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"A well constructed book that challenges the reader with some interesting twists on old themes."--"6Degrees
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For many, Quentin Tarantino's films defined American cinema in the 1990s. The films are seen as hard, fast, funny, stylish and filled with clever allusions to other films. Dana Polan sets out to unlock the style and technique of "Pulp Fiction". He shows how broad Tarantino's points of reference are, and analyzes the narrative accomplishment and complexity. In addition, Polan argues that macho attitudes celebrated in film are much more complex than they seem.
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Pulp Fiction is not so much a film as a phenomenon. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Pulp Fiction is not so much a film as a phenomenon. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An offbeat overview of a fascinatingly phenomenal movie, Dana Polan's book tackles issues of celebrity worship inspired by Hollywood outsider Quentin Tarantino, and alleges it's impossible to find any kind of traditional movie-message in the writer and director's most successful film.
From an examination of Tarantino's widespread idolisation on many hopelessly devotional websites, to the film's tangential relationship to postmodernism (a relationship Tarantino seems uneasy with), Polan charts the origins of urban myths behind the man, while searching for any convincing explanations for the - largely masculine - appeal of Pulp Fiction. Of the director as heroic icon, Polan's text suggests that Tarantino represents not only cultism incarnate within a high church of cool, but also that he is more than just a media and pop culture literate talent and limelight junkie. Of Tarantino and Pulp Fiction on the Internet, Polan states:
"...we might well want to make some correlations between
the style and structure of the film and a visual literacy that
is particular to the cyber-moment of our technologically
inflected modernity. If you understand mouse-clicks and
web-links and hypertext, you're in the same structural
mindset as Pulp Fiction, with its disjunctions, its loops
of narrative, its dramatic shifts of tone and image." (pg.37, 2nd para.)
The surface brilliance of Pulp Fiction is unquestionable, of course, and Polan has few doubts about the importance of Tarantino's achievement with this immensely popular and entertaining black comedy drama. But, thankfully, I did detect a note of caution in the author's considered estimation of Tarantino's (so-far) brief career which takes great care to register the underexposed facts buried in the astonishing work of fiction.
From an examination of Tarantino's widespread idolisation on many hopelessly devotional websites, to the film's tangential relationship to postmodernism (a relationship Tarantino seems uneasy with), Polan charts the origins of urban myths behind the man, while searching for any convincing explanations for the - largely masculine - appeal of Pulp Fiction. Of the director as heroic icon, Polan's text suggests that Tarantino represents not only cultism incarnate within a high church of cool, but also that he is more than just a media and pop culture literate talent and limelight junkie. Of Tarantino and Pulp Fiction on the Internet, Polan states:
"...we might well want to make some correlations between
the style and structure of the film and a visual literacy that
is particular to the cyber-moment of our technologically
inflected modernity. If you understand mouse-clicks and
web-links and hypertext, you're in the same structural
mindset as Pulp Fiction, with its disjunctions, its loops
of narrative, its dramatic shifts of tone and image." (pg.37, 2nd para.)
The surface brilliance of Pulp Fiction is unquestionable, of course, and Polan has few doubts about the importance of Tarantino's achievement with this immensely popular and entertaining black comedy drama. But, thankfully, I did detect a note of caution in the author's considered estimation of Tarantino's (so-far) brief career which takes great care to register the underexposed facts buried in the astonishing work of fiction.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A cogent, entertaining and highly informative analysis of the mid-nineties modern masterpiece Pulp Fiction.
Polin's text offers an interesting angle on the film - Pulp Fiction is a 'story about storytelling', where the characters' hyper-reality and hardboiled dialogue, the director's chronology-eschewing plotting and the numerous references to pop culture make intimate reference to the fact that it is, of course, fictional. The books looks at many crucial scenes, and assesses in detail the ways in which fictionality is key to the message behind the film, as well as tackling the films huge cult following, notably on the Internet.
This is a world where a knowledge about modern trivialites is just as important as any weapon you might be holding. Which probably makes this book a good starting point, then.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Unworthy of its subject.
18 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback
There's pulp fiction, then there's worse--namely, thin, obvious, breezy commentary that pretends to be scholarly, or at least "academic." This very slight volume wastes time talking about websites dedicated to the film, then attempts to argue that "Pulp Fiction" is strictly a "postmodern" event to be experienced rather than thought much about (the author's grand conclusion: it represents "style over substance"). I didn't even find the book of much use when I wanted some reminders of plot sequence and characters' names.
Perhaps I expected too much for my money as a result of reading this same series' "The Birds" by Camille Paglia (who obviously immersed herself in an exhaustive research of the filmmaking process as well as the final product). This edition, on the other hand, has the feel of something tossed out in a couple of week-ends.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
not bad but could've been better
31 Jan 2001
Format:Paperback
this book starts off a tad amateurish as Polan tries to tackle the film as a phenomenon first, and then analyze the actual film second. it seems that the author's initial take is that PULP FICTION is more pre-occupied with style over substance but as the film is analyzed in more detail argues that there is actual depth and substance to Tarantino's film!
this comes across as kind of awkward but Polan's writing style does improve the further along you read. i just wish that the author hadn't been so concerned with writing the first academic analysis of PULP FICTION and blasting the slew of sloppily written Tarantino biographies and websites, and focused more on the actual film.
i also question Polan's research notes. out of all the articles used/read there is one glaring omission: Gavin Smith's seminal article/interview with Tarantino about PULP FICTION in Film Comment around the time the film came out. Smith's article still remains, in my mind, THE best analysis of Tarantino's film. it's a shame the BFI didn't get him to write one of these books on PF.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Most Disappointing BFI Yet
31 Dec 2007
Format:Paperback
By far the most disappointing of the BFI film classics series that I've read so far. In contrast, check out the excellent Shawshank Redemption book in this series.
Agree with previous reviewer - focuses way too much on the cultural phenomenon (and doesn't do a great job of that) and not enough on deconstructing analyzing the film in and of itself. Because of this focus, the book is already woefully out of date.
Poorly written and really just plain boring.
This film deserves better.
Agree with previous reviewer - focuses way too much on the cultural phenomenon (and doesn't do a great job of that) and not enough on deconstructing analyzing the film in and of itself. Because of this focus, the book is already woefully out of date.
Poorly written and really just plain boring.
This film deserves better.
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