There is something about that Tarantino dialogue that lingers in our minds and makes us lean towards the movie screen with excitement.
I have never seen pulp Fiction On the big screen, but I can imagine the opening weekend, when some of the best dialogue ever written reached people’s ears, and I can imagine how everything changed when the credits rolled.
There are a lot of quotable lines from that movie, but today, I want to talk about a line that I think a lot of people miss.
Let’s dive in.
– youtubewww.youtube.com
the scene in question
pulp Fiction One of the greatest movies of all time. It truly is a little miracle that comes alive every time you look at it.
In the scene I’m talking about, we find hitmen Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) sitting in a booth wearing ridiculous, oversized tourist T-shirts and shorts after accidentally killing a man and being forced to clean up.
The genius here is that it takes you to a moment where you see two people having a casual argument about a dog versus a pig, and then we’re in the middle of something heavy.
Jules drops a bomb: he’s leaving the hitman business because he believes God physically intervened to stop the bullets that should have killed him earlier that morning.
This leaves the audience and Vincent in shock.
Vincent wants precise information about Jules’s future and forces her into an unknown world that we can tell she has never considered. When Jules responded that he planned to “walk the earth like Cain” Kung Fu,” Vincent becomes angry at Jules’ decision and says that he will live like a homeless man.
This is where we get a line I love. Jules says:
“If my answers scare you, Vincent, then you should stop asking scary questions.”
dichotomy of ordinary and extraordinary
This is one of the best scenes not only in this film, but in all of cinema, because it knows how to put together the ordinary and the extraordinary to talk not only about the world, but about the broken heart of the film we are watching.
In this film, Vincent represents the status quo. He wants to go back to his routine, cash his checks, and pretend his lifestyle has no consequences.
For Vincent, Jules’ awakening is a mere incident. It’s a strange day at work.
For Jules, it is a sign that a higher power is calling on him to change his ways.
vincent requirements Jules is mad because if Jules is right, then Vincent is in serious trouble, not only in his line of work but also in his afterlife.
Jules is willing to accept the consequences of answering those scary questions. Vincent is not. And when Vincent comes face to face with a man with a gun, the man doesn’t miss.
– youtubewww.youtube.com
Takeaways for screenwriters
As filmmakers and writers, we often feel the need to have characters argue about immediate plot details or state their subtext in something on the nose.
It’s like a five-minute conversation where we explore the entire universe and how certain things affect the people within it. Is it all a coincidence, or is there a higher power? that question is the backbone pulp Fiction.
This film is about the philosophy of choices and how they affect us. And for writers, we have some specific texts that I think echo Tarantino’s words…
- Put them to sleep simply: Start your scenes with a grounded joke before dropping your thematic hammer. It presents heavy moments with sharp contrast.
- Let the characters project: When a character is aggressively questioning another, ask yourself: What are they really afraid of within themselves?
- Give the words acquired rights: Jules can deliver a line about scary questions because he spent the morning looking up answers. Make sure your character’s words reflect their lived experience.
sum it all up
There’s a reason this movie is so good, and it lies at its thematic core. It’s not just about gangsters or Los Angeles; It’s about us and how we deal with small and big moments that happen to us. This is a film about reactions and choices. Will we do the right thing or will we crumble under the pressure?
It’s a lot like making it in Hollywood.
Let me know in the comments below.
