Quentin Tarantino is known for his eccentric approaches when it comes to his filmmaking and storytelling. His films have a distinctive and specific feel, truly embodying the essence of what happens when someone who lives and breathes cinema, makes it. He possesses the ability to showcase beautifully written characters with well-thought-out stories. At the same time, he does not spoon-feed information to his audiences, allowing them the ability to use their imaginations to fill in holes that are deliberately left in. All of this is perfectly seen in his best-doing film to this date, Pulp Fiction.
The film perfectly encompasses all that fans love about his craft and his attention to detail. The method of storytelling in this film can only be called unconventional and new. All of the characters in this film have their stories woven with each other, being individual, yet intertwined. During an interview, Tarantino revealed his reasoning for this and what inspired him to take such an approach.
Quentin Tarantino Wanted To Make A Compilation Of Cliches
Quentin Tarantino gave an interview with the American Film Institute, where he talked about what was the core inspiration behind the unique storytelling of Pulp Fiction. He explained that one of his biggest goals when making this movie was to create a sort of compilation. He went on to elaborate on what he meant by this, stating that he picked up specific troops from cinema that were overused and oversaturated, however, classic at one point.
“It was the idea of taking these chestnuts and putting them together and then actually having the characters kind of intertwine,” Tarantino told. “It all kind of takes place in one city, and it’s an environment that they all live in. The characters kind of know each other but you don’t know that for a while.”
He decided to take as many of these troops as he fit and make them the central plot of the film. The catch was that he would make all of these interact and be interdependent. The entire story would take place in one city, in an environment that they are all familiar with. Each one of the characters would know each other, but be unaware of it.
Quentin Tarantino Proved Why Risks Need to be Taken
Creating a story full of cliches was a very big risk on Quentin Tarantino’s part. A cliche is a story device or a specific type of character that has become overused and lacks original thought. Filling a movie with only cliches could very easily make it boring and predictable. However, the filmmaker managed to create the most unique movie full of the most common and ordinary elements.
“The story of a genre. The three stories in Pulp Fiction are more or less the oldest stories you’ve ever seen: The guy going out with the boss’s wife and he’s not supposed to touch her—that’s in The Cotton Club, Revenge. The middle story, the boxer who’s supposed to throw the fight and doesn’t—that’s about the oldest chestnut there is. The third story is more or less the opening three minutes of Action Jackson, Commando, every other Joel Silve movie—the hitmen show up and blow somebody away.”
“Then they cut to “Warner Bros. Presents” and you have the credit sequence, and then they cut to the hero 300 miles away. But here the killers come in, BLAM-BLAM-BLAM—but we don’t cut away, we stay with them the whole rest of the morning and see what happens to them after that. The whole idea is to have these old chestnuts and go to the moon with them.”
This was the concept that made Pulp Fiction the classic that it is today. During an interview with Film Comment, Tarantino talked about how the three stories of this film are interdependent, and that is what makes them unique and interesting. Seeing classic cinema troops interact with each other in several different contexts, makes it extremely entertaining for the viewers.
