document_title: Pulp Fiction

question_text: who does quentin tarantino play in pulp fiction

question_tokens: who does quentin tarantino play in pulp fiction

text: Pulp Fiction

text: Narrative structure

text: Pulp Fiction's narrative is told out of chronological order, and follows three main interrelated stories: mob contract killer Vincent Vega is the protagonist of the first story, prizefighter Butch Coolidge is the protagonist of the second, and Vincent's partner Jules Winnfield is the protagonist of the third.[8] The stories intersect in various ways.

text: The film begins with a diner hold-up staged by a couple, then picks up the stories of Vincent, Jules, and Butch. It finally returns to where it began, in the diner. There are a total of seven narrative sequences; the three primary storylines are preceded by intertitles:

text:
"Prologue—The Diner" (i)
Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
"Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
Prelude to "The Gold Watch" (a—flashback, b—present)
"The Gold Watch"
"The Bonnie Situation"
"Epilogue—The Diner" (ii)

text: If the seven sequences were ordered chronologically, they would run: 4a, 2, 6, 1, 7, 3, 4b, 5. Sequences 1 and 7 partially overlap and are presented from different points of view, as do sequences 2 and 6. In Philip Parker's description, the structural form is "an episodic narrative with circular events adding a beginning and end and allowing references to elements of each separate episode to be made throughout the narrative."[9] Other analysts describe the structure as a "circular narrative".[10]

text: Plot

text: Hitmen Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega arrive at the apartment of Brett to retrieve a briefcase for their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace. After Vincent checks the contents of the briefcase, Jules shoots one of Brett's associates, then declaims a passage from the Bible before he and Vincent kill Brett. They take the briefcase to Marsellus, but have to wait while he bribes champion boxer Butch Coolidge to take a dive in his upcoming match.

text: The next day, Vincent purchases heroin from his drug dealer, Lance. He shoots up then drives to meet Marsellus's wife Mia, whom Marsellus has asked Vincent to escort while he is out of town. They head to a 1950s-themed restaurant and participate in a twist contest, then return to the Wallace house with the trophy. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, snorts it, and overdoses. Vincent rushes her to Lance's house, where they revive her with an adrenaline shot to her heart.

text: Butch double-crosses Marsellus and wins the bout, killing his opponent in the process. At the motel where he and his girlfriend Fabienne are lying low, Butch discovers that she has forgotten to pack his father's gold watch, a beloved heirloom, and flies into a rage. Returning to his apartment to retrieve the watch, he notices a gun on the kitchen counter, and hears the toilet flush. Vincent exits the bathroom, and Butch shoots him dead.

text: As Butch waits at a traffic light in his car, Marsellus spots him by chance, and chases him into a pawnshop. The owner, Maynard, captures them at gunpoint, and ties them up in the basement. Maynard is joined by Zed, a security guard; they take Marsellus to another room to rape him, leaving the "gimp", a silent figure in a bondage suit, to watch Butch. Butch breaks loose, and knocks out the gimp. He is about to flee, but decides to save Marsellus. As Zed rapes Marsellus, Butch kills Maynard with a katana retrieved from the pawnshop. Marsellus retrieves Maynard's shotgun, and shoots Zed. Marsellus informs Butch that they are even, as long as he tells no one about the rape and departs Los Angeles forever. Butch picks up Fabienne on Zed's chopper.

text: Some time earlier, after Vincent and Jules have executed Brett in his apartment, another man bursts out of the bathroom, and shoots wildly, missing every time; Jules and Vincent shoot him. Jules decides their survival was a miracle, which Vincent disputes. As Jules drives, Vincent accidentally shoots Brett's associate Marvin in the face. They hide the car at the home of their associate Jimmie, who insists they deal with the problem before his wife comes home. Marsellus sends his cleaner, Winston Wolfe, who directs Jules and Vincent to clean the car, hide the body in the trunk, dispose of their bloody clothes, and drive the car to a junk yard.

text: At a diner, Jules tells Vincent that he plans to retire from his life of crime, taking their "miraculous" survival as a sign. While Vincent is in the bathroom, a couple, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, hold up the restaurant. When Jules holds Pumpkin at gunpoint, Honey Bunny becomes hysterical and trains her gun on him; Vincent returns with his gun trained on her, creating a Mexican standoff. Jules recites the biblical passage, expresses ambivalence about his life of crime, and allows the robbers to take his cash and leave. Jules and Vincent leave the diner with the briefcase.

text: Cast

text: John Travolta as Vincent Vega:

text: Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield:

text: Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace:

text: Bruce Willis as Butch Coolidge:

text: Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe:

text: Tim Roth as Ringo/"Pumpkin":

text: Amanda Plummer as Yolanda/"Honey Bunny":

text: Maria de Medeiros as Fabienne:

text: Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace:

text: Phil LaMarr as Marvin:

text:
Quentin Tarantino as Jimmie
Frank Whaley as Brett:

text: Burr Steers as Roger/“Flock Of Seagulls”

text: Eric Stoltz as Lance:

text: Rosanna Arquette as Jody:

text: Bronagh Gallagher as Trudi

text: Angela Jones as Esmeralda Villalobos:

text: Duane Whitaker as Maynard, Peter Greene as Zed and Stephen Hibbert as the gimp:[45]

text: Alexis Arquette as Fourth Man:

text: Christopher Walken as Captain Koons:

text: Julia Sweeney as Raquel:

text: Kathy Griffin as herself:

text: Steve Buscemi as Buddy Holly:[47]

text:
Lawrence Bender as Long Hair Yuppie-Scum[48]
Susan Griffiths as Marilyn Monroe:

text: Eric Clark as James Dean:

text: Linda Kaye as "Shot Woman":

text: Production

text: Writing

text: Roger Avary wrote the first element of what would become the Pulp Fiction screenplay in the fall of 1990:

text: Tarantino and Avary decided to write a short, on the theory that it would be easier to get made than a feature. But they quickly realized that nobody produces shorts, so the film became a trilogy, with one section by Tarantino, one by Avary, and one by a third director who never materialized. Each eventually expanded his section into a feature-length script.[52]

text: The initial inspiration was the three-part horror anthology film Black Sabbath (1963), by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava. The Tarantino–Avary project was provisionally titled "Black Mask," after the seminal hardboiled crime fiction magazine.[30] Tarantino's script was produced as Reservoir Dogs, his directorial debut; Avary's, titled "Pandemonium Reigns," would form the basis for the "Gold Watch" storyline of Pulp Fiction.[53]

text: With work on Reservoir Dogs completed, Tarantino returned to the notion of a trilogy film: "I got the idea of doing something that novelists get a chance to do but filmmakers don't: telling three separate stories, having characters float in and out with different weights depending on the story."[54] Tarantino explains that the idea "was basically to take like the oldest chestnuts that you've ever seen when it comes to crime stories—the oldest stories in the book.... You know, 'Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife'—the oldest story about...the guy's gotta go out with the big man's wife and don't touch her. You know, you've seen the story a zillion times."[8] "I'm using old forms of storytelling and then purposely having them run awry", he says. "Part of the trick is to take these movie characters, these genre characters and these genre situations and actually apply them to some of real life's rules and see how they unravel."[55] In at least one case, boxer Butch Coolidge, Tarantino had in mind a specific character from a classic Hollywood crime story: "I wanted him to be basically like Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer in Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly [1955]. I wanted him to be a bully and a jerk".[25]

text: Tarantino went to work on the script for Pulp Fiction in Amsterdam in March 1992,[56] possibly at the Winston Hotel in the Red Light District.[57] He was joined there by Avary, who contributed "Pandemonium Reigns" to the project and participated in its rewriting as well as the development of the new storylines that would link up with it.[53] Two scenes originally written by Avary for the True Romance screenplay, exclusively credited to Tarantino, were incorporated into the opening of "The Bonnie Situation": the "miraculous" missed shots by the hidden gunman and the rear seat automobile killing.[58] The notion of the crimeworld "cleaner" that became the heart of the episode was inspired by a short, Curdled, that Tarantino saw at a film festival. He cast the lead actress, Angela Jones, in Pulp Fiction and later backed the filmmakers' production of a feature-length version of Curdled.[59] The script included a couple of made-up commercial brands that would feature often in later Tarantino films: Big Kahuna burgers (a Big Kahuna soda cup appears in Reservoir Dogs) and Red Apple cigarettes.[60] As he worked on the script, Tarantino also accompanied Reservoir Dogs around the European film festivals. Released in the U.S. in October 1992, the picture was a critical and commercial success. In January 1993, the Pulp Fiction script was complete.[61]

text: Financing

text: Tarantino and his producer, Lawrence Bender, brought the script to Jersey Film. Before even seeing Reservoir Dogs, Jersey had attempted to sign Tarantino for his next project.[62] Ultimately a development deal worth around $1 million had been struck—the deal gave A Band Apart, Bender and Tarantino's newly formed production company, initial financing and office facilities; Jersey got a share of the project and the right to shop the script to a studio.[63] Jersey had a distribution and "first look" deal with Columbia TriStar, which paid Tarantino for the right to consider exercising its option.[64] In February, Pulp Fiction appeared on a Variety list of films in preproduction at TriStar.[65] In June, however, the studio put the script into turnaround.[64] According to a studio executive, TriStar chief Mike Medavoy found it "too demented".[66] There were suggestions that TriStar was resistant to back a film featuring a heroin user; there were also indications that the studio simply saw the project as too low-budget for its desired star-driven image.[67] Avary—who was about to start shooting his own directorial debut, Killing Zoe—has said that TriStar's objections were comprehensive, encompassing the script's fundamental structure. He characterizes the studio's position: "'This is the worst thing ever written. It makes no sense. Someone's dead and then they're alive. It's too long, violent, and unfilmable.'... So I thought, 'That's that!'"[68]

text: Bender brought the script to Miramax, the formerly independent studio that had recently been acquired by Disney. Harvey Weinstein—co-chairman of Miramax, along with his brother, Bob—was instantly enthralled by the script and the company picked it up.[69] Pulp Fiction, the first Miramax project to get a green light after the Disney acquisition, was budgeted at $8.5 million.[3] It became the first movie that Miramax completely financed.[70] Helping hold costs down was the plan Bender executed to pay all the main actors the same amount per week, regardless of their industry status.[71] The biggest star to sign on to the project was Bruce Willis. Though he had recently appeared in several big-budget flops, he was still a major overseas draw. On the strength of his name, Miramax garnered $11 million for the film's worldwide rights, virtually ensuring its profitability.[72]

text: Filming

text: Principal photography commenced on September 20, 1993.[73] The lead offscreen talent had all worked with Tarantino on Reservoir Dogs—cinematographer Andrzej Sekuła, film editor Sally Menke, production designer David Wasco, and costume designer Betsy Heimann. According to Tarantino, "[W]e had $8 million  [sic]. I wanted it to look like a $20–25 million movie. I wanted it to look like an epic. It's an epic in everything—in invention, in ambition, in length, in scope, in everything except the price tag."[74] The film, he says, was shot "on 50 ASA film stock, which is the slowest stock they make. The reason we use it is that it creates an almost no-grain image, it's lustrous. It's the closest thing we have to 50s Technicolor."[75] The largest chunk of the budget—$150,000—went to creating the Jack Rabbit Slim's set.[76] It was built in a Culver City warehouse, where it was joined by several other sets as well as the film's production offices.[77] The diner sequence was shot on location in Hawthorne at the Hawthorne Grill, known for its Googie architecture.[78] For the costumes, Tarantino took his inspiration from French director Jean-Pierre Melville, who believed that the clothes his characters wore were their symbolic suits of armor.[23] Tarantino cast himself in a modest-sized role as he had in Reservoir Dogs. One of his pop totems, Fruit Brute, a long-discontinued General Mills cereal, also returned from the earlier film.[79] The shoot wrapped on November 30.[80] Before Pulp Fiction's premiere, Tarantino convinced Avary to forfeit his agreed-on cowriting credit and accept a "story by" credit, so the line "Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino" could be used in advertising and onscreen.[19]

text: Music

text: No film score was composed for Pulp Fiction; Quentin Tarantino instead used an eclectic assortment of surf music, rock and roll, soul, and pop songs. Dick Dale's rendition of "Misirlou" plays during the opening credits. Tarantino chose surf music as the basic musical style for the film, but not, he insists, because of its association with surfing culture: "To me it just sounds like rock and roll, even Morricone music. It sounds like rock and roll spaghetti Western music."[81] Some of the songs were suggested to Tarantino by his friends Chuck Kelley and Laura Lovelace, who were credited as music consultants. Lovelace also appeared in the film as Laura, a waitress; she reprises the role in Jackie Brown.[82] The soundtrack album, Music from the Motion Picture Pulp Fiction, was released along with the film in 1994. The album peaked on the Billboard 200 chart at number 21.[83] The single, Urge Overkill's cover of the Neil Diamond song "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon", reached number 59.[84]

text: Estella Tincknell describes how the particular combination of well-known and obscure recordings helps establish the film as a "self-consciously 'cool' text. [The] use of the mono-tracked, beat-heavy style of early 1960s U.S. 'underground' pop mixed with 'classic' ballads such as Dusty Springfield's 'Son of a Preacher Man' is crucial to the film's postmodern knowingness." She contrasts the soundtrack with that of Forrest Gump, the highest-grossing film of 1994, which also relies on period pop recordings: "[T]he version of 'the sixties' offered by Pulp Fiction...is certainly not that of the publicly recognized counter-culture featured in Forrest Gump, but is, rather, a more genuinely marginal form of sub-culture based around a lifestyle—surfing, 'hanging'—that is resolutely apolitical." The soundtrack is central, she says, to the film's engagement with the "younger, cinematically knowledgeable spectator" it solicits.[85]

text: Reception

text: Release and box office

text: Pulp Fiction premiered in May 1994 at the Cannes Film Festival. The Weinsteins "hit the beach like commandos", bringing the picture's entire cast over.[86] The film was unveiled at a midnight hour screening and caused a sensation.[87][88] It won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, generating a further wave of publicity.[89]

text: The first U.S. review of the film was published on May 23 in industry trade magazine Variety. Todd McCarthy called Pulp Fiction a "spectacularly entertaining piece of pop culture...a startling, massive success."[90] From Cannes forward, Tarantino was on the road continuously, promoting the film.[91] Over the next few months it played in smaller festivals around Europe, building buzz: Nottingham, Munich, Taormina, Locarno, Norway, and San Sebastián.[92] Tarantino later said, "One thing that's cool is that by breaking up the linear structure, when I watch the film with an audience, it does break [the audience's] alpha state. It's like, all of a sudden, 'I gotta watch this...I gotta pay attention.' You can almost feel everybody moving in their seats. It's actually fun to watch an audience in some ways chase after a movie."[93] In late September, it opened the New York Film Festival. The New York Times published its review the day of the opening. Janet Maslin called the film a "triumphant, cleverly disorienting journey through a demimonde that springs entirely from Mr. Tarantino's ripe imagination, a landscape of danger, shock, hilarity and vibrant local color.... [He] has come up with a work of such depth, wit and blazing originality that it places him in the front ranks of American film makers."[88]

text: On October 14, 1994, Pulp Fiction went into general release in the United States. As Peter Biskind describes, "It was not platformed, that is, it did not open in a handful of theaters and roll out slowly as word of mouth built, the traditional way of releasing an indie film; it went wide immediately, into 1,100 theaters."[94] In the eyes of some cultural critics, Reservoir Dogs had given Tarantino a reputation for glamorizing violence. Miramax played with the issue in its marketing campaign: "You won't know the facts till you've seen the fiction", went one slogan.[95] Pulp Fiction was the top-grossing film at the box office its first weekend, edging out a Sylvester Stallone vehicle, The Specialist, which was in its second week and playing at more than twice as many theaters. Against its budget of $8.5 million and about $10 million in marketing costs, Pulp Fiction wound up grossing $107.93 million at the U.S. box office, making it the first "indie" film to surpass $100 million. Worldwide, it took in nearly $213 million.[96] In terms of domestic grosses, it was the tenth biggest film of 1994, even though it played on substantially fewer screens than any other film in the top 20.[97] Popular engagement with the film, such as speculation about the contents of the precious briefcase, "indicates the kind of cult status that Pulp Fiction achieved almost immediately."[98] As MovieMaker puts it, "The movie was nothing less than a national cultural phenomenon."[99] Abroad, as well: In Britain, where it opened a week after its U.S. release, not only was the film a big hit, but in book form its screenplay became the most successful in UK publishing history, a top-ten bestseller.[100]

text: Critical response

text: The response of major American film reviewers was widely favorable. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described it as "so well-written in a scruffy, fanzine way that you want to rub noses in it—the noses of those zombie writers who take 'screenwriting' classes that teach them the formulas for 'hit films.'"[101] Richard Corliss of TIME wrote, "It towers over the year's other movies as majestically and menacingly as a gang lord at a preschool. It dares Hollywood films to be this smart about going this far. If good directors accept Tarantino's implicit challenge, the movie theater could again be a great place to live in."[102] In Newsweek, David Ansen wrote, "The miracle of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is how, being composed of secondhand, debased parts, it succeeds in gleaming like something new."[103] "You get intoxicated by it," wrote Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, "high on the rediscovery of how pleasurable a movie can be. I'm not sure I've ever encountered a filmmaker who combined discipline and control with sheer wild-ass joy the way that Tarantino does."[18] "There's a special kick that comes from watching something this thrillingly alive", wrote Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. "Pulp Fiction is indisputably great."[104] Overall, the film attained exceptionally high ratings among U.S. reviewers: a 94% score based on 78 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 9.1/10, the site's consensus reading, "One of the most influential films of the 1990s, Pulp Fiction is a delirious post-modern mix of neo-noir thrills, pitch-black humor, and pop-culture touchstones".[105] It has an average score of 94/100 based on 24 reviews on Metacritic.[106]

text: The Los Angeles Times was one of the few major news outlets to publish a negative review on the film's opening weekend. Kenneth Turan wrote, "The writer-director appears to be straining for his effects. Some sequences, especially one involving bondage harnesses and homosexual rape, have the uncomfortable feeling of creative desperation, of someone who's afraid of losing his reputation scrambling for any way to offend sensibilities."[107] Some who reviewed it in the following weeks took more exception to the predominant critical reaction than to Pulp Fiction itself. While not panning the film, Stanley Kauffman of The New Republic felt that "the way that [it] has been so widely ravened up and drooled over verges on the disgusting. Pulp Fiction nourishes, abets, cultural slumming."[108] Responding to comparisons between Tarantino's film and the work of French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, especially his first, most famous feature, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader wrote, "The fact that Pulp Fiction is garnering more extravagant raves than Breathless ever did tells you plenty about which kind of cultural references are regarded as more fruitful—namely, the ones we already have and don't wish to expand."[109] Observing in the National Review that "[n]o film arrives with more advance hype", John Simon was unswayed: "titillation cures neither hollowness nor shallowness".[110]

text: Debate about the film spread beyond the review pages. Violence was often the theme. In the Washington Post, Donna Britt described how she was happy not to see Pulp Fiction on a recent weekend and thus avoid "discussing the rousing scene in which a gunshot sprays somebody's brains around a car interior".[111] Some commentators took exception to the film's frequent use of the word "nigger". In the Chicago Tribune, Todd Boyd argued that the word's recurrence "has the ability to signify the ultimate level of hipness for white males who have historically used their perception of black masculinity as the embodiment of cool".[112] In Britain, James Wood, writing in The Guardian, set the tone for much subsequent criticism: "Tarantino represents the final triumph of postmodernism, which is to empty the artwork of all content, thus avoiding its capacity to do anything except helplessly represent our agonies.... Only in this age could a writer as talented as Tarantino produce artworks so vacuous, so entirely stripped of any politics, metaphysics, or moral interest."[113]

text: Awards season

text: Around the turn of the year, Pulp Fiction was named Best Picture by the National Society of Film Critics, National Board of Review, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics, Society of Texas Film Critics, Southeastern Film Critics Association, and Kansas City Film Critics Circle.[114] Tarantino was named Best Director by all seven of those organizations as well as by the New York Film Critics Circle and Chicago Film Critics Association.[115] The screenplay won several prizes, with various awarding bodies ascribing credit differently. At the 52nd Golden Globe Awards, Tarantino, named as sole recipient of the Best Screenplay honor, failed to mention Avary in his acceptance speech.[116] In February 1995, the film received seven Oscar nominations—Best Picture, Director, Actor (Travolta), Supporting Actor (Jackson), Supporting Actress (Thurman), Original Screenplay, and Film Editing. Travolta, Jackson, and Thurman were each nominated as well for the 1st Screen Actors Guild Awards, presented on February 25, but none took home the honor.[117] At the Academy Awards ceremony the following month, Tarantino and Avary were announced as joint winners of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[118] The furor around the film was still going strong: much of the March issue of Artforum was devoted to its critical dissection.[119] Pulp Fiction garnered four honors at the Independent Spirit Awards, held at the end of the month – Best Feature, Best Director, Male Lead (Jackson), and Best Screenplay (Tarantino).[120] At the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA), Tarantino and Avary shared the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, and Jackson won for Best Supporting Actor.[121] The film was nominated for the Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.[122]

text: Influence and reputation

text: Pulp Fiction quickly came to be regarded as one of the most significant films of its era. In 1995, in a special edition of Siskel & Ebert devoted to Tarantino, Gene Siskel argued that the work posed a major challenge to the "ossification of American movies with their brutal formulas". In Siskel's view,

text: the violent intensity of Pulp Fiction calls to mind other violent watershed films that were considered classics in their time and still are. Hitchcock's Psycho [1960], Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde [1967], and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange [1971]. Each film shook up a tired, bloated movie industry and used a world of lively lowlifes to reflect how dull other movies had become. And that, I predict, will be the ultimate honor for Pulp Fiction. Like all great films, it criticizes other movies.[123]

text: Ken Dancyger writes that its "imitative and innovative style"—like that of its predecessor, Reservoir Dogs—represents

text: a new phenomenon, the movie whose style is created from the context of movie life rather than real life. The consequence is twofold—the presumption of deep knowledge on the part of the audience of those forms such as the gangster films or Westerns, horror films or adventure films. And that the parody or alteration of that film creates a new form, a different experience for the audience.[124]

text: In a widely covered speech on May 31, 1995, Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole attacked the American entertainment industry for peddling "nightmares of depravity". Pulp Fiction was soon associated with his charges concerning gratuitous violence. Dole had not, in fact, mentioned the film; he cited two less celebrated movies based on Tarantino screenplays, Natural Born Killers and True Romance.[125] In September 1996, Dole did accuse Pulp Fiction—which he had not seen—of promoting "the romance of heroin".[126]

text: Paula Rabinowitz expresses the general film industry opinion that Pulp Fiction "simultaneously resurrected John Travolta and film noir".[127] In Peter Biskind's description, it created a "guys-with-guns frenzy".[128] The film has also been labeled as a black comedy[4] and a "neo-noir".[129] Critic Geoffrey O'Brien, however, argued against the classification of Pulp Fiction into the neo-noir genre: "The old-time noir passions, the brooding melancholy and operatic death scenes, would be altogether out of place in the crisp and brightly lit wonderland that Tarantino conjures up. [It is] neither neo-noir nor a parody of noir."[130] Similarly, Nicholas Christopher calls it "more gangland camp than neo-noir",[131] and Foster Hirsch suggests that its "trippy fantasy landscape" characterizes it more definitively than any genre label.[132] Regardless, the stylistic influence of Pulp Fiction soon became apparent. Less than a year after the picture's release, British critic Jon Ronson attended the National Film School's end-of-semester screenings and assessed the impact: "Out of the five student movies I watched, four incorporated violent shoot-outs over a soundtrack of iconoclastic 70s pop hits, two climaxed with all the main characters shooting each other at once, and one had two hitmen discussing the idiosyncrasies of The Brady Bunch before offing their victim. Not since Citizen Kane has one man appeared from relative obscurity to redefine the art of moviemaking."[133] Among the first Hollywood films cited as its imitators were Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995), in which Tarantino acted,[123] Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995),[134] and 2 Days in the Valley (1996).[135] It "triggered a myriad of clones", writes Fiona Villella.[136] Internationally, according to David Desser, it "not only influenced a British brand of noir, but extended the noir vision virtually around the world."[137] Pulp Fiction's effect on film form was still reverberating in 2007, when David Denby of The New Yorker credited it with initiating the ongoing cycle of disordered cinematic narratives.[138]

text: Its impact on Hollywood was deeper still. According to Variety, the trajectory of Pulp Fiction from Cannes launch to commercial smash "forever altered the game" of so-called independent cinema.[139] It "cemented Miramax's place as the reigning indie superpower",[94] writes Biskind. "Pulp became the Star Wars of independents, exploding expectations for what an indie film could do at the box office."[140] The film's large financial return on its small budget

text: transform[ed] the industry's attitude toward the lowly indies...spawning a flock of me-too classics divisions.... [S]mart studio executives suddenly woke up to the fact that grosses and market share, which got all the press, were not the same as profits.... Once the studios realized that they could exploit the economies of (small) scale, they more or less gave up buying or remaking the films themselves, and either bought the distributors, as Disney had Miramax, or started their own...copy[ing] Miramax's marketing and distribution strategies.[141]

text: In 2001, Variety, noting the increasing number of actors switching back and forth between expensive studio films and low-budget independent or indie-style projects, suggested that the "watershed moment for movie stars" came with the decision by Willis—one of Hollywood's highest-paid performers—to appear in Pulp Fiction.[142]

text: And its impact was even broader than that. It has been described as a "major cultural event", an "international phenomenon" that influenced television, music, literature, and advertising.[136][143] Not long after its release, it was identified as a significant focus of attention within the growing community of Internet users.[144] Adding Pulp Fiction to his roster of The Great Movies in 2001, Roger Ebert called it "the most influential film of the decade".[145] Four years later, Time's Corliss wrote much the same: "(unquestionably) the most influential American movie of the 90s".[146]

text: Several scenes and images from the film achieved iconic status; in 2008, Entertainment Weekly declared, "You'd be hard-pressed, by now, to name a moment from Quentin Tarantino's film that isn't iconic."[147] Jules and Vincent's "Royale with Cheese" dialogue became famous.[148] It was referenced more than a decade and a half later in the Travolta vehicle From Paris with Love.[149] The adrenalin shot to Mia Wallace's heart is on Premiere's list of "100 Greatest Movie Moments".[150] The scene of Travolta and Thurman's characters dancing has been frequently homaged, most unambiguously in the 2005 film Be Cool, starring the same two actors.[151] The image of Travolta and Jackson's characters standing side by side in suit and tie, pointing their guns, has also become widely familiar. In 2007, BBC News reported that "London transport workers have painted over an iconic mural by 'guerrilla artist' Banksy.... The image depicted a scene from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns."[152] Certain lines were adopted popularly as catchphrases, in particular Marsellus's threat, "I'm 'a get medieval on your ass."[153] Jules's "Ezekiel" recitation was voted the fourth greatest movie speech of all time in a 2004 poll. One of the more notable homages to Jules "Biblical" quote was one Jackson himself played a part in, near the end of 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Jackson's character Col. Nick Fury, presumed dead, visits his own gravestone, on which, below Fury's name is inscribed "The path of the righteous man..." Ezekiel 25:17.[154]

text: Pulp Fiction now appears in several critical assessments of all-time great films. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named it the best film of the past quarter-century.[147] That same year, the American Film Institute's "Ten Top Ten" poll ranked it number 7 all-time in the gangster film genre.[156] In 2007, it was voted 94th overall on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list.[157] In 2005, it was named one of Time's "All-Time 100 Movies".[146] As of January 2010, it is number 10 on Metacritic's list of all-time highest scores.[158] The film ranks very highly in popular surveys. A 2008 Empire poll combining the opinions of readers, movie industry professionals, and critics named Pulp Fiction the ninth-best film of all time.[159] In a 2006 readers' poll by the British magazine Total Film, it ranked as the number three film in history.[160] It was voted as the fourth-greatest film of all time in a nationwide poll for Britain's Channel 4 in 2001.[161]

text: Critical analysis

text: Tarantino has stated that he originally planned "to do a Black Mask movie", referring to the magazine largely responsible for popularizing hardboiled detective fiction. "[I]t kind of went somewhere else".[162] Geoffrey O'Brien sees the result as connected "rather powerfully to a parallel pulp tradition: the tales of terror and the uncanny practiced by such writers as Cornell Woolrich [and] Fredric Brown.... Both dealt heavily in the realm of improbable coincidences and cruel cosmic jokes, a realm that Pulp Fiction makes its own."[163] In particular, O'Brien finds a strong affinity between the intricate plot mechanics and twists of Brown's novels and the recursive, interweaving structure of Pulp Fiction.[164] Philip French describes the film's narrative as a "circular movement or Möbius strip of a kind Resnais and Robbe-Grillet would admire."[165] James Mottram regards crime novelist Elmore Leonard, whose influence Tarantino has acknowledged, as the film's primary literary antecedent. He suggests that Leonard's "rich dialogue" is reflected in Tarantino's "popular-culture-strewn jive"; he also points to the acute, extremely dark sense of humor Leonard applies to the realm of violence as a source of inspiration.[166]

text: Robert Kolker sees the "flourishes, the apparent witty banality of the dialogue, the goofy fracturing of temporality [as] a patina over a pastiche. The pastiche...is essentially of two films that Tarantino can't seem to get out of his mind: Mean Streets [1973; directed by Martin Scorsese, who loved Pulp Fiction and the way the film was told.[167] ] and The Killing [1956; directed by Stanley Kubrick]."[168] He contrasts Pulp Fiction with postmodern Hollywood predecessors Hudson Hawk (1991; starring Willis) and Last Action Hero (1993; starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) that "took the joke too far . . . simply mocked or suggested that they were smarter than the audience" and flopped.[169] Todd McCarthy writes that the film's "striking widescreen compositions often contain objects in extreme close-up as well as vivid contrasts, sometimes bringing to mind the visual strategies of Sergio Leone", an acknowledged hero of Tarantino's.[90] To Martin Rubin, the "expansive, brightly colored widescreen visuals" evoke comedy directors such as Frank Tashlin and Blake Edwards.[170]

text: The movie's host of pop culture allusions, ranging from the famous image of Marilyn Monroe's skirt flying up over a subway grating to Jules addressing a soon-to-be victim as "Flock of Seagulls" because of his haircut,[171] have led many critics to discuss it within the framework of postmodernism. Describing the film in 2005 as Tarantino's "postmodern masterpiece...to date", David Walker writes that it "is marked by its playful reverence for the 1950s...and its constantly teasing and often deferential references to other films". He characterizes its convoluted narrative technique as "postmodern tricksiness".[172] Calling the film a "terminally hip postmodern collage", Foster Hirsch finds Pulp Fiction far from a masterpiece: "authoritative, influential, and meaningless". Set "in a world that could exist only in the movies", it is "a succulent guilty pleasure, beautifully made junk food for cinéastes".[173] O'Brien, dismissing attempts to associate the movie with film noir, argues that "Pulp Fiction is more a guided tour of an infernal theme park decorated with cultural detritus, Buddy Holly and Mamie Van Doren, fragments of blaxploitation and Roger Corman and Shogun Assassin, music out of a twenty-four-hour oldies station for which all the decades since the fifties exist simultaneously."[130] Catherine Constable takes the moment in which a needle filled with adrenaline is plunged into the comatose Mia's heart as exemplary. She proposes that it "can be seen as effecting her resurrection from the dead, simultaneously recalling and undermining the Gothic convention of the vampire's stake. On this model, the referencing of previous aesthetic forms and styles moves beyond . . . empty pastiche, sustaining an 'inventive and affirmative' mode of postmodernism."[174]

text: Mark T. Conard asks, "[W]hat is the film about?" and answers, "American nihilism."[175] Hirsch suggests, "If the film is actually about anything other than its own cleverness, it seems dedicated to the dubious thesis that hit men are part of the human family."[135] Richard Alleva argues that "Pulp Fiction has about as much to do with actual criminality or violence as Cyrano de Bergerac with the realities of seventeenth-century France or The Prisoner of Zenda with Balkan politics." He reads the movie as a form of romance whose allure is centered in the characters' nonnaturalistic discourse, "wise-guy literate, media-smart, obscenely epigrammatic".[176] In Alan Stone's view, the "absurd dialogue", like that between Vincent and Jules in the scene where the former accidentally kills Marvin, "unexpectedly transforms the meaning of the violence cliché.... Pulp Fiction unmasks the macho myth by making it laughable and deheroicizes the power trip glorified by standard Hollywood violence."[177] Stone reads the film as "politically correct. There is no nudity and no violence directed against women.... [It] celebrates interracial friendship and cultural diversity; there are strong women and strong black men, and the director swims against the current of class stereotype."[177]

text: Where Stone sees a celebration, Kolker finds a vacuum: "The postmodern insouciance, violence, homophobia, and racism of Pulp Fiction were perfectly acceptable because the film didn't pretend seriousness and therefore didn't mock it."[169] Calling it the "acme of postmodern nineties filmmaking", he explains, "the postmodern is about surfaces; it is flattened spatiality in which event and character are in a steady state of reminding us that they are pop-cultural figures."[178] According to Kolker:

text: That's why Pulp Fiction was so popular. Not because all audiences got all or any of its references to Scorsese and Kubrick, but because the narrative and spatial structure of the film never threatened to go beyond themselves into signification. The film's cycle of racist and homophobic jokes might threaten to break out into a quite nasty view of the world, but this nastiness keeps being laughed off—by the mock intensity of the action, the prowling, confronting, perverse, confined, and airless nastiness of the world Tarantino creates.[179]

text: Henry A. Giroux argues that Tarantino "empties violence of any critical social consequences, offering viewers only the immediacy of shock, humor, and irony-without-insight as elements of mediation. None of these elements gets beyond the seduction of voyeuristic gazing . . . [t]he facile consumption of shocking images and hallucinatory delight."[180]

text: Regarding the violence and nihilism in the film, Pamela Demory has suggested that Pulp Fiction should be seen in light of the short stories of Flannery O'Connor,[181] which likewise feature "religious elements, banality, and violence with grotesque humor." Discussing "the connection between violence and redemption," Demory concludes that while O'Connor's purpose is to convince readers "of the powerful force of evil in the world and of our need for grace," Tarantino "seeks to demonstrate that in spite of everything we have seen in the film — all the violence, degradation, death, crime, amoral behavior — grace is still possible; there might be still be a God who doesn't judge us on merits."[182]

text: Homage as essence

text: Cinema

text: Pulp Fiction is full of homages to other movies. "Tarantino's characters", writes Gary Groth, "inhabit a world where the entire landscape is composed of Hollywood product. Tarantino is a cinematic kleptomaniac—he literally can't help himself."[183] Two scenes in particular have prompted discussion of the film's highly intertextual style. Many have assumed that the dance sequence at Jack Rabbit Slim's was intended as a reference to Travolta's star-making performance as Tony Manero in the epochal Saturday Night Fever (1977); Tarantino, however, credits a scene in the Jean-Luc Godard film Bande à part (1964) with the inspiration. According to the filmmaker,

text: Everybody thinks that I wrote this scene just to have John Travolta dancing. But the scene existed before John Travolta was cast. But once he was cast, it was like, "Great. We get to see John dance. All the better." . . .  My favorite musical sequences have always been in Godard, because they just come out of nowhere. It's so infectious, so friendly. And the fact that it's not a musical, but he's stopping the movie to have a musical sequence, makes it all the more sweet.[184]

text: Jerome Charyn argues that, beyond "all the better", Travolta's presence is essential to the power of the scene, and of the film:

text: Travolta's entire career becomes "backstory", the myth of a movie star who has fallen out of favor, but still resides in our memory as the king of disco. We keep waiting for him to shed his paunch, put on a white polyester suit, and enter the 2001 Odyssey club in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where he will dance for us and never, never stop. Daniel Day-Lewis couldn't have woken such a powerful longing in us. He isn't part of America's own mad cosmology. . . . Tony Manero [is] an angel sitting on Vince's shoulder. . . . [Vince and Mia's] actual dance may be closer to the choreography of Anna Karina's shuffle with her two bumbling gangster boyfriends in Bande à part, but even that reference is lost to us, and we're with Tony again. . . .[185]

text: Estella Tincknell notes that while the "diner setting seems to be a simulacrum of a 'fifties' restaurant . . . the twist contest is a musical sequence which evokes 'the sixties,' while Travolta's dance performance inevitably references 'the seventies' and his appearance in Saturday Night Fever. . . . The 'past' thus becomes a more general 'pastness' in which the stylistic signifiers of various decades are loaded in to a single moment."[186] She also argues that in this passage the film "briefly shifts from its habitually ironic discourse to one that references the conventions of the classic film musical and in doing so makes it possible for the film to inhabit an affective space that goes beyond stylistic allusion."[186]

text: The pivotal moment in which Marsellus crosses the street in front of Butch's car and notices him evokes the scene in which Marion Crane's boss sees her under similar circumstances in Psycho (1960).[187] Marsellus and Butch are soon held captive by Maynard and Zed, "two sadistic honkies straight out of Deliverance" (1972), directed by John Boorman.[177] Zed shares a name with Sean Connery's character in Boorman's follow-up, the science-fiction film Zardoz (1974). When Butch decides to rescue Marsellus, in Glyn White's words, "he finds a trove of items with film-hero resonances".[188] Critics have identified these weapons with a range of possible allusions:

text:
Hammer—The Toolbox Murders (1978)[189]
Baseball bat—Walking Tall (1973);[188] The Untouchables (1987)[189]
Chainsaw—The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974);[188][189] Evil Dead II (1987)[188]
Katana (samurai sword)—many, including Seven Samurai (1954);[188][189] The Yakuza (1975);[188] Shogun Assassin (1980)[189]

text: At the conclusion of the scene, a portentous line of Marsellus' echoes one from the crime drama Charley Varrick (1973), directed by another of Tarantino's heroes, Don Siegel; the name of the character who speaks it there is Maynard.[190]

text: David Bell argues that far from going against the "current of class stereotype", this scene, like Deliverance, "mobilize[s] a certain construction of poor white country folk—and particularly their sexualization . . . 'rustic sexual expression often takes the form of homosexual rape' in American movies."[191] Stephen Paul Miller believes the Pulp Fiction scene goes down much easier than the one it echoes: "The buggery perpetrated is not at all as shocking as it was in Deliverance. . . . The nineties film reduces seventies competition, horror, and taboo into an entertainingly subtle adrenaline play—a fiction, a pulp fiction."[192] Giroux reads the rape scene homage similarly: "in the end Tarantino's use of parody is about repetition, transgression, and softening the face of violence by reducing it to the property of film history."[193] In Groth's view, the crucial difference is that "in Deliverance the rape created the film's central moral dilemma whereas in Pulp Fiction it was merely 'the single weirdest day of [Butch's] life.'"[194] ("American Me did it too," Tarantino observed. "There's like three butt-fucking scenes in American Me. That's definitely the one to beat in that particular category!"[195])

text: Neil Fulwood focuses on Butch's weapon selection, writing, "Here, Tarantino's love of movies is at its most open and nonjudgemental, tipping a nod to the noble and the notorious, as well as sending up his own reputation as an enfant terrible of movie violence. Moreover, the scene makes a sly comment about the readiness of cinema to seize upon whatever is to hand for its moments of mayhem and murder."[189] White asserts that "the katana he finally, and significantly, selects identifies him with . . . honourable heroes."[188] Conard argues that the first three items symbolize a nihilism that Butch is rejecting. The traditional Japanese sword, in contrasts, represents a culture with a well-defined moral code and thus connects Butch with a more meaningful approach to life.[196]

text: Television

text: Robert Miklitsch argues that "Tarantino's telephilia" may be more central to the guiding sensibility of Pulp Fiction than the filmmaker's love for rock 'n' roll and even cinema:

text: Talking about his generation, one that came of age in the '70s, Tarantino has commented that the "number one thing we all shared wasn't music, that was a Sixties thing. Our culture was television." A random list of the TV programs referenced in Pulp Fiction confirms his observation: Speed Racer, Clutch Cargo, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, The Avengers, The Three Stooges, The Flintstones, I Spy, Green Acres, Kung Fu, Happy Days, and last but not least, Mia's fictional pilot, Fox Force Five.[197]

text: "The above list, with the possible exception of The Avengers," writes Miklitsch, "suggests that Pulp Fiction has less of an elective affinity with the cinematic avant-gardism of Godard than with mainstream network programming."[198] Jonathan Rosenbaum had brought TV into his analysis of the Tarantino/Godard comparison, acknowledging that the directors were similar in wanting to cram everything they like onscreen: "But the differences between what Godard likes and what Tarantino likes and why are astronomical; it's like comparing a combined museum, library, film archive, record shop, and department store with a jukebox, a video-rental outlet, and an issue of TV Guide."[109]

text: Sharon Willis focuses on the way a television show (Clutch Cargo) marks the beginning of, and plays on through, the scene between young Butch and his father's comrade-in-arms. The Vietnam War veteran is played by Christopher Walken, whose presence in the role evokes his performance as a traumatized G.I. in the Vietnam War movie The Deer Hunter (1978). Willis writes that "when Captain Koons enters the living room, we see Walken in his function as an image retrieved from a repertoire of 1970s television and movie versions of ruined masculinity in search of rehabilitation.... [T]he gray light of the television presiding over the scene seems to inscribe the ghostly paternal gaze."[199] Miklitsch asserts that, for some critics, the film is a "prime example of the pernicious ooze-like influence of mass culture exemplified by their bête noire: TV."[198] Kolker might not disagree, arguing that "Pulp Fiction is a simulacrum of our daily exposure to television; its homophobes, thugs and perverts, sentimental boxers and pimp promoters move through a series of long-take tableaux: we watch, laugh, and remain with nothing to comprehend."[179]

text: Notable motifs

text: The mysterious 666 briefcase

text: The combination of the mysterious suitcase lock is 666, the "number of the beast". Tarantino has said there is no explanation for its contents—it is simply a MacGuffin, a pure plot device. Originally, the case was to contain diamonds, but this was seen as too mundane. For filming purposes, it contained a hidden orange light bulb that produced an otherworldly glow.[202] In a 2007 video interview with fellow director and friend Robert Rodriguez, Tarantino purportedly "reveals" the secret contents of the briefcase, but the film cuts out and skips the scene in the style employed in Tarantino and Rodriguez's Grindhouse (2007), with an intertitle that reads "Missing Reel". The interview resumes with Rodriguez discussing how radically the "knowledge" of the briefcase's contents alters one's understanding of the movie.[203]

text: Despite Tarantino's statements, many solutions to what one scholar calls this "unexplained postmodern puzzle" have been proposed.[98] A strong similarity has often been observed with the 1955 film noir Kiss Me Deadly. That movie, whose protagonist Tarantino has cited as a source for Butch, features a glowing briefcase housing an atomic explosive.[204] In their review of Alex Cox's 1984 film Repo Man in the Daily Telegraph, Nick Cowen and Hari Patience suggest that Pulp Fiction may also owe "a debt of inspiration" to the glowing car trunk in that film.[205] In scholar Paul Gormley's view, this connection with Kiss Me Deadly, and a similar one with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), makes it possible to read the eerie glow as symbolic of violence itself.[206] The idea that the briefcase contains Marsellus' soul gained popular currency in the mid-1990s. Analyzing the notion, Roger Ebert dismissed it as "nothing more than a widely distributed urban legend given false credibility by the mystique of the Net".[207]

text: Jules' Bible passage

text: Jules ritually recites what he describes as a biblical passage, Ezekiel 25:17, before he executes someone. The passage is heard three times—in the introductory sequence in which Jules and Vincent reclaim Marsellus' briefcase from the doomed Brett; that same recitation a second time, at the beginning of "The Bonnie Situation", which overlaps the end of the earlier sequence; and in the epilogue at the diner. The first version of the passage is as follows:

text: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

text: The second version, from the diner scene, is identical except for the final line: "And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."

text:
"And I will strike down..."

Conclusion of the "Ezekiel 25:17" monologue and Brett's murder

Problems playing this file? See media help.

tag: table

text: While the final two sentences of Jules' speech are similar to the actual cited passage, the first two are fabricated from various biblical phrases.[208] The text of Ezekiel 25 preceding verse 17 indicates that God's wrath is retribution for the hostility of the Philistines. In the King James version from which Jules' speech is adapted, Ezekiel 25:17 reads in its entirety:

text: And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.[209]

text: Tarantino's primary inspiration for the speech was the work of Japanese martial arts star Sonny Chiba. Its text and its identification as Ezekiel 25:17 derive from an almost identical creed that appears at the beginning of the Chiba movie Karate Kiba (The Bodyguard; 1976), where it is both shown as a scrolling text and read by an offscreen narrator.[210]

text: The version seen at the beginning of The Bodyguard (1976) is as follows:

text: The path of the righteous man and defender is beset on all sides by the iniquity of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper, and the father of lost children. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious anger, who poison and destroy my brothers; and they shall know that I am Chiba the Bodyguard when I shall lay my vengeance upon them! [Ezekiel 25:17]

text: In the 1980s television series Kage no Gundan (Shadow Warriors), Chiba's character would lecture the villain-of-the-week about how the world must be rid of evil before killing him.[211] A killer delivers a similar biblical rant in Modesty Blaise, the hardback but pulp-style novel Vincent is shown with in two scenes.[212]

text: Two critics who have analyzed the role of the speech find different ties between Jules' transformation and the issue of postmodernity. Gormley argues that unlike the film's other major characters—Marsellus aside—Jules is:

text: linked to a "thing" beyond postmodern simulation.... [T]his is perhaps most marked when he moves on from being a simulation of a Baptist preacher, spouting Ezekiel because it was "just a cool thing to say...." In his conversion, Jules is shown to be cognizant of a place beyond this simulation, which, in this case, the film constructs as God.[213]

text: Adele Reinhartz writes that the "depth of Jules's transformation" is indicated by the difference in his two deliveries of the passage: "In the first, he is a majestic and awe-inspiring figure, proclaiming the prophecy with fury and self-righteousness.... In the second...he appears to be a different sort of man altogether.... [I]n true postmodern fashion, [he] reflects on the meaning of his speech and provides several different ways that it might pertain to his current situation."[214] Similar to Gormley, Conard argues that as Jules reflects on the passage, it dawns on him "that it refers to an objective framework of value and meaning that is absent from his life"; to Conard, this contrasts with the film's prevalent representation of a nihilistic culture.[215] Rosenbaum finds much less in Jules's revelation: "[T]he spiritual awakening at the end of Pulp Fiction, which Jackson performs beautifully, is a piece of jive avowedly inspired by kung-fu movies. It may make you feel good, but it certainly doesn't leave you any wiser."[216]

text: The bathroom

text: Much of Pulp Fiction's action revolves around characters who are either in the bathroom or need to use the toilet. To a lesser extent, Tarantino's other films also feature this narrative element.[217] At Jack Rabbit Slim's, Mia goes to "powder her nose"—literally; she snorts coke in the restroom, surrounded by a bevy of women vainly primping. Butch and Fabienne play an extended scene in their motel bathroom, he in the shower, she brushing her teeth; the next morning, but just a few seconds later in screen time, she is again brushing her teeth. As Jules and Vincent confront Brett and two of his pals, a fourth man is hiding in the bathroom—his actions will lead to Jules' transformative "moment of clarity". After Marvin's absurd death, Vincent and Jules wash up in Jimmie's bathroom, where they get into a contretemps over a bloody hand towel.[138] When the diner hold-up turns into a Mexican standoff, "Honey Bunny" whines, "I gotta go pee!"[218]

text: As described by Peter and Will Brooker, "In three significant moments Vincent retires to the bathroom [and] returns to an utterly changed world where death is threatened."[219] The threat increases in magnitude as the narrative progresses chronologically, and is realized in the third instance:

text:
Vincent and Jules’ diner breakfast and philosophical conversation is aborted by Vincent's bathroom break; an armed robbery ensues while Vincent is reading on the toilet.
While Vincent is in the bathroom worrying about the possibility of going too far with Marsellus' wife, Mia mistakes his heroin for cocaine, snorts it, and overdoses.
During a stakeout at Butch’s apartment, Vincent emerges from the toilet with his book and is killed by Butch.

text: In the Brookers' analysis, "Through Vince . . . we see the contemporary world as utterly contingent, transformed, disastrously, in the instant you are not looking."[219] Fraiman finds it particularly significant that Vincent is reading Modesty Blaise in two of these instances. She links this fact with the traditional derisive view of women as "the archetypal consumers of pulp":

text: Locating popular fiction in the bathroom, Tarantino reinforces its association with shit, already suggested by the dictionary meanings of "pulp" that preface the movie: moist, shapeless matter; also, lurid stories on cheap paper. What we have then is a series of damaging associations—pulp, women, shit—that taint not only male producers of mass-market fiction but also male consumers. Perched on the toilet with his book, Vincent is feminized by sitting instead of standing as well as by his trashy tastes; preoccupied by the anal, he is implicitly infantilized and homosexualized; and the seemingly inevitable result is being pulverized by Butch with a Czech M61 submachine gun. That this fate has to do with Vincent's reading habits is strongly suggested by a slow tilt from the book on the floor directly up to the corpse spilled into the tub.[220]

text: Willis reads Pulp Fiction in almost precisely the opposite direction, finding "its overarching project as a drive to turn shit into gold. This is one way of describing the project of redeeming and recycling popular culture, especially the popular culture of one's childhood, as is Tarantino's wont as well as his stated aim."[199] Despite that, argues Fraiman, "Pulp Fiction demonstrates . . . that even an open pulpophile like Tarantino may continue to feel anxious and emasculated by his preferences."[218]

text: Accolades

text: Pulp Fiction won eight awards from a total of twenty-six nominations.[89][118][121][221][222] Also, in the balloting by the National Society of Film Critics, Samuel L. Jackson was the runner-up in both the Best Actor and the Best Supporting Actor categories.[222]

text:
Award
Nominee
Result

Academy Awards

Best Actor
John Travolta
Nominated

Best Picture
Lawrence Bender
Nominated

Best Director
Quentin Tarantino
Nominated

Best Film Editing
Sally Menke
Nominated

Best Supporting Actor
Samuel L. Jackson
Nominated

Best Supporting Actress
Uma Thurman
Nominated

Best Original Screenplay
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary
Won

BAFTA Awards

Best Film
Lawrence Bender and Quentin Tarantino
Nominated

Best Sound
Rick Ash, Stephen Hunter Flick, Ken King, and David Zupancic
Nominated

Best Editing
Sally Menke
Nominated

Best Direction
Quentin Tarantino
Nominated

Best Cinematography
Andrzej Sekuła
Nominated

Best Supporting Actor
Samuel L. Jackson
Won

Best Original Screenplay
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary
Won

Best Actor in a Leading Role
John Travolta
Nominated

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Uma Thurman
Nominated

Cannes Film Festival

Palme d'Or
Quentin Tarantino
Won

Golden Globe Awards

Best Director
Quentin Tarantino
Nominated

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Lawrence Bender
Nominated

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Quentin Tarantino
Won

Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Samuel L. Jackson
Nominated

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
John Travolta
Nominated

Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Uma Thurman
Nominated

National Society of Film Critics

Best Film
Quentin Tarantino
Won

Best Director
Won

Best Screenplay
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary
Won

text: American Film Institute Lists

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #95
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:

Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield – Nominated Villains

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #94


document_title: Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies

question_text: who appointed colonial governors in british north america

root

text: The Council[edit]

text: Governor's council members were appointed, and they served at the governor's pleasure, who in turn served at the monarch's pleasure. Often the councilors' terms of service lasted longer than the governor's. The usual first act of a new royal governor was to re-appoint or continue the council members in their offices.

tag: p

text: When there was an absentee governor or an interval between governors, the council acted as the government.[2]

text: Members of the council included ex-officio members, who served by virtue of their position. Others were appointed in order to have a representative cross-section of the diverse interests in the colony. Council members were theoretically subject to approval by the London government, either the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, or after 1768 the Secretary of State for the Colonies.[2] In practice, the distance and delay in communications meant that a veto occurred only in rare cases.

text: The council as a whole would sit as the supreme court for the colony, as was needed. On the local level, justices of the peace periodically convened a county court session.

text: As with the House of Lords the council had to approve new laws, which usually originated in the legislature. The council was seen as serving continuously; whereas the elected lawmakers of the colony typically met just once a year, addressing at that time taxes, budgets, and other concerns. Like the assembly, most council positions were unpaid.

text: While lawyers were prominent throughout the Thirteen Colonies, merchants were important in the northern colonies and planters were more involved in the southern provinces. These were the groups from which the appointed councilors and elected delegates were chosen.

text: The Assembly[edit]

text: The assemblies had a variety of names, such as: House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen. They had several features in common. Members were elected annually, by the propertied citizens of the towns or counties. Usually they met for a single, short session; but the council or governor could call a special session.[2] Suffrage was allotted only to free white men and, in the early days at least, limited to landowners. Land ownership was widespread, however, which meant that most white men were able to cast a vote.

text: Tax issues and budget decisions originated in the assembly. Part of the budget went toward the cost of raising and equipping the colonial militia. As the American Revolution drew near, this subject was a point of contention and conflict between the provincial assemblies and their respective governors.[2]

text: Conflict[edit]

text: The perennial struggles between the colonial governors and the assemblies are sometimes viewed, in retrospect, as signs of a rising democratic spirit.  However, those assemblies generally represented the privileged classes, and they were protecting the colony against unreasonable executive encroachments.

text: Legally, the crown governor's authority was unassailable.  In resisting that authority, assemblies resorted to arguments based upon natural rights and the common welfare, giving life to the notion that governments derived, or ought to derive, their authority from the consent of the governed.[3]


document_title: 2022 FIFA World Cup controversies

question_text: how much will the 2022 world cup cost

question_tokens: how much will the 2022 world cup cost

text: 2022 FIFA World Cup controversies

text: Human rights issues[edit]

text: Migrant workers, slavery allegations and deaths[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2016)

text:
One of the most touched-on issues of the Qatar World Cup was the treatment of workers hired to build the infrastructure. Human Rights Watch and the International Trade Union Confederation allege that the Kafala system leaves migrant workers vulnerable to systematic abuse.[6][7] Workers may not change jobs or even leave the country without their sponsor's permission.[6] In November 2013, Amnesty International reported "serious exploitation", including workers having to sign false statements that they had received their wages in order to regain their passports.[8]
After visiting a labour camp, Sharan Burrows of the ITUC described the workers as "basically slaves" and added that "If two years on [since the award of the 2022 World Cup] the [Qatari] Government has not done the fundamentals, they have no commitment to human rights".[6] The Qatar 2022 Committee said: "Our commitment is to change working conditions in order to ensure a lasting legacy of improved worker welfare. We are aware this cannot be done overnight. But the 2022 FIFA World Cup is acting as a catalyst for improvements in this regard".[6] Even though in May 2014 Qatar promised reforms to help protect migrant laborers, one year later, little progress has been made. Even if reforms Qatar has promised are implemented, employers will still have considerable power over workers. For example, a proposed requirement that wages must be paid into a designated bank account will not cover laborers paid in cash.[9]

text: The Nepalese ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, said that Qatar had become "an open jail" for workers from her homeland.[10] A September 2013 report by The Guardian said a number of Nepalese workers have faced poor conditions as companies handling construction for 2022 World Cup infrastructure forced workers to stay by denying them promised salaries and withholding necessary worker ID permits, rendering them illegal aliens. The Guardian wrote that their investigation "found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022". Nepalese workers in Qatar have been dying at a rate of one per day.[11] A video report accompanying The Guardian's article showed men living in labour camps with unsanitary and dilapidated conditions. Workers told The Guardian they were promised high salaries before coming to Qatar and then their contracts were destroyed upon their arrival to Qatar. Some said they had not been paid in months, but the construction companies denied them their worker IDs or passports, rendering them trapped. Workers described having to beg for food and being beaten. They could try to escape, but if caught without proper papers, they would be arrested.[12][13]

text: LGBT fans[edit]

text: The status of homosexuality as illegal in Qatar attracted attention in the media. FIFA President Sepp Blatter initially said: "I would say they should refrain from any sexual activities"; he later added that: "we [FIFA] don't want any discrimination. What we want to do is open this game to everybody, and to open it to all cultures, and this is what we are doing in 2022".[14][15][16][17][18][19][20] After rumors and allegations that Qatar would introduce "medical screening tests" to "detect" and ban homosexuals from entering the country, LGBT activist Peter Tatchell said "FIFA now has no option but to cancel the World Cup in Qatar". However, no such screening test exists. It was later revealed that this proposal came from Kuwait and not Qatar.[21]

text: Climate[edit]

text: As the World Cup usually occurs during the northern hemisphere's summer, the weather in Qatar was a concern with temperatures reaching more than 50 °C (122 °F). Two doctors from Qatar's Aspetar sports hospital in Doha who gave an interview in November 2010 to Qatar Today magazine said the climate would be an issue, stating that the region's climate would "affect performance levels from a health point of view" of professional athletes, specifically footballers, that "recovery times between games would be longer" than in a temperate climate and that, on the field of play, "more mistakes would be made". Additionally, one of the doctors said that "total acclimation (to the Qatari climate) is impossible".[22] The inspection team for evaluating who would host the tournament said that Qatar was "high risk" due to the weather. FIFA President Sepp Blatter initially rejected the criticism, but in September 2013 said the FIFA executive committee would evaluate the feasibility of a winter event instead of a summer one.

text: Provisions inside stadiums[edit]

text: Qatar bid's chief executive, Hassan al-Thawadi said "Heat is not and will not be an issue".[23] Also, John Smallwood, an award-winning sports columnist for the Daily News, stated that the Qatar 2022 Bid's official site explains:

text: Each of the five stadiums will harness the power of the sun's rays to provide a cool environment for players and fans by converting solar energy into electricity that will then be used to cool both fans and players at the stadiums. When games are not taking place, the solar installations at the stadiums will export energy onto the power grid. During matches, the stadiums will draw energy from the grid. This is the basis for the stadiums’ carbon-neutrality. Along with the stadiums, we plan to make the cooling technologies we’ve developed available to other countries in hot climates, so that they too can host major sporting events.[24]

text: Winter World Cup[edit]

text: The notion of staging the tournament in winter proved controversial; Blatter has said the tournament won't take place in January or February, because it may clash with the 2022 Winter Olympics,[25] while others expressed concerns over a November or December event, because it might clash with the Christmas season (even though Qatar is predominantly Muslim, the football players in the tournament are predominantly Christian).[26] The Premier League voiced concern over moving the tournament to the northern hemisphere's winter as it could interfere with the local leagues. FA Chairman Greg Dyke said, shortly after he took his job in 2013, that he was open to either a winter tournament or moving the tournament to another country.[27] FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger said that awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar's desert state was a "blatant mistake", and that any potential shift to a winter event would be unmanagable due to the effect on major European domestic leagues.[2]

text:
In October 2013, a taskforce was commissioned to consider alternative dates, and report after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.[28] In early 2014, FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke appeared to preempt this, saying: "Frankly, I think it will happen between November 15 and the end of December because that is when the weather is more favourable. It’s more like springtime in Europe". This was controversial within FIFA itself, due to a possible conflict with the Christmas season, and Vice President Jim Boyce responded in saying that "it absolutely has not been decided as far as the executive committee are concerned. It was agreed all the stakeholders should meet, all the stakeholders should have an input and then the decision would be made, and that decision as far as I understand will not be taken until the end of 2014 or the March executive meeting in 2015. As it stands it remains in the summer with no decision expected until end of 2014 or March 2015".[29]
Another option to combat heat problems was changing the date of the World Cup to the northern hemisphere's winter, when the climate in Qatar would be cooler. However, this proved just as problematic as doing so would disrupt the calendar of a number of domestic leagues, particularly in Europe.[2]

text: Franz Beckenbauer, a member of FIFA's executive committee, said Qatar could be allowed to host the 2022 World Cup in winter. He justified his proposal on the grounds that Qatar would be saving money, which otherwise they would have spent in cooling the stadiums. Beckenbauer said: "One should think about another solution. In January and February you have comfortable 25 °C (77 °F) there". "Qatar won the vote and deserves a fair chance as the first host from the Middle East".[30] At a ceremony in Qatar marking the occasion of having been awarded the World Cup, FIFA President Sepp Blatter later agreed that this suggestion was plausible,[31] but FIFA later clarified that any change from the bid position of a June–July games would be for the host association to propose.[32] Beckenbauer would later receive a 90-day ban from any football-related activity from FIFA after refusing to cooperate in the investigation of bribery.[33]

text: The notion of holding the Cup during Europe's winter was further boosted by UEFA President Michel Platini's indicating that he was ready to rearrange the European club competitions accordingly. Platini's vote for the summer 2022 World Cup went to Qatar.[34] FIFA President Sepp Blatter also said that despite air-conditioned stadiums the event was more than the games itself and involved other cultural events. In this regard, he questioned if fans and players could take part in the summer temperatures.[35]

text: In addition to objections by European leagues, Frank Lowy, chairman of Football Federation Australia, said a change of the 2022 World Cup date from summer to winter would upset the schedule of the A-League and said they would seek compensation from FIFA should the decision go ahead.[36] Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, stated that they would consider legal action against FIFA because a move would interfere with the Premier League's popular Christmas and New Year fixture programme.[37]

text: In September 2013, it was alleged that FIFA had held talks with broadcasters over the decision to change the date of the World Cup as it doing so could cause potential clashes with other scheduled television programming. The Fox Broadcasting Company who had paid $425 million for the right to broadcast both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in the USA, later voiced anger over the possible season switch, as doing so would clash with that year's NFL season, which takes place in the winter. The network said they bought the rights with the understanding the tournament would take place in the summer, and if the change did go ahead they would seek compensation.[38] On 12 February 2015, FIFA awarded Fox the rights to the 2026 World Cup, without opening it up for bidding with ESPN, NBC, and other interested American broadcasters.[39] Richard Sandomir of The New York Times reported that FIFA did so to avoid Fox from suing in U.S. courts, which under the American legal system could force FIFA to open up their books and expose any possible corruption.[40] As BBC sports editor Dan Roan observed, "It does not seem to matter to FIFA that rival networks ESPN and NBC may have wanted to bid, or that more money could have been generated for the good of the sport had a proper auction been held. As ever, it seemed, FIFA was looking after itself".[41]

text: On 24 February 2015, it was announced that a winter World Cup would go ahead in favour of the traditional summertime event. The event is scheduled to be held between November and December. Commentators have noted the clash with the Christmas season is likely to cause disruption, whilst there is concern for how short the tournament is intended to be. The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations will also be moved from January to June to avoid African players from having a relatively quick two-week turnaround, although the monsoonal rainy season in its host country Guinea starts about that time.[42]

text: Transportation[edit]

text: At the opening of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), The International Association of Public Transport in Qatar, Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, Minister of transport, said: “Qatar is currently working on the development of advanced transport infrastructure in the country which will not only help us to prepare for hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but will be a legacy for our people and our country". Also, he said "the Doha Metro network with four integrated lines would cover 233 km and 96 stations. In the first phase, the network would run a length of 84 km and would include 38 stations by 2019. There would be a light rail transport network in Lusail, the Lusail LRT, with 32 km of tracks and 35 stations. The project is connected to Doha Metro".[43]

text: Roads and highways[edit]

text:
According to a staff writer for BQ in 2014, "Qatar currently has about 2,500 km of highways and the set plan is for 8,500 km by 2020, in addition to public transport bus lines". The writer quoted Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, Minister of transport, who said "local roads now extend to an area covering 9,500 km and the set plan is to increase this area to cover 34,000 km 2020. We currently have 160 bridges connecting roads and it is expected that
the number of bridges would reach 200 by 2020, in addition to increasing the
number of tunnels from the current one to 32 in the future".[44]

text: Public transport[edit]

text: According to a staff writer for BQ, "work is underway to improve the public bus service and infrastructure and a plan of action has been drawn up covering a period of five years". The writer quoted Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, Minister of transport, who said "Qatar has allocated QR 5 billion over the next five years to develop the current fleet of 400 buses in the public transport company to a network of 2,000 buses".[44]

text: Cost[edit]

text: By some estimates, the World Cup is going to cost Qatar approximately £138 billion (US$220 billion). This is about 60 times the $3.5 billion that South Africa spent on the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[45] Dr. Nicola Ritter, a German legal and financial analyst, told an investors' summit held in Munich that £107 billion would be spent on stadiums and facilities plus a further £31 billion on transport infrastructure. Ritter said £30 billion would be spent on building air-conditioned stadiums with £48 billion on training facilities and accommodation for players and fans. A further £28 billion will be spent on creating a new city called Lusail that will surround the stadium that will host the opening and final matches of the tournament.[46] According to a report released in April 2013 by Merrill Lynch; the investment banking division of Bank of America, the organizers in Qatar have requested from FIFA to approve a smaller number of stadiums due to the growing costs.[47] Bloomberg.com said that Qatar wishes to cut the number of venues to 8 or 9 from the 12 originally planned.[48] A report released on 9 December 2010 quoted FIFA President Sepp Blatter as stating that Qatar's neighbours could host some matches during the World Cup. However, no specific countries were named in the report.[49] Blatter added that any such decision must be taken by Qatar first and then endorsed by FIFA's executive committee.[31] Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan told the Australian Associated Press that holding games in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and possibly Saudi Arabia would help to incorporate the people of the region during the tournament.[50]

text: Cultural and political issues[edit]

text: Qatar and football[edit]

text: At the time of being awarded the tournament, Qatar were ranked 113 in the world,[51] and had never qualified for the World Cup before. The furthest the team had ever progressed in the AFC Asian Cup was to the quarter-finals in 2000 (repeated in 2011, as hosts). The most prestigious accolade the team had won was the Arabian Gulf Cup twice, both times hosting (won once again in 2014, in Saudi Arabia). Qatar will be the smallest country to host the World Cup (smaller than 1954 hosts Switzerland) and, as of 2010, had a permanent population of less than one million people, less than the 1.7 million population of Uruguay in 1930, when they hosted the tournament. These facts led some to question the strength of football culture in Qatar and if that made them unsuitable World Cup hosts.

text: The Qatari national team has also been known to naturalize players from foreign nations.[52][53] Examples include Sebastián Soria, Luiz Martin Carlos Júnior and Emerson Sheik. Qatar also hires migrant workers to fill their empty stadiums in the Qatar Stars League, paying them one dollar an hour to "sit in the stadiums and pretend to have fun".[54]

text: Alcohol[edit]

text: Hassan Abdulla al Thawadi, chief executive of the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid, said the Muslim state would also permit alcohol consumption during the event.[55][56] Specific fan-zones will be established where alcohol can be bought.[57][58][59] Although expatriates may purchase alcohol and certain businesses may sell alcohol with a permit, drinking in public is not permitted as Qatar's legal system is based on Sharia.[60]

text: Israeli qualification[edit]

text: The head of the Qatar bid delegation stated that if Israel were to qualify, they would be able to compete in the World Cup despite Qatar's not recognising the state of Israel.[56][58][61]

text: Corruption controversies[edit]

text: There have been allegations of bribery or corruption in the selection process involving members of FIFA's executive committee.

text: In May 2011, allegations of corruption within the FIFA senior officials raised questions over the legitimacy of the World Cup being held in Qatar. According to then vice-President Jack Warner, an email has been publicised about the possibility that Qatar 'bought' the 2022 World Cup through bribery via Mohammed bin Hammam who was president of the Asian Football Confederation at the time. Qatar's officials in the bid team for 2022 have denied any wrongdoing.[62] A whistleblower, revealed to be Phaedra Almajid, alleged that several African officials were paid $1.5m by Qatar[63]  She later retracted her claims of bribery, stating she had fabricated them in order to exact revenge on the Qatari bid team for relieving her of her job with them. She also denied being put under any pressure to make her retraction. FIFA confirmed receiving an email from her which stated her retraction.[64][65]

text: In March 2014, it was alleged that a firm linked to Qatar’s successful campaign paid committee member Jack Warner and his family almost $2 million. The Daily Telegraph reported that it understands that the U.S. FBI is investigating Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid.[66]

text: On June 1, 2014, The Sunday Times claimed to have obtained documents including e-mails, letters and bank transfers which allegedly proved that Bin Hammam had paid more than 5 million US dollars to Football officials to support the Qatar bid. Bin Hamman and all those accused of accepting bribes denied the charges. [67]

text: Later in June 2014, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker gave an interview to German media in June 2014 stating that the allegations are being driven by envy and mistrust by parties who do not want the World Cup staged in Qatar, and that the country is not getting the respect it deserves over its efforts to hold the World Cup. He reiterated that the Qatari Emir strictly punishes and forbids instances of corruption and bribery with a zero-tolerance policy.[68]

text: In an interview published on 7 June 2015, Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA's Audit And Compliance Committee, stated that "should there be evidence that the awards to Qatar and Russia came only because of bought votes, then the awards could be cancelled".[69][70]

text: Support of terrorism by Qatar[edit]

text: In reaction to the 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis over the support of terrorism by the Qatari Government, the president of the German Football Association, Reinhard Grindel stated in June 2017, that "the football associations of the world should conclude that major tournaments cannot be held in countries which actively support terrorism", and that the German Football Association will talk with UEFA and the German Government in order to evaluate whether to boycott the tournament in Qatar in 2022.[71]


document_title: Tropic of Cancer

question_text: the tropic of cancer passes through which north american country

text: Tropic of Cancer

text: Name[edit]

text: When this line of latitude was named in the last centuries BC, the Sun was in the constellation Cancer (Latin for crab) at the June solstice, the time each year that the Sun reaches its zenith at this latitude. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, this is no longer the case; today the Sun is in Taurus at the June solstice. The word "tropic" itself comes from the Greek "trope (τροπή)", meaning turn (change of direction, or circumstances), inclination, referring to the fact that the Sun appears to "turn back" at the solstices.

text: Geography[edit]

text:
Map all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as: KML · GPX

text: The Tropic of Cancer's position is not fixed, but constantly changes because of a slight wobble in the Earth's longitudinal alignment relative to its orbit around the Sun. Earth's axial tilt varies over a 41,000 year period from 22.1 to 24.5 degrees and currently resides at about 23.4 degrees.  This wobble means that the Tropic of Cancer is currently drifting southward at a rate of almost half an arcsecond (0.468″) of latitude,  or 15 metres, per year (it was at exactly 23° 27′N in 1917 and will be at 23° 26'N in 2045).[2] See axial tilt and circles of latitude for further information.

text: North of the tropic are the subtropics and the North Temperate Zone. The equivalent line of latitude south of the Equator is called the Tropic of Capricorn, and the region between the two, centered on the Equator, is the tropics.

text: There are approximately 13 hours, 35 minutes of daylight during the summer solstice. During the winter solstice, there are 10 hours, 41 minutes of daylight.

text: Starting at the prime meridian and heading eastward, the Tropic of Cancer passes through 16 countries:

text:
Co-ordinates

Country, territory or sea

Notes

23°26′N 0°0′E / 23.433°N 0.000°E / 23.433; 0.000 (Prime Meridian)

 Algeria

23°26′N 11°51′E / 23.433°N 11.850°E / 23.433; 11.850 (Niger)

 Niger

23°26′N 12°17′E / 23.433°N 12.283°E / 23.433; 12.283 (Libya)

 Libya

The Tropic touches on the northernmost point of  Chad at 23°26′N 15°59′E / 23.433°N 15.983°E / 23.433; 15.983 (Northernmost point of Chad)

23°26′N 25°0′E / 23.433°N 25.000°E / 23.433; 25.000 (Egypt)

 Egypt

The Tropic passes through Lake Nasser

23°26′N 35°30′E / 23.433°N 35.500°E / 23.433; 35.500 (Red Sea)

Red Sea

23°26′N 38°38′E / 23.433°N 38.633°E / 23.433; 38.633 (Saudi Arabia)

 Saudi Arabia

23°26′N 52°10′E / 23.433°N 52.167°E / 23.433; 52.167 (United Arab Emirates)

 United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi emirate only

23°26′N 55°24′E / 23.433°N 55.400°E / 23.433; 55.400 (Oman)

 Oman

23°26′N 58°46′E / 23.433°N 58.767°E / 23.433; 58.767 (Indian Ocean)

Indian Ocean

Arabian Sea

23°26′N 68°23′E / 23.433°N 68.383°E / 23.433; 68.383 (India)

 India

States of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal

23°26′N 88°47′E / 23.433°N 88.783°E / 23.433; 88.783 (Bangladesh)

 Bangladesh

Khulna, Dhaka, and Chittagong Divisions

23°26′N 91°14′E / 23.433°N 91.233°E / 23.433; 91.233 (India)

 India

State of Tripura

23°26′N 91°56′E / 23.433°N 91.933°E / 23.433; 91.933 (Bangladesh)

 Bangladesh

Chittagong Division

23°26′N 92°19′E / 23.433°N 92.317°E / 23.433; 92.317 (India)

 India

State of Mizoram

23°26′N 93°23′E / 23.433°N 93.383°E / 23.433; 93.383 (Myanmar)

 Myanmar

Chin State, Sagaing Division, Mandalay Division, Shan State

23°26′N 98°54′E / 23.433°N 98.900°E / 23.433; 98.900 (China)

 China

Provinces of Yunnan (passing about 7 km north of the border with  Vietnam), Guangxi, and Guangdong

23°26′N 117°8′E / 23.433°N 117.133°E / 23.433; 117.133 (Taiwan Strait)

Taiwan Strait

23°26′N 120°8′E / 23.433°N 120.133°E / 23.433; 120.133 (Taiwan)

 Taiwan

Chiayi County, Hualien County

23°26′N 121°29′E / 23.433°N 121.483°E / 23.433; 121.483 (Philippine Sea)

Philippine Sea

23°26′N 142°00′E / 23.433°N 142.000°E / 23.433; 142.000 (Pacific Ocean)

Pacific Ocean

Passing just south of Necker Island, Hawaii,  United States

23°26′N 110°15′W / 23.433°N 110.250°W / 23.433; -110.250 (Mexico)

 Mexico

State of Baja California Sur

23°26′N 109°24′W / 23.433°N 109.400°W / 23.433; -109.400 (Gulf of California)

Gulf of California

23°26′N 106°35′W / 23.433°N 106.583°W / 23.433; -106.583 (Mexico)

 Mexico

States of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas

23°26′N 97°45′W / 23.433°N 97.750°W / 23.433; -97.750 (Gulf of Mexico)

Gulf of Mexico

23°26′N 83°0′W / 23.433°N 83.000°W / 23.433; -83.000 (Atlantic Ocean)

Atlantic Ocean

Passing through the Straits of Florida and the Nicholas ChannelPassing just south of the Anguilla Cays ( Bahamas)Passing through the Santaren Channel and into the open ocean

23°26′N 76°0′W / 23.433°N 76.000°W / 23.433; -76.000 (Bahamas)

 Bahamas

Exuma Islands and Long Island

23°26′N 75°10′W / 23.433°N 75.167°W / 23.433; -75.167 (Atlantic Ocean)

Atlantic Ocean

23°26′N 15°57′W / 23.433°N 15.950°W / 23.433; -15.950 (Western Sahara)

Western Sahara

Claimed by  Morocco and the  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

23°26′N 12°0′W / 23.433°N 12.000°W / 23.433; -12.000 (Mauritania)

 Mauritania

23°26′N 6°23′W / 23.433°N 6.383°W / 23.433; -6.383 (Mali)

 Mali

23°26′N 2°23′W / 23.433°N 2.383°W / 23.433; -2.383 (Algeria)

 Algeria

text: Climate[edit]

text: Excluding cooler highland regions in China, the climate at the Tropic of Cancer is generally hot and dry except for easterly coastal areas where orographic rainfall can be very heavy, in some places reaching 4 metres (160 in) annually. Most regions on the Tropic of Cancer experience two distinct seasons: an extremely hot summer with temperatures often reaching 45 °C (113 °F) and a warm winter with maxima around 22 °C (72 °F). Much land on or near the Tropic of Cancer is part of the Sahara Desert, while to the east the climate is torrid monsoonal with a short wet season from June to September and very little rainfall for the rest of the year.

text: The highest mountain on or adjacent to the Tropic of Cancer is Yushan in Taiwan; though it had glaciers descending as low as 2,800 metres (9,190 ft) during the Last Glacial Maximum, none survive and at present no glaciers exist within 470 kilometres (290 mi) of the Tropic of Cancer; the nearest currently surviving are the Minyong and Baishui in the Himalayas to the north and on Iztaccíhuatl to the south.

text: Circumnavigation[edit]

text: According to the rules of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, for a flight to compete for a round-the-world speed record, it must cover a distance no less than the length of the Tropic of Cancer, cross all meridians, and end on the same airfield where it started.

text: Length of the Tropic on 11 December 2015, at 23°26′14″N is 36,788 kilometres (22,859 mi).[3]

text: For an ordinary circumnavigation the rules are somewhat relaxed and the distance is set to a rounded value of at least 36,770 kilometres (22,850 mi).

text: Gallery[edit]

text:
Road sign south of Dakhla, Western Sahara marking the Tropic of Cancer. The sign was placed by Budapest-Bamako rally participants; thus, the inscription is in English and Hungarian.

Sign marking the Tropic of Cancer a few miles from Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India

Sign marking the Tropic of Cancer in Madhya Pradesh, India

Sign marking the Tropic of Cancer on National Highway 34 in Nadia District, West Bengal, India

Tropic of Cancer mark in Ruisui Township, Hualien County, Taiwan

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