Thursday, May 10, 2012

Important Movies Part 1: Pulp Fiction


Welcome to the first in a new series for Dave's Constant. I still plan on keeping the focus on movies that I go back and finally see, but I thought it might be fun to throw one of these up now and again. This series will be a little more personal as they won't focus on the movie itself. Instead, I wanted to share how I discovered some of the films that are most important to me as a movie geek. An important movie can mean many things. To me, it's the films that had the biggest impact on my life, whether as a life changing moment (2001: A Space Odyssey) or simply for the fact that it led me down a path I have since never left (Scream). These aren't the best movies ever made (and not even my favorite). They are simply a collection of the ones that have helped mold me into the person I am today. I hope you enjoy.

Pulp Fiction

    I distinctly remember the first time I saw Pulp Fiction. Well, not the whole movie, but a part of it. I was about 9 or 10 years old and I was at my Grandparents' house. They had one of those TV black boxes* so I typically would see what movies were on Pay-Per-View when I was there to help pass the time. (It was either that or play with their electronic poker machine. They may have had a gambling addiction.) At that age, I would be on the look out for two types of movies, dumbed down comedies for kids or anything that had the possibility of including a boob.** I knew about Pulp Fiction and figured it had a pretty good chance of passing my second criteria for movies. 

    Now before the onDemand days, the Pay-Per-View channels were setup so one channel would play the same movie on loop all day. So my plan was to wait until I was alone and "mistakenly" flip to that channel, hoping to see something cool.  When that time finally came, I put the channel on hoping to see something that explained why so many adults were talking about this movie. What I ended up seeing was John Travolta jamming a giant needle into some woman's chest. What the hell!? I had no idea what to do. I changed the channel back, but I couldn't stop replaying the image in my head. What was this movie anyway? Was it some weird sex scene I didn't understand yet? Was he killing that woman? The only thing I knew was the I wanted to see the rest of the movie.


    Unfortunately, that moment didn't happen for quite some time. I sadly can't even pinpoint the first time I finally got to see the movie from beginning to end now. It was surely well before I could appreciate it though. However, I have seen it multiple times since and easily consider it one of my favorite movies of all time. In high school, Pulp Fiction was the movie that really became the jumping off point as far as me becoming a movie geek for life. At the time, it simply meant watching all of the current movies that were out in theaters, but as I grew older, that love grew into something much bigger. Now, I view movies as something much more important than a simple 90 min. mental break. Movies are now a part of my everyday life. I like thinking that the seed for all this was seeing John Travolta shove that needle right into Uma Thurman's chest.



    You're Welcome, 
    Dave

    *Please don't arrest my entire family!

    **Side note: This was also around the age where I would get excited every week to get the TV guide so I could figure out what movies on HBO had "N" or "AC" next to their titles. I would usually get excited but then not be able to stay awake that late to see the movie. I had a sad childhood.

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