Pulp Fiction

What do they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris? In 1994, Quentin Tarantino taught America that the correct response is a Royale with Cheese. Pulp Fiction is considered by many to be Tarantino's greatest and most influential film. The unconventional and nonlinear storyline and colorful dialogue had an immediate impact on modern filmmaking. Despite the movie's violence and profanity, Pulp Fiction was widely praised by critics as a postmodern masterpiece. It went on to establish Tarantino as one of Hollywood's premier filmmakers and refined the aesthetic he would adopt in many of his other projects.

Pulp Fiction stars Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman. It was filmed over three months in late 1993 in the Los Angeles area and shot on a budget of only $8 million. Tarantino chose to shoot the movie on 50 ASA film stock, which created a virtually no-grain image similar to 50s Technicolor. Jackson, who had previously worked with Tarantino in 1993's True Romance, played the role of Jules Winnfield, which the director wrote with him in mind. Travolta took a pay cut to play Vincent Vega, and the gambit payed off: He was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award. The film helped revived Travolta's sagging career and catapulted him back onto Hollywood's A list.

After Pulp Fiction was released, film critic Richard Corliss wrote in Time magazine, "It towers over the year's other movies as majestically and menacingly as a gang lord at a preschool." In addition to Travolta's performance, the film was lauded with accolades. It received six more Academy Award nods, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Jackson), Best Supporting Actress (Thurman), and won Best Original Screenplay. In 2013, the United States National Film Registry selected Pulp Fiction for preservation, citing it as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

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