Reservoir Dogs And Pulp Fiction Essay

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Tarantino revolutionized film making through his films Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. This essay will focus specifically on the popularization of non-linear story telling and use of postmodernism in mainstream cinema. In addition, it will examine the films’ use of cynicism and irony to speak to the disenchantment of Generation X and the responses to these films which solidified them as cultural phenomena. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction not only impacted the beliefs and values which defined mood of the period they were born into, the film techniques and distinct aesthetics of both films are what made postmodernism in mainstream cinema not only possible, but popular. While modernism was a movement centered around rationality and progress, …show more content…

For the first time, the characteristics of Generation X were embodied in a film that dramatized their condition as self-consciously postmodern individuals, hyper-aware of their place in history, and obsessed with popular culture (Green, et al., 2014). The absence of a link to history, the cynicism, and the irony of the characters spoke perfectly to the generation’s disenchantment with the world. “We loved Pulp Fiction. Not just because it’s uproarious or filled with classic dialogue or outrageous situations, but because it is sympathetic to its characters and cares about their fates” (Green, 2014). It was the first film to seemingly understand and sympathize with the GenX condition. “Pulp Fiction was a movie about cool losers and it appealed to an audience both branded and self-identified as such. Pulp Fiction delivered the possibility of a way out of the malaise – through spiritual awakening, of all things. Some of us walked out of the theater thinking there might be hope for the world’s outcasts and misfits after all” (Green, 2014). Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fictions commanded the attention of their audiences, and were immediately adopted by the zeitgeist they were born into, and the response to both of these films solidified them as cultural

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