Common Sense Note
Parents should be concerned about the film's glorification of violence, drug use, and sexual themes. Gunplay, robbery, swearing, drug use, drug dealing, lying, cheating, violence, male rape, sadomasochism, and driving under the influence are featured in this film. A character is shot in the face and it's played for jokes. In one extremely graphic scene (one that supposedly incited seizures in some epileptic audience members), a character plunges a syringe into a woman's chest to save her from experiencing a heroin overdose. The director seems to mock product placement by featuring original brands created for the film.
Families who see this film could talk about its popularity, despite its majorly mature content. What role did sex, violence, drug use, and language play in this film's success? Did you find anything here offensive -- or does the humorous tone somehow soften the content?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Marjorie Kase
PULP FICTION combines four storylines, revealing them in a non-linear fashion, using an immense all-star cast of characters connected in seemingly random ways. They include professional hit men Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vince (Travolta), their powerful drug-dealing boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), Wallace's wife, Mia (Uma Thurman), aging boxer Butch (Bruce Willis), and a host of others. Each character encounters each other throughout the film, resulting in a chain of events that changes the course of their lives.
Due mostly in part to its groundbreaking direction, cinematography, screenwriting, soundtrack, and extraordinary performances (particularly by Thurman, Travolta, and Jackson), Pulp Fiction had an immeasurable impact on both mainstream and independent filmmaking in the 90s. Despite the film's innovation and success, however, the extreme violence and sexual content featured in the film makes it wholly inappropriate for kids and all but the most mature teens.
Audience members that enjoy this film may want to check out its predecessor Reservoir Dogs and its successors; True Romance, Killing Zoe, and Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentIncludes characters discussing oral sex, plus depictions of sadomasochism. |
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ViolenceRape, drug overdose, car accidents, shootings, killings, vast amounts of blood, and so much more. |
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LanguageHolds the record for most use of the "F" words in any film (271 times). Plenty of racial slurs, too. |
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Social BehaviorThe film's extreme violence and drug use without legal consequences supercedes any of its socially redeemable qualities. |
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CommercialismReferences to Burger King. Mock brand fast food products. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoHeroin use plays a major role in the film. A character smokes pot using a bong. |
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