Baudrillard's Post-Modernism - Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta and Uma Thurman. It is a prime example of experimental film due to the plethora of postmodern aspects that are present. Primarily, the film exists in its own 'hyper-reality' (Tarantino-verse), an alternate universe of sorts that has no relation to the world we live in. This 'hyper-reality' is a collective of many other elements; including inter-textuality, self-referentiality, genre and fragmentation of time and space.

Firstly, the genre of the film is a key element in making the film a product of post-modernism. The crime genre is one that has historically been considered to be 'low-brow' (entertainment based, fun, mindless etc) in comparison to 'high-brow' (intelligent, meaningful, pretentious etc). Even the title of the film refers to 'pulp', a type of 'cheap' comic books that are focused around conventionally 'low brow' things like crime, sex and drugs. However, a post-modernist argues that there is no difference in these two opposites and that all media is just as important as each other. This can also be seen in the awards the films won, including numerous Academy Awards and the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes film festival (usually won by more 'high-brow' indie films like I, Daniel Blake).