Pulp Fiction: Hyperreal Violence and Postmodernism

These aspects will be analyzed through reference to specific scenes and elements within the film, and expanded upon in order to demonstrate their effectiveness. With its nonlinear narrative, Pulp Fiction

From the time we are born, we are immediately introduced to influences that will shape and develop our character for the rest of our lives. Our character can be affected in a positive or a negative way by various influences that we encounter on a daily basis. We need to be aware of how much we absorb and let those influences change our behavior. External influences, such as video games, movies, and television shows impact our everyday lives, even when we are not conscious of them.

This movie Directed by Paul Haggis who also directed Academy Award Winning "Million Dollar Baby" and had also won an Academy Award for this movie as well puts a twisted story in this film. This movie is trying to symbolize what goes on in the world today in regards to racism and stereotypes. He tries to make a point on how societies view themselves and others in the world based on there ethnicities. This movie intertwines several different people's lives, all different races, with different types of beliefs. Such ethnicities include Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Middle Eastern. This movie includes conflicts on both sides of the picture from cops and criminals as well

While the 1970’s and 80’s marked a decline in movies featuring black actors and a lack of black directors, the mid 1980’s through the 1990’s invited a new generation of filmmakers and rappers, engaging with the “New Jack” image, transforming the Ghettos of yesteryears into the hood of today. A major director that emerged during this time was Spike Lee. According to Paula Massood’s book titled, Black City Cinema, African American Urban Experiences in Film, “…Lee not only transformed African American city spaces and black filmmaking practices, he also changed American filmmaking as a whole.” Lee is perhaps one of the most influential film makers of the time, likely of all time. He thrusted black Brooklyn into light, shifting away from the popularity of Harlem. By putting complex characters into an urban space that is not only defined by poverty, drugs, and crime, it suggests the community is more than the black city it once was, it is instead a complex cityscape. Despite them being addressed to an African American audience, Lee’s film attract a mixed audience. Spike lee’s Do the Right Thing painted a different image of the African American community, “The construction of the African American city as community differs from more mainstream examples of the represents black city spaces from the rime period, such as Colors…, which presented its African American and Mexican American communities through the eyes of white LAPD officers.”

Most horror films tend to be relatable, forgettable and follows mostly the same routine. However, it is so great to have an original mind of a horror and a comedy film that originates from Jordan Peele. It has a racial and stereotypical difference that is a socially important issue. But, it does not reveal or throw completely its issuance theme to the viewers which may find uncomfortable and unsettling. It breaks the stereotypes towards different race than white and gives black men more encouragement and the advantage aspect than being victims. It seemingly waves its social critique wave to a new level of a blend of horror, thrills, and comedy making this a professional and masterful film amongst these genres. It is a good, surprisingly new debut for a first-time writer and director for a widely releasing film around the world, a one to be praised and

The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how

By way of extolment from prominent film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, Menace II Society is a “powerful, convincing, and terrifying look at teenage crime in contemporary Watts (1993), even if it also offers the mixed blessing of flattering and confirming the worst suspicions of many neoconservatives about ghetto life” (Chicago Reader). Menace II Society is a 1993 drama that expounds on practical social issues of the black community encountered on a diurnal basis, and how those social issues are broadcasted deceptively and insincerely within mass media. With the amalgamated talents of directors Albert and Allen Hughes, alongside entertainers suchlike: Tyrin Turner (Kaydee “Caine” Lawson), Jada Pinkett-Smith (Ronnie), Larenz Tate (Kevin “O-Dog” Anderson), and so forth, Menace II Society was granted the opportunity to candidly and precisely depict the life’s and struggles of multifarious minorities who are cultivated on the debased end of American society.

In its opening credits, Spike Lee’s Clockers features photos of dead young black men sliding across the frame. These images of lifelessness are paired with a somber ballad with lyrics pondering a place of solace and understanding, a place inaccessible to the black male despite compliance or revolt. The viewer is confronted by this slideshow of bloodied black bodies for nearly three minutes. There are cuts to crowds at crimes scenes. People stand, talking or looking on in silence, seemingly desensitized to the spectacle of a dead youth, separated only by the yellow tape which commands them not to cross. The front cover of a newspaper appears on the screen, “TOY GUN, REAL TRAGEDY”-- a young boy killed in a case of misunderstanding. This evidence of a robbed childhood establishes the reality of the community depicted in the film. A community stricken by poverty the fear of imminent violence, it is home to main character Strike, and many other young men who are yet still boys. Clockers stands with other independent films in their allegiance to what critic Manthia Diawara terms “New Black Realism” (594). These films aim to translate authentic interpretations of black life, many

(page 14) There is also a demand on black films because it shows different themes of racialize subjects. This new idea helps focus of both urban and rural families that may be upper, middle, or lower class. “…-namely, the frequent degrading language associated with women and the homophobic jokes that emanate from rigid notions of masculinity” (page 2, chapter 2, Hip Hop in American Cinema) I find this quote to go really well with Straight Outta Compton because the men try to act as manly as possibly and use profound language to describe women and themselves. Both films achieve a common goal, which shows real issues within the Black community. It can be debated whether or not scenes in each movie actually happen but American cinema is moving forward to explore a more positive side of a Black community. It remains though that lights, music, clothing, and even dialog portray a character in a scene. Using these it gives the audience ideas and helps relate them to

When looking at media today African American lives are over-exaggeratedly negative, giving viewers a false pretense of what it is to be black. Menace to Society, is an example of a poor portrayal of what it is to be an African American. While watching the movie it becomes obvious that a great majority of the African-American based movies ever made are about black on black violence, and crime. This movie is an example of the suppression

There are many different forms of justification for violence. When analyzing two different pieces of work which represent different time periods, one must consider the source of violence in each story and how that violence comes to be justified. In a novel such as True Grit, a product of the western genre, the justification of violence comes in the form of frontier justice. Frontier justice was a practice in early 19th-century America that was utilized when justice, or law, was unsatisfactory, or absent. A movie such as Goodfellas presents the justification of violence in an alternative way.

The pulps, be it magazines or novels, was North America's favorite form of escape for nearly sixty years. Pulp fiction delivered lavish cover art, fantastic illustrations and action packed stories for the American, Canadian and British public. Nothing, it seems, could stop these publications, they survived wars and depressions without any signs of slowing down. In fact, it was only in the 1950s when tv became popular that these mass produced masterpieces began to show hints of death. However, like the common cockroach this 25cent throw-away literature would never really go away, only push up in price.

In Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction Bruce Willis’s character, Butch Coolidge, attempts to follow a Kantian form of duty to moral law as established to him in his upbringing. However, as his upbringing and moral foundation are poorly developed, he is unable to follow a common societal norm of morality until he is met by the unchecked form of hedonism.

A very popular 1995 film involving crime is “Bad Boys” directed by Michael Bay. Michael Bay and his team of writers were able to film a highly intense action-comedy based around two detectives fighting organized crime. By examining distortions, crime causation theories, and the image portrayed in “Bad Boys,” the viewer is absorbed into the Hollywood perspective of our justice system.

something that is ‘real’ as such. Another example can be observed in the blatant display of selfreflexivity when Mia makes eye contact with the camera and “draws” a square with her finger.