Pulp Fiction

"The Body of the Condemned," by Michael Foucault, has some extremely graphic stories in it. The one that stands out most clearly is the scene of the spectacle of eighteenth century punishment. In writing about how Damiens “The Regicide” was brutally tortured, "The flesh will be torn from his breast, arms, thighs, and calves with red-hot pincers, his right hand, holding the knife with which he committed the said parricide, burnt with sulfur( Foucault)." Relating this example to Pulp Fiction, we see there is a definite connection.

Violence and punishment can be traced to Quentin Tarantino's earlier films, most noticeably True Romance and Reservoir Dogs. A brutal torture scene, sort of like the Damiens “The Regicide” of the 90's, took place in Reservoir Dogs. A gangster cut the ea

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Butch, after winning a boxing match, he was paid of to lose by Wallace, is on the run in his car. They stand up, guns blaring, vulgar language spewing out of their mouths.

If a viewer has seen other Tarantino works, they wouldn’t be as surprised or as shocked at the blood and guts as some of the other people in the theater. The ironic part is that as Wallace is firing at Butch with his massive silver firearm, he nails an innocent civilian in the leg. Pulp Fiction is one of the few films with harsh content to have publicity and accolades awarded to it. Sure we have seen violence in films before, but never like Pulp Fiction. In this scene Butch, played by Bruce Willis, and Marcellus Wallace do battle. Butch slams on the gas, and runs into Wallace.

The question arises what role that the violence and punishment play in the film. As Butch pulls up to an intersection, he sees Marcellus crossing in front of him. Jules and Vincent toy with the young misfits, and Jules goes off into some religious quote before he riddles the poor sap with bullets. The majority of the crucial Awards went to the much more acceptable and viewer-friendly film Forrest Gump. This may be true, but Quentin Tarantino has without a doubt introduced the American public to a new style of movie, and he has done it very successfully! Is this to say that more and more of these highly violent films will take over the box offices? If the trend continues, as long as it is “humorous” violence, today’s society will eat it up. Butch then crashes his car, and Wallace tries to shoot him from a distance. Yet as her blood splatters and she screams in terror, people in the audience bust out laughing! Has our society become so desensitized to such graphic scenes, that violence is now seen as humor? What ever happened to Calvin and Hobbes? As the movie moves along somehow, the two's fight moves into a store, in which the two men are knocked out, bound, and gagged by a couple of hillbillies.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1204
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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