This film was such a big deal.
Tarantino took decades of accumulated pop cultural detritus and alchemised it into something that got a standing ovation at Cannes. The film told a generation of overqualified underachievers that their encyclopedic knowledge of blaxploitation flicks and sitcom trivia wasn’t worthless cultural debris – it was a language unto itself. For that brief, shining moment in the ’90s, it felt like we video store nerds had inherited the earth.
Every studio scrambled to find their own indie-darling director and every director wanted to resuscitate the career of their favourite has-been actors. Crime films got talkier, soundtracks got hipper and pop-culture references became an easy shorthand. Indeed, Pulp Fiction cast a long shadow over the rest of the decade – talky gangstas, philosophical hitmen and Steve Buscemi were suddenly everywhere. From 2 Days in the Valley and Clay Pigeons to 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag and Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, it seemed like everyone had something terrible in the trunk of their cars.
More importantly, Pulp Fiction and its thrift store milk crate soundtrack helped define the new cool.
I’d missed the original theatrical release because I was bumming around Paris in a post-graduate haze. I was enjoying my long walks along the Seine, hanging out at the Louvre for days, sightseeing by Métro, drinking café au lait on Les Champs-Élysées, and sometimes, just sometimes… I’d enjoy a Royale with Cheese.
Or rather, avec fromage. -Pop
Pulp Fiction arrived on Home Video today in 1995, after an October 14th, 1994 theatrical foot massage.
