If you think that Quentin Tarantino’s films are nothing but gratuitous violence, undignified tales full of sound and fury more often than not told out of sync, then just look at ‘The Gold Watch’ story strand from Pulp Fiction. In a scene that comes midway through the movie but precedes every other from a chronological standpoint, a young Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) receives a visit from Captain Koons (Christopher Walken), his father’s combat buddy during the Vietnam War.
Koons describes how as Butch’s father lay dying from a severe bout of diarrhoea, he handed over his prized watch which Koons then stuffed up his own rectum, removing it two years later when he decided it was high time to pass what was once the father’s now to the son.
Back in the present day, Butch finds himself in a curious pickle. He and his foe, the gangster and boxing fixer Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), brawl in the street only to stumble into the pawnshop of a sadistic rapist. With Wallace all tied up, Butch is free to make his escape. But the thought of the rapist’s penis inside the bottom of Marsellus reminds Butch of the former location of his father’s watch. And showing the sort of honour which he has come to associate with his ancestors, he returns and slices the offender up with a katana, the sword of the noble samurai, doing little for Marsellus’ dignity, but at least saving his life.
Isn’t that a pristine example of plotting, an irrefutable instance of richly thematic narrative art? No – not unless your idea of art is painting by numbers. In fact ‘The Gold Watch’ portion of Pulp Fiction renders almost unviewable what is otherwise a highly entertaining film. It is heavy-handed, overly deliberative, vulgar and worthy, and in the end interminably dull.
Thankfully Tarantino sticks in the main to gratuitous violence, undignified tales full of sound and fury more often than not told out of sync. Either side of ‘The Gold Watch’ Pulp Fiction is tremendous fun, stylish and full of energy, from helter-skelter spurts of action to the buzzing chemistry between its various leads. Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) beguiles us even through his vain grasp for meaning in a Bible verse, and date night at Jack Rabbit Slim’s is endlessly watchable, as Vincent (John Travolta) and Mia (Uma Thurman) hit all the right notes while still seeming to linger casually off the beat.
