![]() ![]() As for Fiction-ites, they might remember this as the little ditty that accompanies the dreamlike sequence of Vincent getting high on harry the horse. And with its incredible opening bass hook, shuffling rhythm and ominous melody, it’s hard to disagree with the album cover’s enthusiasm. “ 1963! Rebel Riffs! Bone Chilling Spring Reverb! Savage Surf Drums! Intoxicating Sax Moan!” is how The Centurions’ ‘Bullwinkle Part II’ is tagged on their 1960s vinyl release. ‘Bustin’ Surfboards’ by the Tornadoes is also considered a seminal Surf hit that employs a catchy opening drum rift coupled with a lazy, Hawaii-esque lead guitar, giving it a pseudo-ethnic flavour. ‘Comanche’ by the Revels especially, makes incredible use of the saxophone – some have called it a brass Louis Armstrong with a sore throat – the horn emitting a coarse, gargling sound that perfectly echoes the rapid plucking sound of the guitar, punctuated by expertly timed dashes on the hi-hat. Surf’s essentially instrumental sound – a visceral stew of wailing saxophones and atmospheric guitar with Fender amps on heavy reverb, accented by a pounding twelve-bar bass beat – is also at work on four of the other tracks. ![]() Therefore one may be forgiven for thinking that the tune, with its remarkable displays of Dale’s breakneck single-note staccato picking technique, is a South American import. ![]() Known as the King of the Surf Guitar, Dale galvanised the movement in the 1950s, himself inspired by the Latin rhythms that filtered northward from Mexico by way of Baja, and also the Middle Eastern melodies that were part of his own cultural heritage. ![]() The explosive opening track ‘Misirlou’ by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones, a 1962 classic, sets the tone for a soundtrack that is heavily inspired by the 1960s Surf movement. Vincent: I dunno, I didn’t go into Burger King.įor the soundtrack, like his previous film Reservoir Dogs and quite unlike the pop-hit laden soundtrack to Fiction’s main (and only) Oscar rival Forrest Gump, Tarantino looked to decidedly more obscure, eclectic material from lesser known artists of present and past. Vincent: Well, a Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it le Big Mac. Vincent: They call it a Royale with cheese. They wouldn’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is. Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. Jules: They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese? Vincent: And you know what they call a… a… a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris ? Eschewing the classical Hollywood linear narrative arc, the film instead looked to the French Nouvelle Vague for inspiration for its disjunctive narrative as well as its pop-culture-heavy dialogue that was more interested in character than in plot (giving birth to the writing term ‘Tarantinoesque’): Jackson in a breakthrough performance) who sports a mind-boggling Jheri-Curl wig and spouts ‘Biblical’ rants of questionable authenticity (“Ezekiel: 25:17…”).Ĭinematically too, Pulp Fiction was a revelation of sorts. And of course who can forget the hit-man tag-team of Vincent Vega (John Travolta in his first genuine comeback – Look Who’s Talking doesn’t count) and über cool Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. There’s “Honey-Bunny” Yolanda and Pumpkin (Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth), a loving pair of small-time robbers Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), the big, black, bald crime boss who will “get medieval on your ass” should you cross him Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman channelling Louise Brooks) the coke-snorting, 1950s-loving, $5-milkshake-drinking kook who tells bad jokes (“Ketchup”) and hates uncomfortable silences boxer Butch and his “mongoloid” tulip Fabienne (Bruce Willis and Maria de Medeiros) who make their getaway on dead Zed’s chopper’ Vietnam vet Captain Koons (Christopher Walken in a hilarious, poker-faced cameo) who finds a unique place to hide a family heirloom from the “slopes” and their “greasy yellow hands”. Like David Lynch’s Blue Velvet eight years earlier, Pulp Fiction was an ode to the underbelly of Americana and the various seemingly sordid characters that inhabit it. In a cinematic landscape littered with hand-wringingly earnest fare eagerly polishing its badge of ‘Certified: Politically Correct’, Pulp Fiction was a defiantly un-PC raspberry-in-the-face to the likes of Dances with Wolves and Forrest Gump. In the wake of a thousand laughably poor imitations, it is easy to forget just what a sucker-punch Quentin Tarantino’s sophomore effort Pulp Fiction packed back in 1994. ![]()
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