Okay, so this isn't a review. But it is an observation. I've been catching Pulp Fiction a lot lately on cable at night while trying to keep the twins from losing their shit. I've seen it a ton already. I love this movie. So I don't mind picking it up in any act while bottle feeding or rocking or begging for peace and quiet.
That being said, I picked up on something recently I've never picked up on before. The transformational power of bathrooms in this movie.
Hear me out.
It seems every turn in this movie hinges on a bathroom visit or bathroom visitor or something. There's some form of potty and humor or what have you involved in every major act.
Don't believe me?
Follow me down the rabbit hole.
First there is the scene in the first act with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson executing the dude who thought Marcellus Wallace was a bitch. While they're shooting, there's a dude holed up in...the bathroom with what looks like a .44 Magnum. Now we don't learn this until the final act but it's part of that same scene if taken sequentially. What happens? He busts out and shoots and totally misses both of them. Get's filled with lead. And then it happens. Sam has a conversion. He feels likes he been touched by God because it's a miracle he's alive. Travolta, not so much. Which will seal his doom later.
So, Sam is transformed after surviving the bathroom hit, so to speak.
Later, Travolta takes Uma Thurman out for dinner. During that dinner, she goes to the bathroom and snorts some coke and gets all hyper and wants to win the twist contest. This is important for two reasons: one, it foreshadows her later overdose on heroin because she snorts a ton, thinking it's coke. Second, it sets up the friskiness between her and Travolta which ulitmately leads to...
Her house and Travolta excusing himself to the bathroom where he talks to himself in the mirror, convincing himself it is not a good idea to sleep with the boss's wife. Meanwhile, Uma's in the living room O.D.ing on his heroin. Two bathroom visits that ultimately transform both characters.
We move on to the middle portion with Bruce Willis. It starts with him as a kid being told the story of his father and his father's father and their gold watch. Basically, it boils down to it surviving war, in of all places, hidden up somebody's ass. His dad dies of dysentery. So, all potty related in a broad way but still, potty related.
Later, Bruce and Marcellus end up in the basement of the pawn shop. Marcellus ends up getting raped by two rednecks (something hidden up his ass). Not necessarily potty related but ass related and tying into the watch up the ass early in the act.
But that's trivial compared to Travolta's demise. Again, he's in the bathroom. This time at Bruce's place. Bruce comes by to get his watch. Travolta is waiting to ambush him but needs a shit break. While he's on the throne, Bruce comes home, finds the Travolta's gun, and blasts him as he's coming out of...the bathroom.
You'd think that was it. Especially for Travolta. But no. He's influenced by two more bathroom scenes.
There's the bathroom scene where he's cleaning blood off his hands at Tarantino's house. Which leads to a blow up with Sam and directly influences how he deals with Harvey Keitel later. Then there's the diner. He's arguing with Sam, who wants to quit the life over surviving the shoot-out earlier. Travolta disagrees. He thinks it was a freak occurrence. Sam won't listen. To which Travolta says he needs to "Take a shit. To be continued." After he heads for the bathroom, the robbery starts. The robbery which ultimately changes the lives of Sam, Ringo, and Yolanda. Travolta comes out near the end and is only back-up. If he hadn't been in the bathroom at the beginning, shit would probably have gone down differently.
So, why am I pointing this all out? Fuck, I don't know. I just thought it was interesting that every major plot point in the movie seems to hinge on taking a piss or shit. Weird when you boil it down that way.
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