Director: Quentin Tarantino 

Year: 1994 : 

Synopsis Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino blended the violence of American gangster movies, time-twisting, video games and Japanese animation and film noirs mixed up with wacky aggression of cartoons in this internationally praised filmic masterpiece. The script intertwines three stories featuring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, in the role of hit men who have psychological interchanges on topics such as the French names for American fast food products etc; Bruce Willis as a boxer and Uma Thurman whose dance sequence with Travolta proved an instant classic.

Significance: Pulp Fiction is widely considered to be the most influential American movie of the 1990s. It has been nominated for 6 Oscars and it won one for the Best Screenplay (written directly for the screen). It has also won several different important awards. Its impact on Hollywood was deep. According to Variety, the commercial smash of Pulp Fiction "forever altered the game" of so-called independent cinema. "It cemented Miramax's place as the reigning indie superpower and became the Star Wars of independents, exploding expectations for what an indie film could do at the box office." The film's rather small budget that received a massive financial return altered the thinking of industry as well. Once the studios realized that they could exploit the economies of small scale, they started buying the distributors rather than remaking films themselves, copying the marketing of Disney and Miramax. Variety also suggested that the increasing number of actors shifting from expensive studio films to low-budget independent films came with the decision by Bruce Willis to appear in Pulp Fiction. The film was described as a major cultural event, an international phenomenon that influenced television, music, literature and advertising. It was also identified as a significant focus of attention within the growing community of Internet users.