Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508140003
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY NEIL HARVEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ I've seen the film "Pulp Fiction" a few times since it was released last fall, and each time I've watched the movie I've noticed two distinct groups operating within the audience. There are viewers who, usually before the end of the first hour, walk out shaking their heads in disgust, and there are viewers who remain in their seats, eyes glazed, until the final credits end. I can recommend "Pulp Fiction: A Screenplay" only to members of the latter demographic; anybody who found this film too gritty and jolting will, reading the script, only find even more to object to.
Those who got a kick out of this "art house/drive-in" crime flick, however, will most likely love the script, which, incidentally, received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Quite simply, it's a pleasure to read. It's extremely funny and loose and very, very visual; Tarantino's strong point may be colorful dialogue, but he's also succinct and vivid in his descriptions. Whereas some great movies are flat and claustrophobic on paper, Tarantino's blueprint is truly inspiring. He may play a little fast and loose with standard screenwriting rules, but mostly he bends instead of breaks format norms.
The book, although short on extras like interviews or an interesting foreword, does include scenes and details that were cut from the completed picture. Initially, boxer Butch Coolidge was younger and geekier and, actually, more akin to Speed Racer than to Bruce Willis, who ended up playing the role; Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace had a longer, funnier conversation (during which it's revealed that Vincent is, in fact, related to folk-rock singer Suzanne Vega); Jules Winfield, the Bible-quoting hit-man, was originally given a fantasy sequence; the accidental "backseat shooting" was, in its original form, crueler and gorier, and the subsequent clean-up scene is, unfortunately, still a one-note joke.
Neil Harvey lives in Blacksburg.
by CNB