses The woman went out for the night; two killers came and killed them all.
It will be a "synthetic thing" made up of three hilarious films, similar to the stories that writers such as Raymond Chandler and Dessler Hammett wrote in pulp magazines in the 1920s and 1930s . "That's why I call it Pulp Fiction," Tarantino said.
He originally named the film after Louis Mahler's 1987 film "Goodbye, Children," but Tarantino jokingly mispronounced it as "reservoir dogs," according to a source. So Tarantino was determined to direct Reservoir Dogs at the time, so Pulp Fiction would have to wait.
When Reservoir Dogs was confirmed to be a movie, no one seemed willing to support the untested Tarantino.
But Bender knew someone who knew actor Harvey Keitel, and that changed everything. Keitel heard about Tarantino from fellow Actors Studio theater director Lily Parker. He heard Quentin had a really good script, so Keitel signed on as the main cast, he also helped raise $1.5 million to make the film, but most importantly, he backed Tarantino as director. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Reservoir Dogs" was "arguably the most talked-about film at the [1992] Sundance Film Festival." From there, Tarantino began to gain fame.
Meanwhile, Hollywood is talking to Tarantino about his future. This is Pulp Fiction, three intertwined crime stories set in Los Angeles. "Just as New York is a big character in a New York crime movie, I'm going to make Los Angeles a big character," Tarantino told me. "Then I started thinking that in one story is all the characters that overlap with the stars, maybe a small character in a second story, a supporting character in a third story, and so on."
Tarantino made $50,000 on "Reservoir Dogs" and was paid $900,000 for "Pulp Fiction" from TriStar. Tarantino never really left Los Angeles County. But this time, he decided to go to Amsterdam — the land of legalized marijuana and mass prostitution. "My writing experience has been interesting!" he continued.
“I don’t have to worry about money. By chance, I found an apartment by the canal to rent. I would get up and walk around Amsterdam, drink 12 cups of coffee, and write all morning.”
After the script was completed, it was handed over to Mike McDavoy, the former chairman of Samsung Studios, who said: "I read the script and I liked it. There was a scene that was really violent, and they drove at a person in the back seat of the car. Guns, shards of his brain splattered all over the place. The director and I had a discussion and I said, 'This is really overkill, you're going to be blown back. He said, 'But it's going to be fun! "
It turned out he was right, and the audience thought it was funny. But for various reasons, the film was shot by Miramax Films.
The shooting and production
Quentin began to choose actors , first of all, John Travolta, who played Vincent. Then there's Uma Thurman, Amanda Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Phil Lamar, and more, who himself has a short cameo in the movie.
The 51-day shooting began on September 20, 1993. The film shoots the first of 70 locations and scenes under searing light bulbs on a Hawthorne grill in suburban Los Angeles. The couple, played by Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer, went from breakfast to robbery.
Tarantino said he was at the "peak of creativity and imagination." I am just living my dream. To make an $8.5 million film look like it cost $25 million, Bender said he decided to shoot on "the slowest film Kodak has ever made," which required super-bright lights.
Most actors are afraid to modify Tarantino's scripted lines, but Travolta felt he had to invent a cool way of speaking to get certain lines right. His opening line was about the Paris quarter pound: "Cheese Royal Beer." Travolta explained, "I remember thinking, if you slow down, say the full 'lip-shual' would It's funny. I've toned the word up so my lips and teeth stand out." He's just that kind of guy, I know, and anything eccentric is acceptable.
Later, Vincent and Jules, still on their way to the killing contract, discuss at length Mia Wallace and how her brutal husband threw a gangster off a fourth-floor balcony because He gave her a foot massage. Tarantino inspired this seemingly impromptu scene.
The film quickly switches to Marcellus Wallace's massive head, which the audience can only see from behind . He's in a bar, and Wayne Ramis has a Band-Aid on his head to wrap his wound. Tarantino insisted it be on.
In one of the scenes, Travolta revels in the perfect stage play and takes Mia Wallace on a date. They drove to a themed restaurant, which was actually a restaurant built in a warehouse in Culver City.
After winning the dance competition, Travolta muttered to himself in Mia's bathroom that he knew he would be killed if he didn't free himself from the mad girl in the living room. At the same time, she was rummaging through his trench coat, where she found a pack of Class III Class A heroin. She instigated it, causing herself to foam at the mouth and almost died of an overdose. Travolta had to pierce Thurman's heart with a large syringe. Fortunately, Mia woke up.
This scene made Pulp Fiction a classic, but in fact, the entire 154-minute film is a series of unsightly shots . But what does that mean? Today, Samuel L. Jackson's answer comes closest to the answer. "Those who deserve to be saved will be saved," he said. "The two robbers, Pumpkin and Dear Rabbit, were saved. They got another chance - and that was their salvation. Uma had a chance to die. She didn't. Die. Butch got another chance. Marcellus Wallace even got another chance."
The film was successfully filmed, produced, and released in the end.
3. Awards
At the 1995 Oscars, Weinstein confidently ensured that the film was "a success from the start" and became the No. 1 U.S. box office. A big hit at the Oscars will give the film a rebirth at the box office and in the home video market.
Pulp Fiction was nominated for not only Best Picture , but six other nominations, including Best Actor (Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Jackson), Best Supporting Actress (Se Mann) and Best Director (Tarantino) .
For Best Picture, Pulp Fiction had to compete with another awe-inspiring film, "Forrest Gump."
According to Jamie Bernard's biography for Tarantino, Miramax spent between $300,000 and $400,000 on Oscar promotions, about half what Paramount spent on Forrest Gump. Weinstein used his money wisely.
"He's like a forensic scientist doing a demographic analysis of likely voters," Simpson said. "Meryl Hester (now the president of television at The Weinstein Company), in terms of getting Oscar voting, arguably Is Harvey's right-hand man. She'll go to the movie house in Silicon Valley, which is a retirement community for those who are in business. It's like everyone's a member of the Academy. You get about 400 votes. She'll go out Having lunch with the little old ladies and making a personal connection with each of them, saying, 'Watch this movie and vote for our movie.'"
At the Oscars on March 27, 1995, the award for Best Original Screenplay was announced earlier that night.
The TV screen went black for a moment when host Anthony Hopkins said the winners were Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avari. Because the two former videographers hugged on stage as Pulp Fiction's opening music rang through the Temple Auditorium. "I think it's probably the only award I've had here tonight," Tarantino said.
He is right. This night belongs to Forrest Gump. But the future belongs to Quentin Tarantino.
The article was first published on the professional film critic public account: professional film review, thank you for your attention!
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