Are You Talking To Me?

[shemthepenman]

I had to study Pulp Fiction to death at uni, and I got really sick of intellectuals telling me how amazing it is because of all the iconography and shite.  Yes, it has loads of symbols.  Yes, it uses a fractured narrative well.  I couldn't give a rat's arse about that though, because the movie just left me feeling like Tarantino wanted everyone to know how very super duper clever he is.  The awesome juxtaposition set up in Reservoir Dogs between the music and the action didn't work in Pulp Fiction because it had already been done.  Tarantino very quickly became his own cliche.

Taxi Driver, on the other hand, addressed issues more subtly and the performances were absolutely brilliant.  Scorsese is not a one-trick pony.

yeah, i mean, i'm not a big tarantino fan. reservoir dogs is in my top ten films of all time, but after pulp fiction he just played the same note over and over and over. . . having said that, i still really love that film and both films have a special place in the history of me. i watched pulp fiction recently with my daughter and she hadn't even heard of it, and was blown away. and it was really cool to watch her glued to the screen every now and again going 'what the fuck?'. i think sometimes we can forget how original it was, even if superficial. plus i think pulp fiction would really lend itself to the big screen. . . but then again, Taxi Driver is a masterpiece, and when i was about 13 or 14 i shaved my head into a Travis Bickle mohawk. i don't know. the people will decide.