But something always goes wrong, some small unexpected accident that causes the whole situation to come tumbling down, leading the increasingly desperate characters to absurd measures. Each of the three main story threads begins with a situation that could easily form the subplot of any standard gangster movie.

The movie becomes a bit easier to understand once you realize that it's essentially a black comedy dressed up as a crime drama. But to what end? The self-contained story does not seem to have bearing on anything but itself. Containing numerous references to other films, it is like a great work of abstract art, or 'art about art.' It has all the characteristics we associate with great movies: fine writing, first-rate acting, unforgettable characters, and one of the most well-constructed narratives I've ever seen in a film.

'Pulp Fiction,' is, as the title indicates, purely an exercise in technique and style, albeit a brilliant and layered one. The film is so intricately structured, with so many astonishing details, many of which you won't pick up on the first viewing, that it seems to cry out for some deeper explanation. It's no wonder that fans spend so much time debating what was in the suitcase, reading far more into the story than Tarantino probably intended. Yet without such scenes, 'Pulp Fiction' wouldn't be 'Pulp Fiction.' I get the sense that Tarantino put into the film whatever struck his fancy, and somehow the final product is not only coherent but wonderfully textured. Other than the comic payoff at the end of the scene, in which they use parts of this conversation to taunt their victims, their talk has no relevance to anything in the film, or to anything else, for that matter. If you didn't know better, you might assume these were regular guys having chit-chat on their way to work. Their dialogue is witty and entertaining, and it's also disarming, because it makes these two thugs seem all too normal. One of the early scenes in 'Pulp Fiction' features two hit-men discussing what a Big Mac is called in other countries.

Live free or die book john ringo