Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney and with special guest Scott Mendelson, The 250 is a weekly journey through the list of the 250 best movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
Three stories unfold across Los Angeles over the course of three days, featuring an interlocking set of criminal characters who find their lives on an unexpected collision course. Is there any rhyme or reason to the course that these characters chart, or is it all arbitrary chaos? That’s ultimately up to the viewer to determine for themselves.
At time of recording, it was ranked the 8th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Notes:
- Recorded 3rd February 2021.
- Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
- Pulp Fiction at The Internet Movie Database.
- The IMDB 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
- Follow Scott on Twitter.
- Read Scott’s articles at Forbes.
- Jordan Crucchiola at Wired argues that there will never be another indie film like Pulp Fiction, October 2014.
- Jay Rayner at The Guardian reflects on the legacy of the nineties independent cinema explosion, January 2004.
- Roger Ebert and Martin Scorsese rank the best movies of the nineties at RogerEbert.com, February 2000.
- Chris Wasser at The Irish Examiner looks back on Pulp Fiction as a hugely influential piece of nineties pop culture, July 2019.
- Jason Bailey offers a brief guide to Pulp Fiction knock-offs at Vulture, October 2018.
- Jay Boyar reviews Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead in the context of Pulp Fiction in The Orlando Sentinel, February 1996.
- Janet Maslin at The New York Times reviews Go! in the context of Pulp Fiction, April 1999.
- Roger Ebert discusses the secrets of Pulp Fiction, May 1995.
- Jason Bailey discusses the discourse’s obsession with violence in Pulp Fiction at Flavourwire, October 2014.
- The Associated Press reports on the contemporary moral panic around violence in media, particularly as tied to the Clinton presidency, July 1992.
- Richard Natale at The Los Angeles Times reports on the heated battle between The Specialist and Pulp Fiction for the top of the box office, October 1994.
- Todd Gitlin at The New York Times reports on the public fascination with Tarantino as a star in his own right, March 1996.
- Quentin Tarantino talks to The New York Times about establishing himself as a brand and a presence, November 1997.
- Tom Brook at BBC looks at how Pulp Fiction changed cinema, May 2014.
- Tom Carson at GQ looks at how Pulp Fiction also changed television, September 2014.
- A.A. Dowd discusses the impact of Pulp Fiction on his own (and other critics’) love of cinema at The A.V. Club, August 2014.
- Cody Derick at Next Best Picture argues that Tim Burton introduced a generation of movie-goers to auteur theory, March 2019.
- Hannah Wigandt at The Things looks at Quentin Tarantino’s foot fetish, April 2020.
- Roger Ebert and Paul Schrader talk at The Chicago Sun Times about how Pulp Fiction made it easier to adapt Elmore Leonard, February 1997.
- Zach Vasquez at Crime Reads looks back at the great Elmore Leonard renaissance of the late nineties, May 2020.
- Roger Ebert reviews Striking Distance for The Chicago Sun Times, September 1993.
- Scott Wampler at Birth. Movies. Death. looks back at Colour of Night, February 2015.
- Bruce Willis talks to The New York Times about treating Pulp Fiction as a shot at career redemption, October 1994.
- Jason Bailey writes at The Dissolve about the spiritual subtext of Pulp Fiction, November 2013.
- Quentin Tarantino talks to Robert Zemeckis for The Los Angeles Times about the theme of redemption in his work, March 1995.
- Darren Mooney writes at Escapist Magazine about the morality of both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, November 2020.
- Kenneth Turin at The Los Angeles Times laments what he perceives of a culture of nihilism in nineties cinema, November 1998.
- Manohla Dargis at L.A. Weekly criticises “the new nihilism”, December 1998.
- Steven Kinzer at Al Jazeera looks back on the American invasion of Grenada, October 2013.
- Darren Mooney at the m0vie blog writes about Reservoir Dogs as a response to the existential ennui of the nineties, August 2018.
- Joseph Stiglitz looks back at the economic book of the nineties for The Atlantic, October 2002.
- Matt Ford at The Atlantic looks at the steep decline in American crime rates that began in the early nineties, April 2016.
- Quentin Tarantino offers a back story for the gimp to Empire, April 2020.
- Jason Bailey writes at The Atlantic about Tarantino as a cinematic DJ and sample artist, October 2014.
- Jude Dry at IndieWire discusses how much the central adrenaline scene owes to Martin Scorsese’s American Boy, January 2017.
- Quentin Tarantino talks to Rolling Stone about how Butch’s story transitions from Body and Soul to Deliverance, May 2014.
- Scott Mendelson at Forbes discusses the art of ripping off rather than remaking, April 2015.
- Quentin Tarantino discusses his career and opinions with Vulture, August 2015.
- Stanley Crouch at The Los Angeles Times discusses the handling of race within Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, October 1994.
- Quentin Tarantino discusses his handling of race with Bret Easton Ellis for The New York Times, October 2015.
- Quentin Tarantino talks to GQ about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, December 2015.
- Dave McNary at Variety discusses the police boycott of The Hateful Eight in response to Tarantino’s involvement in anti-police protests, October 2015.
- Quentin Tarantino discusses writing Pulp Fiction with The New York Times, September 1994.
- James Luxford at Reader’s Digest looks at Quentin Tarantino’s long-standing relationship with Los Angeles, August 2018.
- Owen Gleiberman at Variety looks back on the impact of Bonnie and Clyde on Hollywood, August 2017.
- Kyle Munzenrieder at The Miami New Times on the open government laws that lead to the ubiquity of “Florida Man” memes, May 2015.
- Natalie O’Neill at The New York Post reports on the popularity of the “Florida Man” meme, November 2020.
- Quentin Tarantino talks to The New York Times about the development of Pulp Fiction, September 1994.
- Quentin Tarantino discusses his meeting with Mike Medavoy over Pulp Fiction with The New York Times, November 1997.
- Mike Medavoy recalls his meeting with Quentin Tarantino over Pulp Fiction with The Hollywood Reporter, August 2011.
- Jonathan Rosenbaum at The Chicago Reader laments the victory of Pulp Fiction over Three Colours: Red at the Cannes Film Festival, December 1994.
- Janet Maslin at The New York Times discusses the hype following Pulp Fiction from it’s Palme d’Or win at the Cannes Film Festival, September 1994.
- Quentin Tarantino talks to The Los Angeles Times about what the Palme d’Or means for Pulp Fiction, September 1994.
- The first trailer for Pulp Fiction, September 1994.
- Stanley Kaufman at The New Republic criticises Pulp Fiction as “cultural slumming”, November 1994.
- Jason Bailey at Flavourwire talks about Tarantino’s blending of low and high culture, August 2015.
- Quentin Tarantino talks to The New York Times about his love of genre, December 2012.
- Jason Bailey argues at The Atlantic that Pulp Fiction didn’t demean high art, it just made it more fun, October 2012.
- The Action Elite reviews Sonny Chiba in The Bodyguard, May 2017.
- John Griswald at The Common Reader discusses how Quentin Tarantino convinced John Travolta to make Get Shorty, December 2018.
- Snopes discusses what is in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, July 1997.
- Nathan Rabin discusses Maximum Overdrive for his World of Flops, January 2018.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: belief, blockbuster, bruce willis, fate, independent cinema, indie, john travolta, morality, nihilism, pulp fiction, religion, scott mendelson, The 250, uma thurman |
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