For the record, I said "Pulp fiction is not that good of a movie." I didn't say it was bad, I didn't say it was a failure. For the record, I think it's one of Tarantino's weakest; I find that when he writes for other directors he does fine (True Romance is a favorite of mine) but when he's left unattended you get Kurt Russell in Death Proof. As a film, Pulp Fiction is better than Death Proof or Jackie Brown but Death Proof was so bad that I decided I don't need to subject myself to Tarantino ever again.

For the record, you're arguing that it "works for you" and that it's a "good movie." We're not that far apart, you and I - on the one hand, I'm observing that it gets far more praise than it deserves, while you're arguing that it's not undeserving of praise. I totally agree with you - and I suspect you don't completely disagree with me. Are we close?

Thing is, you're also arguing that Pulp Fiction needs to be considered as "an homage to the Pulp Novels and the French New Wave movement."

You're doing it no favors.

Nobody gives a shit about French New Wave except hipster film students (who mostly bring it up to annoy people who claim to "like movies") and Tarantino. Meanwhile, "pulp fiction" gave us Raymond Chandler, Robert Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Some people see Maltese Falcon. Others see "royale with cheese."

Doesn't really matter, though, because Tarantino isn't actually making French New Wave cinema. He isn't actually worshiping the pulps. He's actually making 70's exploitation cinema which the whole world has turned away from. While the rest of us were watching Coppola's The Conversation, Tarantino was watching Boss Nigger. And that's fine. If you want to make a blaxplitation film, rock on with your own bad self.

But don't tell me it's art.

Quentin Tarantino is Clarence from True Romance. he's that huckster kid from the video rental place that worships Sonny Chiba above all else, stumbles into a trunkload of cocaine, goes to Hollywood and beats everyone else at their own game while simultaneously wiping them out in a hail of bullets. He's an unsubtle man. Left to his own devices he'll make ultra-violent revenge movies about nothing, and that's okay. But unlike John Carpenter or Russ Meyer or Tyler Perry, Tarantino convinced an entire generation of film buffs that he made "art" so they could enjoy ultra-violent revenge movies about nothing without feeling guilty. That's why he gets along so well with Robert Rodriguez - they're in on the same joke. They're cut-rate Hong Kong hackers that have been given the keys to the kingdom because Hollywood thinks they've let it in on the joke.

The pig doesn't roll in shit to be ironic, it rolls in shit because it likes it. And if you like pigs, you don't care. So long as we can agree it's a pig, not a unicorn, we'll be fine.