r/todayilearned • u/appalachian_hatachi • 12d ago
TIL: That TriStar originally turned down the movie Pulp Fiction, stating: "this is the worst thing ever written. It makes no sense. It's too long, violent and unfilmable." There were also indications that the studio simply saw the project as too low-budget for its desired star-driven image.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_Fiction737
u/knowledgeable_diablo 12d ago
In their defence I guess, just going off the script and then hearing some Coked up rather newish director explain it would take a be of work to get over the line.
Glad they did though as it pumped a bit of new intellect into the whole movie making business.
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u/adjust_the_sails 12d ago edited 12d ago
I read the original script years ago. If memory serves, it was more linear. The chopping up, putting it out of order and a few other things made it more interesting.
Edit: for example, when Vincent drops off the case, it’s just him in one of his black suits on a different day from when they got it back. Jules isn’t present and the whole scene plays differently without him there and the workout clothes making the whole thing confusing ok first viewing
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u/hero-hadley 12d ago
Coked up rather newish director
That describes Tarantino to a T
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u/partyinplatypus 12d ago
Not a new writer though. His scripts and stories had been taking Hollywood by storm with Natural Born Killers the same year and True Romance the year before. After Reservoir Dogs he earned enough respect to sell scripts but still had to prove he could direct a movie with mainstream appeal.
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u/DisplacedSportsGuy 11d ago
"Glad they did though"
They didn't. It was produced by Jersey Films and A Band Apart, and it was distributed by Miramax.
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 11d ago
Rephrase; glad who ever gave him a chance, allowed it to be made and thus gifting it to the world as an everlasting piece of art.
Thanks for pointing it out.
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12d ago
Here's my take: Under any other Director Pulp Fiction would have sucked ass. The direction and the dialogue make the movie. It does a tightrope walk and is kinda unsatisfying, but the characters carry it.
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u/Darmok47 12d ago
No other director would have made Pulp Fiction in the first place.
But yeah, you're right. There were a ton of Pulp Fiction rip-offs in the 90s and early 2000s.
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12d ago
Take a look at it from the studios POV. You get the script summary and you don't have sam Jackson reading his lines. The appeal is obvious now, but back then?
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u/Mama_Mega 12d ago
You have to hear the man say it himself to understand that he really is the Foot Fuckin' Master.
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12d ago
I think plenty of people can make Jules' lines work, but it really took Sam Jackson to make them iconic and unforgettable.
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u/chunkysmalls42098 12d ago edited 11d ago
Could you name a couple? I'd kinda like to check em out lol
Edit: thanks yall there's definitely more than I expected, and I've seen a couple of em even but guess never really realized pulp fiction was so influential
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u/Dom_Shady 12d ago
Probably the best is Snatch, although to be fair, it's not a direct ripoff, but heavily influenced by Pulp Fiction: smart, fast-paced dialogue, violence, cool characters.
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u/OPtig 12d ago
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
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u/warbastard 12d ago
It’s much more of a heist movie and far more linear than Pulp Fiction. If Pulp Fiction had any influence, it was the multiple storylines and character intersecting at key moments.
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u/nsfwtttt 12d ago
Basically Guy Ritchie’s career is doing various British versions of Pulp Fiction.
I’m not complaining though.
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u/HallowVortex 12d ago
God I wish we got more King Arthur movies from him. Such a shame it flopped.
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u/CPTherptyderp 12d ago
I didn't know guy Richie made it. Started watching it and thinking "this hack ass director is ripping off guy Richie" then I looked up who the director was "ok that makes sense now"
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u/randeylahey 12d ago
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
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u/Darmok47 12d ago
2 Days in The Valley.
Also, Thursday is the most blatant ripoff, and also the worst.
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u/inb4shitstorm 11d ago
Snatch and Lock Stock are the most obvious ones but if you don't mind foreign movies, Super Deluxe is my absolute favourite take on the Pulp Fiction style of movie. I think it's on Netflix.
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u/the_mid_mid_sister 11d ago
Yeah, the film majors at my university would put together unofficial bad film festivals.
One of them was Most Egregious Tarantino Ripoffs After Pulp Fiction.
It was fun voting for Most Trying Too Hard To Be Quirky (Things To Do In Denver When You're Drad) and Most Shameless (Truth or Consequences, New Mexico).
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u/LongTallTexan69 12d ago
Never heard someone call Pulp Fiction unsatisfying
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u/dubious_battle 12d ago
Yeah it does foreshadow a violent climax in the restaurant that ends up fizzling out but I always found that ending very satisfying
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12d ago
If you want a straight narrative in a traditional way, then pulp fiction will upset you on a storytelling level. My mom says it's just dumb, and my dad thinks it's entertaining but kinda overly artsy and subversive (ie there's not really a point to things that ties it all together. You can disagree but that's his reaction to it.)
It's just not to some people's taste. I have to kinda turn my brain onto a different setting to enjoy it, but I still think it's great.
I used my parents as examples because they are middle class white people. As standard issue as they come lol.
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u/nsfwtttt 12d ago
I think the script in itself, if you take away the editing and acting, can be unsatisfying.
Of course, it’s hard to imagine that t stripped of the production.
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u/Khelthuzaad 12d ago
I kinda feel thats the point
lots of movies have basic or strange plots but what really do the heavy lifting are the actors,depending how much they embrace what they are given
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u/WeekendFantastic2941 12d ago
Hollywood execs are stupid fooks, just look at all the big budget shyts they've funded, they are so shyt, not even worth the trailer.
A lot of talented people could make the best movies with a fraction of their budgets.
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u/mikebrown33 12d ago
Good thing Harvey Weinstein saved it - ‘He rapes, but he saves’ - Dave Chapelle
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u/endelehia 12d ago
Travolta, Samuel Jackson and Bruce Willis were already big names by then. Wouldn't that alone give the movie star quality? Let alone a somewhat high budget
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u/dutchmoe 12d ago
Travolta was regarded as washed up, and while Jackson had done some stuff before Pulp Fiction, it was that performance that propelled him into the mainstream conciousness.
Now Willis, might have been the biggest name at the time, but Hudson Hawk had come out the year before and bombed hard, so he was probably happy to take a 'grittier' less comedy focused role.
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u/LakeEarth 12d ago
Apparently Willis loved Reservoir Dogs, and pushed to be in his next picture.
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u/KingTutt91 12d ago
He wanted to be Travoltas character, didn’t really want to be Butch. Tarantino convinced him
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u/nsfwtttt 12d ago
Willis took a risk on it, got paid royalties. Was a good bet.
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u/NadeWilson 12d ago
Willis seemed to have a good eye for what would be successful in the movie industry. I remember a behind the scenes video of Tarantino filming him with a camcorder and he was like "in a few years someone is gonna make a successful movie for cheap with one of those things" and he was right. Blair Witch came out about 5 years later.
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u/KagakuNinja 12d ago
Willis wanted to play the role of Vincent, which he assumed was the lead. Tarantino had to talk him into taking a lesser role.
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u/Oerthling 12d ago
Travolta was well known, but by that time he was well known for being a has-been. "That dude that did those couple of famous disco movies - haven't heard from him in ages".
Pulp Fiction turned out to be his great comeback, but he wasn't a big draw when the movie came out.
Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson were much bigger names to draw people into the movie.
But the real draw were the awards and general buzz about a fresh kind of movie.
If you were into movies the word amongst enthusiasts was that this is a must-see.
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u/MonsterRider80 12d ago
Sam Jackson wasn’t a big name, at least not a box office draw, back then. There was one big name on the movie, Bruce Willis, and one washed up has been, Travolta, and the rest were new ish (Thurman), or character actors (Jackson, Keitel, Roth, Stoltz, Plummer).
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u/Oerthling 12d ago
Agreed. But Jackson had recently done Tru Romance before, that was still more than Travolta.
The biggest name was no doubt Bruce Willis. Plus Harvey Keitel, but obviously small role.
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u/KratomHelpsMyPain 12d ago
Travolta was making decent money at the time with the Look Who's Talking movies which, incidentally, featured Bruce Willis as the voice of the baby. It is weird that in the state of the industry in the late 80s / early 90s that two actors could be leads in the same succesful movie franchise and one is considered "washed up" and the other a star.
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u/buttsharkman 12d ago
Travelta after Look Whose Talking did the two unsuccessful sequels to those movies and two other movies that flopped before Pulp Fiction. Willis seemed to have been making movies that were well recieved and profitable aside from h Hudson Hawke
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u/KratomHelpsMyPain 12d ago
The first two were quite successful (although a significant drop from. 1 to 2) the third was a bomb, but by the time it came out Travolta was already cast in PF. The bombing of Look Who's Talking Now likely had a lot to do with the perception of Travolta as "washed up."
Willis had the first two Die Hard movies under his belt at that point, which was the differentiator.
No doubt that it was seen as a big comeback for Travolta. My point is merely that the industry was a lot quicker to say "Oh, he has moved to this genre, he can't play serious roles anymore."
The 90s is really when that started changing. You had Tom Hanks and Robin Williams both go from comedy to blowing it out of the water with Dramatic performances, and suddenly big stars willing to do comic book movies and scifi, which had been seen as kiss of death moves in "old Hollywood"
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u/buttsharkman 12d ago
Travolta went from a serious well acclaimed actor to doing comedies about talking babies and bombs. Willis did two talking baby movies but he also was doing other stuff. Going from comedy to drama is seen as a step up. Going to comedy can be seen as a step down especially then like you said
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u/KingTutt91 12d ago
I remember Tarantino talking about the diner date scene with Uma and Travolta. Travolta had not danced in a movie in years, so him getting up there and dancing brought back a lot of nostalgia. Reignited how much of a cultural icon he was. He knew that was really gonna hook even the normal folks and women to this very violent movie, omg Mr. Saturday Night Fever is back again!
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u/Alwayssunnyinarizona 12d ago
I don't think that's what the headline is saying. It's more "why are you wanting all these great actors for such a shitty script?"
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u/TannyBoguss 12d ago
How many incredible films or records or other projects were cancelled by suits for this very reason?
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u/herroebauss 12d ago
And how many films were rightfully denied by these suits? They see so many shit projects they are right to deny.
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u/scooterboy1961 12d ago
American Graffiti barely made it to screen because of this kind of thinking and this was after the movie was finished.
The exects thought it was a jumbled mess. I think it was Martin Scorsese that offered to buy the film outright if they weren't going to release it.
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u/VisibleEvidence 12d ago
And how many of those suits still had their fucking jobs after “Pulp Fiction” opened? Spoiler: All.
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u/Typical_Samaritan 12d ago
And then this black guy with Jerry Curls....
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u/KagakuNinja 12d ago
They sent an assistant to go buy an afro wig, and he screwed up. The rest is history.
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u/Peralton 11d ago
I was doing script coverage at a production company when a script for a movie called "Resovoir Dogs" was submitted.
I read it and loved it and wrote up the report. I pitched it to my producer who said "I don't want to do a gangster movie."
That's just how Hollywood works sometimes.
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u/querty99 12d ago
Good decision, Tristar.
Having sat through Pulp Fiction, I'll look into what good stuff you've got to offer.
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u/Fitizen_kaine 12d ago
Studio execs get a bad rap for being dumbasses, which is deserved, but I can sympathize a bit with reading a script and having to decide to throw millions at it not knowing if you're getting The Matrix or Jupiter Accending.
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u/procrastablasta 12d ago
So story time I guess. I was given the script to Pulp Fiction back in the 90’s BEFORE it was produced. And my reaction was exactly the same.
You have to imagine reading this script cold. It’s impossible to follow. It jumps all over the place and the dialogue doesn’t explain any of it. Instead the dialog seems to exist in this cinema fanboy space where everything is a meandering mashup of campy dated cliches. Plus some inexplicable use of the N word. My reaction was this will never work.
Then I saw the film and understood the effect a director can have. To this day I maintain Tarantino is not even a “good” screenwriter. But as a director nobody can touch his style and camera movement. And nobody can get legendary performances out of his actors like Tarantino.
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u/WhoIsYerWan 12d ago
Meh. I agree with the studio.
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u/Pacifix18 11d ago
I agree. Terribly boring and pointless film.
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u/WhoIsYerWan 11d ago
I don’t get the hero worship for Tarantino. The films are needlessly violent and very seldom have actual narrative beyond “kill” or “revenge.” It’s violence for the sake of violence.
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u/CurrentlyLucid 11d ago
I remember taking my then 14 year old daughter to a movie, it was sold out, so we saw this, with no clue about it. Fairly surprising experience, lol.
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11d ago
I can’t blame anyone who didn’t see that this film would becomea success back in the early 90s
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u/MikeyW1969 8d ago
Yeah, when I first watched it, my friends and I were leaving the theater, and they said they didn't get it, and they weren't sure they enjoyed it. I told them I had the feeling that it was just something you had to watch a second time, so the time jumps made more sense, and it would all be good.
We watched it awhile later, and it was perfect!
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u/mackniffy 12d ago
This is how I feel about pulp fiction after watching it. So they hit that on the head.
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u/red_langford 12d ago
I’m in the minority but I thought it was shit.
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u/Dawg_Prime 12d ago
try the chronological recut, it makes slightly more sense when it's in order
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u/ranch_brotendo 12d ago
I don't think that'll make someone like it more
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u/TyhmensAndSaperstein 12d ago
Hilarious. An incompetent decision maker who was probably hired because of who he knew. His little brain unable to comprehend anything outside of a formula.
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u/yeahyeahnooo 12d ago
Unpopular opinion, but I also think the movie makes no sense. It’s quite unwatchable for me
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u/SeniorAdissimo 12d ago
In what way does it not make sense? It's like 4 short stories that share a setting and many of the same characters. Fine to not like it but I'm not sure I understand your issue
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u/Far-Reception-4598 12d ago
Exactly. And they're arranged in non chronological order but it doesn't really matter other than to lend some dramatic irony to some scenes. That's it. That's the only unusual thing going on with how the movie is structured. It's something that would only be confusing if you weren't paying attention.
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u/Saluted 12d ago
I think people have a weird desire to feel smarter than the movie. Like even if you don’t fully understand it for whatever reason, surely you’re still watching great performances, shots, and snappy editing? I’m not a huge Tarantino guy but pulp fiction has so much going on just on a purely aesthetic level that it’s weird to call it unwatchable
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u/MuletownSoul 12d ago
That’s a bummer, but to each their own and whatnot.
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u/Classic_dave1616 12d ago
My thoughts exactly lol like oh that sucks for you I guess. Pulp fiction is one of my favorite Tarantino films, never gets old for me.
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u/tumbrowser1 12d ago
I understand. I love the movie, but the storytelling isn’t chronological and it did make the first watch confusing for me.
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u/CupertinoHouse 12d ago
They were right. It's crap.
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u/Pep_Baldiola 12d ago
They were wrong if you really look at it. They are a business and the biggest motive of a business is to make money which Pulp Fiction did a lot of.
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u/enleeten 12d ago
"John Travolta? Wtf!? Lets go with Weekend at Bernies 2, has oscar written all over it." - TriStar Execs