Abstract
It's a common assertion that the dialogue in Pulp Fiction is entertaining yet insignificant. In a rather lengthy interview in Film Comment, for example, Quentin Tarantino and Gavin Smith seem to be in perfect agreement as they discuss Tarantino's methods of covering shots, editing, and drawing from film history. Late in the interview, however, Smith questions the believability of Tarantino's hit men. Specifically, Smith questions Vincent and Jules's extended discourse on hamburgers and Jules's subsequent interest in the Big Kahuna Burger. Smith asserts: "the device of giving genre characters like hitmen unlikely conversational topics inevitably draws attention to the fictive basis of what's onscreen," and thus goes "against naturalism." Tarantino's retort is short and unaccommodating: "That's putting your preconceptions about what you think people who do that for a living talk about" (42).
Recommended Citation
Peake, Glenn
(1996)
"Icons, Iconoclasts, and Ideology: The Strange Case of Quentin Tarantino,"
University of Dayton Review: Vol. 24:
No.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/udr/vol24/iss1/6
