SkyPilot
Posts 257
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7/28/2007 12:41 PM
posted awhile ago
ACT IV; or Why SkyPilot Loves Jules
What movies or characters compel you to imagine what happens after the credits roll? For me, the last scene in Pulp Fiction always gets me to wonder what happens to Jules. Hey, I've never thought about the following point before: we can imagine that Butch wouldn't have gotten the drop on sloppy Vincent if Jules hadn't quit! (Leaving his gun on the counter is strike three for Vincent. He's out.) But if Jules hadn't quit, it's interesting to think about how the Butch-getting-his-watch sequence would go. Butch would either kill both of the hitmen, or (and this seems more likely to me) Jules would be on top of his game and kill Butch. Which means Marsellus Wallace would never have met Zed and Maynard. But that was a tangent. I've thought in the past about what Jules' "walking the earth" period would be like. Have you guys done this? Not "walked the earth," I mean, continued Jules' story? I actually imagine him becoming pretty discouraged and unhappy. This was influenced by a Douglas Coupland novel called Miss Wyoming, which I read around the same time I saw Pulp Fiction for the first time. The main character, if I recall correctly, has some sort of capitalism-induced nervous breakdown. He decides to become a wanderer, an authentic adventurer living off the land and the generosity of sympathetic, authentic strangers. He admits that he was naive, believing that with no financial responsibilities, he would be able to focus on his personal enlightenment. I'm paraphrasing here, but someone says to him, "That sounds really romantic, living under the stars. What did you learn?" He said, "Where the dumpsters with food in them were. I was too hungry to learn anything else." I named this discussion thread Act IV, but that's a bit of a misnomer. Pulp Fiction feels very complete to me (and feels very much like it has a beginning, middle, and end--which is weird). So I think about Jules just because he captured my imagination so much. Jules reminds me of Shakespeare and some of his more comic characters: Jules really loves language! He quotes King James-ish English, enjoys mixing the highbrow with profanity ("Man, this is some repugnant shit!"), and uses old words in surprsing ways (remember how he says to the Wolf: "We don't do shit, unless.") I won't go into detail about my post-Pulp Fiction Jules daydreams, because they're pretty detailed and most likely only interesting to me, but here are two scenarios: 1. Becomes an unlicensed private detective in New Orleans, working pro bono for the poor who are taken advantage of by organized crime and corrupt cops (I like this one a lot, and it's consistent with "you're the weak, and I'm the tyranny of men. But I'm trying real hard, Ringo . . . to be the Shepherd). 2. Finds shelter at a monastery, where the monks are all amazed at his ability to memorize and quote Scripture. He becomes a friar, and councils victims of crime and abuse (and more than once, 'solves' a problem with his fists).
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billymcbrie
Posts 6
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7/31/2007 4:45 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: ACT IV; or Why SkyPilot Loves Jules
I think the key to what Jules did next is foreshadowed in Pulp Fiction. "I'm going to walk the earth," he says, "Like Caine in Kung Fu." The way I see it, it would be exactly like Kung Fu, the TV show. Every week, Jules strolls into a new town, makes an aquaintance, sees a problem, and no matter how hard he tries to sort it out peacefully, he ends up spouting some scripture and popping a cap in their ass. Now that's something I'd pay to see.
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Risselada
Posts 1349
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8/1/2007 12:35 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: ACT IV; or Why SkyPilot Loves Jules
Pretty much all of Hal Hartley's movies end in a way where you wonder what will happen next to the character. There's usually not much of a traditional ending with a lot of closure. Actually his endings are more like beginnings often. And he's only made one sequel. Memento is one where you can assume what will keep happening. He'll keep tricking himself to go on the hunt for more people to kill. In Twelve Monkeys we know essentially what will happen, but I'd be curious to see more specifically how it happens. Maybe I'm just sick. I wonder what happens to Withnail at the end of Withnail & I, but if he's really based off of writer/director Robinson's real life friend, he ends up drinking himself to death and wasting his talent. Sad. I can think of a lot of movies like this actually. Maybe stuff from Mike Leigh or Krzysztof Kieslowski. I dunno.
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