Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino (stories), Roger Avary (stories), Quentin Tarantino (screenplay)
Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

In 1994, a film was released at the Cannes Film Festival that shook the foundations of the industry. Here was a talented 31-year old director who really seemed to understand the language of cinema like no other.

This director was named Quentin Tarantino, and he had debuted two years earlier with the sensational heist movie Reservoir Dogs. That film got excellent reviews, but not a wide release. His second movie made Tarantino a household name.

Although he has made a number of terrific genre movies since, his take on the gangster genre remains his greatest work.

Pulp Fiction famously weaves together four crime stories in L.A. in a tapestry of humor, violence, pop culture references and mystery. Famous for its nonlinear storytelling, Pulp Fiction is a grand exercise in style that is as inimitable as it is brilliant.

It won the award for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival and later the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (shared by Tarantino with his friend Roger Avery who contributed the story The Gold Watch to the script).

In 2013, Pulp Fiction was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’. It is without a doubt one of the most original and influential gangster movies of all time.