What's up, Wisecrack? Welcome to The Good, The Bad, and The Brilliant,
the show where we break down the video games, movies, and TV shows that we're really excited
about. Now, we're going to do something a little
bit different today and talk about a classic film. So, we'll be getting into the 1994 Quentin
Tarantino film, Pulp Fiction. This is the film that both put Quentin Tarantino
on the map as sort of a household name in American filmmaking, and established the style
that would make him one of the most important filmmakers of the past 30 years. I’m a mushroom cloud laying mothafucker,
mothafucker, everytime my fingers touch brain I’m super fly TNT, I'm the Guns of the Navarone I'm Michael, and today I'm joined by Jared. Hello, hello. Now, before we get any further into this,
we're going to spoil the crap out of this movie. So, if you haven't seen it, please go watch
it now. Hit pause, come back, and we'll be here waiting
for you. And I promise you, and Jared can confirm this,
it'll be worth it. So worth it. So, now that you know that, hopefully you've
seen it. We're going to get into it. Let's start by talking about the good. So, Jared, what's good about Pulp Fiction? There's a lot. But I think one word you can use to describe
this film that I think gives a pretty holistic description of it, is cool. This movie is cool as shit. And I think you can even almost go academically
cool. Marshall McLuhan, although he was talking
about a medium, once described cool as being involved and detached. And I think you can describe this movie as
functioning on that level. A lot of this movie is people being in very
high stakes situations, but going about it with this kind of detached nonchalance. Yeah. Whether it's Jules and Vincent going up, and
they're outmanned and outgunned. We shoulda brought fuckin shotguns. They're going up the elevator, talking about
foot massages Don’t be tellin me about foot massages,
I’m the fucking master. Not knowing what's going to be behind that
door. But, yet, they're talking about gossip, and
yet they don't know if they're about to get killed. And there's just so much stuff like that. And then, of course, we've got to talk about
the dialogue. If the pig had a better personality than it
would cease to be a filthy animal, is that true? We would be talking about one charming motherfuckin
pig. Tarantino really did change the game when
it comes to dialogue. Yeah. And let's not forget that all these things
add up to one of the greatest comebacks of all time, John Travolta. Hell yes. And all the performances are so good in this
movie. I think the two threads you bring up right
there go together really nicely. Because not only is the dialogue so exceptional,
the performances meet the standard of that dialogue. Mm-hmm They honor it with their commitment to those
performances. And in watching it again, I couldn't help
but think about how the dialogue hasn't aged a bit. Yeah. It feels just as cool, and fresh, and sharp. And I went back and looked at the original
1994 review of this film that Gene Siskel had in the Chicago Tribune. And he had this line about the dialogue I
loved, where he said, "If you smile at David Mamet's dialogue, you'll laugh out loud at
the word's of Quentin Tarantino." And, of course, Mamet, who has gone on to
do some stuff in TV and film as one of the most, I think, important stage writers of
modern history, one of the best playwrights ever. And his dialogue is very fast-paced, it's
very intense, it's kind of philosophical. So, I love that comparison. And I like how he brings up laughter. Because Tarantino writes in a style that is
dense, it's serious, it's philosophical, it's emotive. But it's funny, and there's a levity to it. Yes. And I think the juxtapositions he sets up,
of two hitmen showing up to a job, debating the nuances of cultural differences in consumer
goods between Europe and The United States. What do they call a big mac? Big Mac is a Big Man but they call it Le Big
Mac. It is kind of like just a really great hangout
movie, with moments of extreme tension. 100%. I think, often, if we think about a hitman
type movie, or a movie where we have some gifted criminal, we enjoy it. But we don't want to hangout with them. I don't finish watching The Bourne Ultimatum
and think, "I'd love to hit a diner with this guy afterwards." But you watch this, and you want to be in
that car. I mean, not in the backseat with Travolta
talking to you. But you want to be in the car, you want to
be in the diner, you want to be hanging out with these characters. And to take a film with so much violence,
and still have it be a film where at various points you're like, "Damn, I want to be with
those guys." Is a pretty rare feat. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's something that's unique
about a lot of Tarantino's work. Most people describe his most recent film,
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as essentially a bromance, just a hangout. Yeah. He was captured in a Vietnamese prison camp,
he knew that if the gooks ever saw the watch they’d confiscate it, take it away. The way your dad looked at it, this watch
is your birthright. He’d be damned if any $#% put their greasy
hands on his boys birthright, so he hid it. The one place he knew he could hide something,
his ass. But not only is he funny, because it's Christopher
Walken and the story he's telling is funny, but I love how it's from a low angle. It's a very wide lens. Yeah. Not only does it give Christopher Walken this
air of importance, because he's a general, and the point of view that we are given is
that of a little kid. So, it makes sense that it would be from a
low angle, and that he would have this grandiose stature. But it just makes it all the more funny when
that stature is undercut when he talks about how he hid a watch in his ass for years. 5 long years he his this watch, up his ass. This is the film that made all of us asks
anytime we're passed down a family heirloom, like, "How many asses has this been in, how
long was it in those asses, did anyone die because of the kestering of the object?" And how much more valuable and important does
that make it? I mean, if I'm handed down a family heirloom
that hasn't been in somebody's ass, I don't know how valuable it really is. Oh, boy. I also think another, kind of, in the background
thing that happens in this film, and this is another thing Tarantino does well, the
use of food. And in particular, things like making coffee
important. Discussions about burgers and milkshakes,
the ideal breakfast. Big plates of blueberry pancakes, with maple
syrup, eggs over easy, and five sausages. There's so many scenes where food is just
in the background, we're hanging out, we're eating, we're talking about normal stuff. Of course, the scene where Samuel L. Jackson
is interrogating someone he's about to kill about Kahuna Burger, and all that. Mm-hmm You mind if I have some of your tasty beverage
to wash this down? I just like the way he brings the everyday
into his films, because for most of us, those are the mundane conversations we have. Yeah. So, it's mundane. And you would think that a lot of that dialogue,
which is very natural, and easy to listen to, and really fun, you are tempted to say
that it's completely erroneous. And that it's not there for any particular
reason. But it really is. Mm-hmm Because every time it's either Bruce Willis'
girlfriend talking about what she wants for breakfast, or the Big Kahuna Burger speech. All of that is lulling you into this sense
of calm before something erupts. Yeah. Well, I love how everything you just described
is encapsulated in the short prologue scene, where we have our, sort of, modern day Bonnie
and Clyde of the convenience store and restaurant game sitting there, having a coffee, talking. And slowly, as you're watching this for the
first time, you realize what they're up to. And we go from a relaxing diner scene to someone
about to start a robbery. Oh yeah. And that whole emotional arc we get right
in that first scene, and all of those beats are explored, heightened, extended throughout
the film. But he introduces us to that right off that
bat. And, of course, maybe this is veering into
brilliant territory, but the way in which he ties the threads together in this film. I find it so satisfying. Yeah. Even when you've seen the film multiple times,
all of that coming together in the final diner scene is so great. And the way, especially, when we first... The scene where they show up at Marsellus'
club. His bar. His bar, yeah. In this sort of like gym shirts and shorts,
and, "Why are you dressed like that?", "We don't want to talk about it." Yeah. It's so great that it's not until an hour
and a half later that we go back and experience everything that leads us up to that point. Because in the back of your mind, you're like,
"How are these stone cold gangsters looking so goofy?" Yeah. Anything else that comes to your mind sort
of short of the brilliant mark, that stands out to you as being good about this film? I will say that the Jack Rabbit Slim dance
sequence gets me every time, it gives me chills. I think that in particular, that scene, as
well as a lot of other scenes, has brilliant use of steady cam. Yeah. So, even when we're introduced to Jack Rabbit
Slim, the setting, we're following Vincent, he's a little bit high. Yeah. That's also something that I appreciate about
Quentin Tarantino films, is when the characters are on drugs, you can sense that they're on
drugs. You definitely can. I mean, to even kind of tie back to what you
brought up initially, that scene is one of the coolest scenes. Yes. And normally, you don't think of a twist off
as cool. Yeah. That sounds like some corny Happy Days shit
that's not going to be sexy or interesting. Yeah. But, god, that scene is cool, it holds up. And Travolta dances in such an effortless
way. Yes. When you watch that, and you're kind of like,
"I could do that." But you can't. No, there's no way. It looks simple, but you couldn't do it. If I may bring back to McLuhan, "Both involved
and detached." Because he's like, "Oh, I guess I'll dance." And then he goes up there and kills it. Yeah. I mean, I guess that's the benefit of having
a little bit of heroin before you dance. Yeah. And being known as the guy from Saturday Night
Fever. Yeah, just kidding, don't do heroin before
you dance. Or ever. I think we could probably go on talking about
good things for 90 to 300 minutes. That's right. But we have to do something that might be
hard, we have to at least attempt to discuss what might be bad about Pulp Fiction. All right, let's do it. Are you ready to do it? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Okay. So, we will now try to see what we think might
be bad, or kind of bad, or not so good about Pulp Fiction. So, I thought about this a lot, and it's a
bit hard to do. Because it really is a masterpiece with a
capital M. Mm-hmm And I think that as we continue to do this
show, we're going to run into this quite a lot, especially if we focus on classics. And that is when a property is a victim of
its own success, and then rewatching it later, makes it feel a little bit awkward, or lose
some of its specialness. So, for example, we already talked about how
legendary the dialogue is in this movie, and how it really influenced screen writers for
decades after that. And how everyone was trying to imitate Tarantino. Everyone was trying to have that dialogue
that's really clever, but not too clever, because then you get... Sorry, I hate this movie, an Igby Goes Down
situation. Where it's just so clever you can almost feel
the screenwriter patting himself on the back as he writes. You’re vegetarian, what does that mean? Well, you don’t roll big rasta spliff joints
do you? Your joints are like salad joints, not like
a big sloppy bleeding cheeseburger that rip into kind of a joint. I feel like the dialogue in Pulp Fiction has
become so iconic, that it's become so memed, that it's almost lost the thing that made
it so exceptional, which was how organic and natural it is. For example, the producer of this segment
told me that he had actually seen clips on YouTube of Samuel L. Jackson doing the Ezekiel
thing Ezekiel 25:17 the path of the righteous man
is the set on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Or of Travolta talking about Jack Rabbit Slims. He had seen those clips on YouTube before
even seeing the movie. Wow, what a disappointment. What a disappointment, yeah. But things like that, I guess, just make it
age strangely. Yeah. Because if you watch it for the first time
in 25 years, you're not really taken back about how clever this is, or how natural it
is. But you're just kind of like, "Oh, yeah. So, that's where that's from." Yeah. And not that that makes it bad, but it does
kind of siphon some of the uniqueness out of it that only happens with movies that are
just so successful. One thing, it's kind of minor, that's not
my favorite, is Quentin Tarantino, the actor. Yeah. It's not horrible, but he plays a character
named Jimmy in the film, who makes great coffee. He's where you want to go with a blood-filled
car with a body in it, and you've got to get it taken care of before his wife gets back. It's fine. But I don't think it adds anything to the
film to have him in it. And I think that he, to some extent, must
be aware of this. Because he's been in his films less and less. Yeah. You know, he was in Django Unchained a bit,
he wasn't in Inglourious Basterds. Definitely was not in Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood. And I think to have the creator of the film,
in the film, is a little too much at times. Yeah. And, rewatching it, he's fine. But, maybe that's a great place to put another
one of the character actors he has in his arsenal. Yeah. I agree. He had some big shoes to fill, just because
he's sitting there next to Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Willis. Yeah. This dream team of actors all working in their
prime. And then there's him, who's doing a fine job. Mm-hmm Now, this one is going to out me for maybe
just being kind of a coward, or too squeamish. Not the biggest fan of some of the drug stuff
in the movie. Heroin gives me the heebie-jeebies. It truly does. I think because we've scraped the barrel pretty
intensely we can maybe move on, and we could save some of this time to get into some of
our other categories where I think we'll have more to say. I agree. So, are you comfortable closing the chapter
on bad? Let's close it. Okay, fantastic. So, we've now talked about the good, we've
talked about the bad. Before we get to the brilliant, got to have
a little fun. So, we are going to do our lightning round. Okay. Okay. You prepared? I'm prepared. Fantastic. As you might know, this is where we get to
basically attack each other with some questions that might be personal, might be about the
movie; you have to answer quickly. We'll move on from there. So, you ready? I'm ready. Okay, cool. So, what Tom Hanks role would you rather see
Quentin Tarantino in? I mean, I have to say Mr. Rodgers, because
that's his most recent one. But seeing Tarantino as Mr. Rodgers would
just be so funny. That would be the creepiest shit ever, seeing
Quentin Tarantino as a childhood hero. In a red sweater. That would be the best. Okay, I like that. That should be an SNL skit, by the way. Which haircut in the movie would you most
like to have? I think it's a film with, I can think of at
least three, if not four, iconic haircuts or hairstyles. You know, I've never tried the gelled or kind
of greased look that Travolta has. But I would try it. Vincent, I’m on the intercom. So, we know that Tarantino is famous for incorporating
nods to different genres inside of his films. Mm-hmm What's a genre, or even a filmmaker, that
Tarantino's never sort of copied or made a homage to that you'd like to see him use? Oh, man. That is a great question. I know that Tarantino is a big supporter of
Asian cinema. Mm-hmm He had his own distribution line for awhile. Yeah. Releasing some Wong Kar-Wai movies. I think he released the Chungking Express
under his name. Mm-hmm I would like to see him do more homages to... I mean, I know he did a lot in Kill Bill,
but probably more contemporary Hong Kong cinema. So, I know he loves Wong Kar-Wai. It would be weird to see him do kind of Wong
Kar-Wai romantic, slow mo style. Yeah. But I think he could maybe borrow something
from him, maybe having Christopher Doyle type really bright colored cinematography, which
he's never had before. That's awesome. I think that would be pretty cool. That was fun. So, it's your turn now. All right. If Quentin Tarantino had to play any character
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who would he play? Oh, I love it. I've got to go... I have two in my mind right now, but I'm not
going to cheat. I'm only going to say one. I'm going to go with Doctor Strange. That's so good. This one is actually a fan theory that is
very popular on the internet. Okay. I don't know if you've heard it before, but
I want to get your thoughts on it. Yeah. Do you believe that what is in the briefcase
is, in fact, Marsellus Wallace's soul? And here is the indications of that. One... Well, the suggestion is that he sold his soul,
and then Vince and Jules are trying to get it back. Yeah. So, one, the briefcase code is 666. There's a bandaid on the back of his neck,
which, apparently there's an urban legend that Tarantino got drunk one night, and told
some guy that the bandaid was supposed to be... That's where his soul was siphoned out. Yeah. There's also Marcellus' Bar is bathed in red
light, so one might suggest that that's demonic, devil. And then when they kill Brad, right before
they cut away to the first story and its entirety, there are flashes of a similar color orange
that's in the briefcase, suggesting that's the color that a soul makes. So, is it Marcellus Wallace's soul in the
briefcase, is it just an orange light bulb, or is it just a MacGuffin? What do you think? I'm going to say I love this theory, it's
a fun theory, and it adds up. However, we're in MacGuffin territory. We're in MacGuffin territory, I completely
agree. And we have that MacGuffin so that we're talking
about stuff like this right now. And this is an instance where I'm pro MacGuffin. Yeah. There's other instances in other films, where
maybe I'm chasing a bunch of stones around the galaxy, where I'm not as into MacGuffins. This is fun, this is a fun one. Yeah, yeah. For those of you that don't know, a MacGuffin
is an arbitrary plot device, usually an object that somebody has to chase just to move the
plot forward. Yeah, I would say the most... So, if you saw... Yeah. Were you going to bring up Rise of Skywalker? Oh, go for that. That's a great one. Well, whatever the pyramid things that they
have to find. Oh, the Sith wayfinders. Sith wayfinders, yeah. Yeah, which made a lot of sense, J.J., that
was good. Made a great film there, bud. Okay, so now that we've covered the good,
the bad, and done our lightning round, it's time to get to the meaty stuff. Okay. Let's talk about the brilliant. And, Jared, I imagine you have quite a few
thoughts here. Yeah, I do. So, get us going. What's brilliant about Pulp Fiction? Well, first I want to start off, before we
get into the thematic stuff I want to talk about the technical stuff. I want to specifically talk about two things. One, I want to talk about how that element
of cool, of being involved and detached is actually functioning on a technical level. So, I want to bring our attention back to
that scene, where it's the beginning of the movie, and Jules and Vince are going up to
get the briefcase back. They open up their truck, they're outmanned,
outgunned, say they should have brought shotguns. And then they're walking up, and we see the
steady cam shot that's following them. And it's this breezy, brisk conversation about
foot massages and stuff like that, when they should be worried about, "Oh my god, we're
going to die." But there's one moment in particular that
I think is really brilliant from a formal level. So, they reach the door. And you would normally expect that there would
be a lot of tension building, because they don't know what's behind the door. But they decide that they're not going to
go in quite yet. So, they walk away from the door and continue
their conversation about foot massages, but the camera stays on the door. The camera stays with the tension as the characters
go away from the tension. So, we can say that the camera is, in a sense,
involved. Whereas, the characters are detached. It's the same way where we see that kind of
action-y shot when they open that trunk. Usually when people are getting ready to raid
a house, or raid an apartment, and you see that opening shot from the interior of a trunk,
you're expecting something epic. An epic shootout. And it's given us the exact opposite. And I think that there are so many technical
moments like that, that really give that feeling of cool that isn't just in the dialogue, that
isn't just in the performances. Because Tarantino is also a master of moving
the camera. Yeah. And I think that's really making me think
that's where Tarantino distinguishes himself. Like you said, he doesn't just write cool
dialogue, he doesn't just cast cool characters, he even makes the technical aspects communicate
that sort of coolness. So, that's awesome. Let's do another one. What else do you think is so brilliant about
Pulp Fiction? Another thing I want to talk about that makes
this film so unique and so funny and what makes it work so well is this cavalier tongue
and cheek attitude that it has towards two things that make it very funny and that is
violence or kind of a seediness of the gangster underworld and time. So I’m going to read a list of things in
which this violence or seediness is undercut, then I’m going to go on to time. I’m excited, thank you for doing the real
research. Yeah, no problem. Alright so violence, so, when Jules and Vince
are in the apartment, Jules whips out his gun and kills Brad's friend on the couch midway
through Brad's sentence, and then says... "Oh I’m sorry, did I break your concentration?" Which could almost be a statement that’s
directed at the audience. This one is about the seediness of the drug
underworld. Vince is buying drugs from the drug dealer,
there is this low angle shot that usually suggests danger. And a drug buying scenario conventionally
is seedy and dangerous. But the actual content of the frame and the
dialogue is so far from dangerous. He’s such a nice drug dealer. He is a nice drug dealer , yeah he kinda got
the Jared look going a little bit. I didn’t want to say it but yes, if you
were selling drugs out of your Hollywood home. So another one is when Marcellus Wallace wakes
up after getting run over he shoots Butch but the shot hits a good samaritan trying
to help Butch, and there's no remorse. She doesn’t even get her own shot. She just falls out of frame and screams. This one is one of my favorites. When Zed and Maynard get the Gimp. We see Maynard take the Gimp out of a small
box chained close, but the shot is entirely in the background out of focus. Whereas, most movies would dramatize how messed-up
this is. This is just nonchalantly occuring in the
background, and is given no real special dramatization. And thank God, that’s the only part of the
movie where I have the hardest time watching, put that in the background out of focus, it’s
so brutal. So, now I want to move onto time and the way
that in most action movies or gangster movies there’s this ticking clock element and Tarantino
loves to play with this. Especially with the Wolf. So their in a terrible rush to get this body
cleaned up and to get the car cleaned up but The Wolf is always calm, collected, and verbose. He;s not into the whole brevity thing with
his words. If I was informed correctly the clock is ticking
is that right Jimmy? Uh 100%. You’re wife Bonnie comes home at 9:30 in
the am is that correct? Uh Huh. I was led to believe that if she comes home
and finds us here she wouldn’t appreciate it non too much? She wouldn’t, ya. Alright, that gives us, 40 minutes to get
the fuck outta Dodge. Which isf you do what I say when I say it
should be plenty. Now you got a corpse in a car minus the head
in the garage take me to it. There is also a great contrast when Vincent
is driving an ODed Mia to the drug dealer’s house we have this high stakes car chase with
a stoner eating cereal with this warm lighting as he takes his sweet time to get to the phone. And the last one is how I love how we have
this ticking clock to help Mia get her adrenalin shot so she will stay alive. And this bickering between the spouses is
just drawing out the tension in a way that you would not normally expect. Usually it would be that they would be getting
chased by the cops . Or the ticking clock is that Marcellus is about to come and they
only have minutes before he comes. But this is just that these two drug addict,
drug dealer spouses cannot get their shit together. Well that’s the way that someone would be
mad if you showed up to your buddies house late at night and his partner didn’t want
you around , it’s taking these everyday domestic reactions to situations and then
mixing them with the most insane high stakes life or death things. And I think in a normal film someone is going
to react with an over the top horror, or anxiety or intensity. But here they are just bickering because someone
brought their sloppy friend over. Not that there is a woman that might die in
your house if you don’t stab her with the adrenalin at the right angle. Yeah I can’t help but think that maybe Tarantino
winks at the audience about his manipulation of time and the whole ticking clock troupe
when the whole watch thing is introduced as Butch’s Macguffin basically. Cause the watch is just up the ass. It sure as shit is. It’s a recovered time piece that has traveled
through country to country. It certainly is. Glad we got to bring that up again. Yes. I felt that earlier didn’t talk about that
enough. It is legendary. Oh and this video is sponsored by Ass Timex
I found myself thinking this on a rewatch. By the end, John Travolta's already dead. We know that he dies later. Mm-hmm But you almost forget about that as you see
him in the diner walking out. Oh yeah. We know that's happening, but the way Tarantino
messes with time just makes it so much more fun. And you would think in a way that it could
sort of deflate the stakes, by so quickly killing one of the main characters, but you
don't really feel that. Yeah. It still feels just as engaging, with just
as high of stakes in that final scene at the diner. Yeah. And, plus, more to your point about Vincent
dying, you would imagine that the main character, or the top billed performer in your movie,
when he dies it would be this dramatic thing. Be he really is just killed, humiliated. Oh, he was just happening to take a shit. Yeah. And walks out, and Bruce Willis just has the
best luck ever. Should have brought his Uzi with him. Yeah. And I think the luck thing gets to one of
the things I find brilliant about it, right? Mm-hmm Because that scene, like so many other scenes
in this film, involves some sort of chance, or fate, or luck. Or for Samuel L. Jackson's character, a miracle. Yeah. And the film plays with this idea of, "Is
there meaning to the things that happen to us?" And, or, "What meaning can we project onto
the things that happen to us?" And so many things in this film are just sort
of random dominoes falling into one another, and then the effects of these things happening,
and the consequences of those things. And I think it really brings up a question
of, is there purposiveness to our reality, to our lives? Or is everything just contingent and random? Is God or some cosmic force driving things,
or are we just a bunch of dumb animals trying our best to not die today? And I think Samuel L. Jackson's epiphany at
the end of the movie is really what makes that scene with him and Jules at the café
be an appropriate end for the movie. Mm-hmm Because up until this point, we've seen so
many random occurrences. Honey Bunny and her husband rob a restaurant
where there's supposed to be no heroes. But, of course, there's Jules. The drug dealer just so happens to run out
of balloons to put the heroin in, allowing for Mia to find the bag and OD. Vincent is in the bathroom when Mia finds
heroin and ODs. Butch just so happens to pull up right in
front of Marsellus walking across the street, they just so happen to walk into the one store
run by rapists. Oh my god. And this series of events is so absurd that
it ends with the most powerful man in Los Angeles being assaulted by a mall cop. Yeah. Vince, of course, accidentally shoots Marvin
in the face. Butch just so happens to show up in his apartment
when Vince is in the bathroom. And the final one that brings this whole discussion
of chance, not only in the subtext of the movie, but into the actual text of the movie,
is Jules and Vince being shot at and not actually getting hit, causing Jules to have his great
religious epiphany. Yeah. So, the way that I've always read this is
that the first thing that we see in the movie is the definition of pulp. A soft, wet, shapeless mass of matter. And two, a magazine or book containing lurid
subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper. So, I really like how the movie engages with
both of these definitions. Mm-hmm The second one is obvious, because we are
being shown stories that have lurid subject matters. But it's the first one that I find to be really
interesting, because it seems like the end with Jules asking whether there are such a
thing as miracles, if things happen for a purpose. Yeah. It's that if there is a world with a god,
can anything be shapeless, and formless, and random? And Jules says no, Vincent says yes. My question to you is, do you think the movie
is oriented towards one of those answers? It’s kind of in the middle, right? I think there's a world in which the miracle
wasn't a miracle, but Jules can still read it as such. Jules can choose to look at reality, and interpret
it in a way that provides him with meaning. And it makes me think of, we have this in
the history of philosophy, but there's this idea of occurrences or events that happen
that sort of reorient someone's subjectivity. The most famous person who's been doing that
for the past 10 years is this French guy, Alain Badiou. And he has this whole theory events, which
for him means any truth that happens is motivated by an event, by an occurrence. To think back to The Bible, which is quoted
in this movie, there's Saul on the road to Damascus gets shot down, or blinded by God,
and becomes Paul, The Apostle. But it's only this event that leads to that
change. And it depends on how he interprets the event. So, it seems like in this case, this miraculous
event happens, Jules than reorients his own subjectivity around a certain interpretation
of the thing that happens. Right. Well, do you think that there's any relevance
to the fact that Vincent does die? We don't know what happens to Jules. Yeah. But Vincent, who doesn't believe in miracles,
is killed by the random chance that he leaves his gun out for the small time it takes him
to go to the bathroom. Yeah. I mean, I think that is significant. That his attitude towards things ends up kind
of... I guess it's not his attitude that leads to
his death, but if it's true that nothing means anything in his mind, and everything is random,
well, how else should he have died? He died in a meaningless way. I guess so. I don't know. But it is interesting. And you're right, this gets back to the issue
of time, right? How interesting that we hear Vincent say all
of these things when we already know that he got shot down on the shitter. Mm-hmm We know this is already coming, and yet, he's
the one that has this sort of, "Nothing means anything." Approach anyways. But, I don't know. For me, that's one of the things that just
sticks out to me about this film, that idea. And I don't think Tarantino gives us an answer,
but he brings up a really interesting set of questions about our relationship to chance
and the miraculous. Yeah, absolutely. This is a movie that, I think, has a lot of
the core themes and elements that we've seen extended, explored, and heightened in the
rest of Tarantino's films. But, of course, even in Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood, what do we have other than a few random things happened, and The Manson Murders
don't happen? Exploring that same idea of the way in which
a couple dominoes falling differently can rewrite this historical event. But not for some big purpose, just because
some random guy decided to pick up some random girl and go to this ranch, and all the stuff
that unfolds from it. Mm-hmm
And so I think it’s interesting that we’ve seen Tarantino explore that theme. And at the end of the day, what's so beautiful
is that all these things that we've been talking about, what works so well, doesn't only work
on a narrative level, but also works on a formal level. It's just an amazing piece of craft. Okay, we are almost to the end of our journey. We've talked about the good, the bad, and
the brilliant. We've done our lightning round. The only thing left to do is for us to rate
this film. Now, what we have to do first is pick our
system of rating. Okay. We're going to go on a five point scale, but
we have to pick an object from the movie that will be our demarkation of scale. Okay. So, I mean, there is... We could do samurai swords? Gimp masks? Gimp mask. Oh, boy. $5 milkshakes? Oh, let's do that. Because that's iconic and we haven't even
mentioned it yet. That’s a shake, that’s milk and ice cream? Last I heard. That’s five dollars? We're going to rank Pulp Fiction on a scale
of one to five $5 milkshakes. One being worst milkshake you've ever had. Five being, "Wow, this is incredible. Give me more." Mm-hmm One to five, Pulp Fiction. Jared, what are you giving it? It's just milk and ice cream, and it's $5. And I'm giving it five all day, baby. That's incredible. Yeah. I mean, I already said it's a masterpiece
with a capital M. So, of course I'm going to be giving it a five. Yeah. This might be our first five of the series, I’m gonna say five outta five. Wow, these things are personal. And I'm going to up the stakes, too, five
$5 milkshakes. Hell yeah. I think it really is... I think we can say it's a classic. Yeah. Is that controversial to say? No. I don't think it's controversial at all. I mean, it may even be Tarantino's best film
still. But I'm not even willing to commit to that. I'm just throwing it out there. I would have to watch all of his movies in
a row again to really be confident in that statement. So, Jared, thank you so much. Thank you. It's been so much fun. Well, this has been The Good, The Bad, and
The Brilliant. Thank you so much for watching and sticking
around, and please let us know what you think in the comments. And especially let us know if there's properties
that you would love to see us cover in this format. As always, thanks for watching, later. Peace, guys.
