Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction movie poster

I have heard a lot about the movie Pulp Fiction, but have never watched it. For this blog, I figured that would be the obvious option, as I have wanted to see it for a long time.
Going into it knowing absolutely nothing about the movie, it proved to be extremely interesting. I guess maybe I'm more accustomed to the action genres, and that is why I found it a bit odd. In terms of a summary of this movie, I can honestly say that I am not quite sure where to begin an explanation. Bear with me here, folks.

The movie opens with a couple talking in a diner. Eventually, they just decide to rob the diner and terrorize everyone there eating, what I am sure, was a delicious breakfast. It then cuts to two hitmen, Jules and Vincent, talking in a car on their way to retrieve a br

iefcase from someone named Brett, at the request of their boss Marsellus Wallace. Jules and Vincent arrive at Brett's home and confront him and two other men about the briefcase. After a lot of dialogue about hamburgers between the five men, Jules goes into a long-winded speech about the Bible. He even goes as far to quote a popular verse from Ezekiel, before finally shooting Brett and escaping with Vincent with the briefcase in hand.

Vincent and Jules, doing what they do best. 

The scene cuts to a boxer, named Butch, and Marsellus discussing Butch's upcoming boxing match. Marsellus offers Butch a great deal of money to throw the match, and Butch accepts. Vincent and Jules show up and deliver the briefcase to their boss. After the exchange, Marsellus asks Vincent to distract his wife and take her out during the night of the boxing match, so Vincent, ever loyal to his boss, goes and does just that. But not before purchasing some heroin and shooting it up.
Once I saw the following scene, I realized this is the scene. The scene where Uma Thurman (who plays Marsellus' wife, Mia) and John Travolta (Vincent) have a dance off in a neat 50's diner. That's basically all that's notable in this scene. I mean, there's literally a song called "Uma Thurman" with the lyrics "she wants to dance like Uma Thurman...". Oh, and after Vincent and Mia eat and dance at the diner, Mia finds Vincent's heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, and snorts it. And almost dies. THEN Vincent revives her by stabbing her in the heart with a shot of adrenaline.
WOW. I can say with ease that I wasn't expecting that one.

The scene

After these intense few scenes, the audience has the opportunity to take a breath. Next up, we see a man approaching a young Butch and talking to him about a gold watch that has been in his family for generations. The man gives Butch the watch to keep. We then cut to the boxing arena, where Butch is fleeing from the fight. He goes back to a motel where he and his girlfriend are staying to hide out, they spend some time together, and all is well. Until Butch realizes that his girlfriend forgot the watch. He becomes enraged, throws the motel TV across the room, and then apologizes profusely for his actions. Good man. He goes to his apartment to retrieve the watch, and realizes that there's someone in his apartment. It's Vincent. Naturally, he shoots him. Because that's just how this movie is.
Butch is leaving his apartment and is stopped at a light, where he sees Marsellus. Marsellus recognizes him and follows Butch, shooting at him all the while, until Butch reaches a sketchy Pawn Shop where he seeks refuge. Marsellus follows him there, and the Pawn Shop owner and a security guard take them hostage and a lot of disgusting actions take place. Butch ends up getting free, saves Marsellus, and they both leave, agreeing to never speak of what just occurred at the shop. Butch picks up his girlfriend and they flee town.
Confusingly, it cuts to Vincent and Jules after they kill Brett. Another man pops out of the bathroom and shoots at both of them, missing every time. On the way back, Vincent 'accidentally' shoots one of Brett's associates in the face (how do you accidentally shoot someone?), and they call in some extra help to cover the murder.
Vincent and Jules then go to a coffee shop for breakfast, seemingly the same one at the very beginning of the movie, and discuss the events that just took place. Jules takes this opportunity to tell Vincent that he wants to retire. Vincent is upset by this and goes off to the bathroom. Our two friends from the beginning of the movie who decide to shoot everyone in the diner appear, making the sequence of events in this movie even more confusing. The male confronts Jules, takes his wallet, and questions him about the briefcase he has with him, showing obvious interest in it. Jules, his gun pointed to the robber, shows him the inside of the briefcase, and orders him to sit down while Jules rambles for ten minutes. Vincent comes back at some point to help back up Jules. Jules decides to give the man $1,500 and walks away with Vincent with the briefcase in hand.

A quote from the song "Uma Thurman" by Fall Out Boy

This movie was crazy. It was extremely difficult to follow the chain of events, but I got the hang of it around halfway through that it was not in chronological order. This movie is different from any other I have ever seen and I enjoyed the change of sequence of events. It made the movie have a fresh feel and had you paying attention to everything that was going on. If the plot unfolded any other way, it would have had a very different effect. It may have actually been a bit boring. Personally, on a scale I would give this movie about a B+. I really liked the way the story unfolded, but it made it just a bit confusing at times to understand precisely what was going on.
Overall, though, I'm glad I chose Pulp Fiction to watch. It was interesting and, while a bit odd at times, an entertaining movie to watch. I will definitely be viewing it again to really appreciate the full story.

Death From Laughter?

There's an old saying, "Laughter is the best medicine", which I completely agree with. Laughing actually has many health benefits: it decreases stress hormones, triggers the release of endorphins, and increases the immune cells, along with a myriad of other positive attributes. It helps us to forget our troubles for those few seconds, or sometimes minutes, of laughing carelessly.

Popular meme of a man laughinng

But death from laughter? Seriously? That's a new one.
After scanning the Unusual articles page on Wikipedia, I randomly chose one to write about for this blog post, and came across the death by laughter page. This is quite an unusual article, even for Wikipedia. (again, I mean that it is taken seriously) Of course, the phrase "I could die laughing" or, as we laugh, "I'm dying OMG", are common for me and my friends to say on a daily basis, so I have heard of  and used the term more than a few times. Reading this article, though, I found that dying from laughter has been recorded during the times of Ancient Greece and a few other times in history. For example, Zeuxis, a 5th century BC Greek painter, apparently died from laughter after painting the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
So how does one die from laughter, then? In the first paragraph of the article, it states that dying from laughter can happen by going into cardiac arrest or asphyxiation, (a condition where the body does not have enough oxygen due to abnormal breathing. I love learning new words!) so this is something that, while very rare, has happened before. Because really, when was the last time you saw a news headline saying "Man Dies From Laughter"?
The rest of the article discusses historical and fictional references to people who have died while laughing, and that's about it. In terms of fictional references, Wikipedia references the show 1000 Ways to Die, where a man dies of continuous laughter for over 36 hours. The article does not say what the joke was, and I would like to know. What joke is that hilarious that it's worth dying over? It's funny (see what I did there?), because I use the phrase "I'm dying right now" all the time when I laugh very hard, but I never pause to consider that it could happen. No, I won't spend every second I laugh now thinking that I could die, but it still is an interesting concept. This information is useful, because I know a lot of people who laugh for minutes at a time, sometimes even causing themselves to go into an asthma attack. It's scary that an action that causes us so much joy can end up killing us. Very morbid.

My best friend and I, always laughing of course. 

Death by laughter, I think, does earn a Wikipedia page. It's useful information to know, and it's funny at the same time. It is also helpful to see those who have died from laughter, both in real life and in fiction. As I said above, normally "dying laughing" is used jokingly, so the fact that Wikipedia made a legitimate article about it, backed with historical references, is useful and comical. Performing a quick Google search, I was able to find other websites with articles about people who really have died laughing, containing the same facts as Wikipedia, if not probably a bit more accurate, because we all know that Wikipedia isn't always the most trustworthy website to gain information from.
On a lighter note, laughing truly is wonderful. There are some people who go days, or even weeks, without laughing properly, and I honestly cannot imagine going that long without doing so. Along with the quick facts I provided at the beginning of this post, laughing also relaxes muscles, protects the heart, improves our mood, and strengthens relationships. So don't worry everyone, death from laughter is extremely rare. So my advice for you after reading this article is live life to the fullest, love with everything you have, and laugh until your stomach hurts, because it's totally worth it.