My pal, partner-in-crime in unmasking bad Vatican translations, businessman and foodie Joe Garcia announced to me the other day that he was making the case that Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 crime thriller “Pulp Fiction” is a deeply Catholic film (leaving aside the fact that he apparently rewrote Scripture).
I didn’t really get a lot of specifically Catholic stuff from “Pulp Fiction,” but on the other hand, “Die Hard” is one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies, so everybody’s got a different point of view. Here’s a taste of Joe’s argument:
1- The stories contained by the film are out of sequence. This is because God is “outside time.”
2- When Vince and Jules (who has abused Scripture his whole “career”) are shot at, from nearly point-blank range, and emerge unscathed, Jules sees a miracle and changes his ways. He becomes transformed by the Divine action he recognizes. “…God stopped the bullets, or He changed Coke to Pepsi, He found my f***ing car keys. You don’t judge s*** like this based on merit. Now, whether or not what we experienced was an according-to-Hoyle miracle is insignificant. What IS significant is that I felt the touch of God.” In the Letter to the Hebrews, we read that Abraham is saved “through faith.” Jules has a conversion and is spared. Vince, does not and is killed shortly after. (More on these facets to follow.)
3- Butch’s story pivots around his father’s watch. It symbolizes immortality (that whole “being outside of time” thing). It “served” honorably in a military context; it’s his “birthright” handed down by ancestors who fought and died. However, Butch has squandered that potential, he hasn’t fought for a noble cause, he has just fought as a sport. He doesn’t even feel too much remorse for the other boxer who dies in the match.
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Images: Wikimedia Commons
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