With the REWARD of the watch in his pocket, Butch hits THE ROAD BACK, trying to get to his girlfriend. On the way, he literally runs into his SHADOW, Marsellus, ramming him with the car when he sees Marsellus crossing the street. However, Butch is also injured and dazed when his car collides with another car, a quick REVERSAL. Marsellus, appearing dead to a bystander, comes back to life (RESURRECTION) and staggers towards Butch with a gun.
Butch wobbles into the "Mason-Dixon Gunshop" and Marsellus follows him (a CHASE typical of THE ROAD BACK). Butch punches Marsellus and is about to kill him when he's stopped by the gunshop owner, Maynard, who is armed with a shotgun.
Butch and Marsellus don't realize they've stumbled into an INMOST CAVE more sinister than anything they have encountered, an underworld beneath the underworld in which they live. Maynard knocks out Butch and summons his brother Zed, like him, a SHADOW projection of the worst aspects of white American male culture. Marsellus and Butch wake up, chained and gagged with S&M gear, in the still deeper cave of the dungeon beneath the store.
Zed brings up a leather-clad creature, The Gimp, from a still deeper pit beneath the floor. Whether he is their retarded brother or a poor victim driven mad by their torture, The Gimp suggests the horrors that await Marsellus and Butch. Marsellus is chosen to be the first victim of the evil brothers' sadistic attention, and is taken into a room once occupied by another victim, Russell. There is a sense in this adventure that others have gone before and have not won their round with death.
Butch hears the sounds of the two brothers raping Marsellus, a terrible ORDEAL that brings death to Marsellus' manhood. (In these scenes, again, is a sense of relativity. No matter how harshly we may have judged Marsellus and Butch for their behavior, there are still worse villains and lower circles of hell. Marsellus and Butch look like villains or SHADOWS from society's point of view, but compared to the denizens of the gunshop they are HEROES.)
Butch sees an opportunity and escapes, punching out The Gimp, who falls limp and hangs himself on his leash. Butch escapes upstairs and actually has his hand on the door, ready to leave, but has a crisis of conscience. He decides to make a true hero's SACRIFICE, risking his life by returning to rescue Marsellus, even though he knows Marsellus wants to kill him for not throwing the fight. He selects a samurai sword from the many weapons at hand (literally SEIZING THE SWORD), and descends once again into the INMOST CAVE for his ultimate ORDEAL.
Butch kills Maynard, and Marsellus grabs a shotgun, shooting Zed in the groin. Marsellus is free, having rebounded from almost certain death, a RESURRECTION. Butch's heroic action balances the moral books for Butch's killing of the other boxer. Marsellus is TRANSFORMED by the experience, and grants a BOON to Butch, sparing his life and allowing him to escape so long as he promises not to tell anyone what happened, and to stay away from Los Angeles. Then he calls upon a MENTOR, Mr. Wolf, for help in cleaning up the situation.
Butch SEIZES A SWORD, so to speak, taking the motorcycle that belonged to one of the monstrous bikers. On this steed the hero takes THE ROAD BACK to collect his fair lady. Although he may not be able to collect the ELIXIR of the gambling money, the hero has been rewarded with a greater ELIXIR of life. He rides off with Fabienne on the motorcycle, which bears the significant name of "Grace," an ELIXIR granted to those who make the right moral choices on the Hero's Journey.
"THE BONNIE SITUATION"
Now the thread of Vincent and Jules is picked up again at the moment when Jules recites his Bible passage in the apartment of the Young Men, and we hear the scripture for a second time. The Young Man bursts out shooting at them, clearly a death-dealing ORDEAL. By rights they should be dead, but somehow they survive and the bullets pock the wall all around them.
The two young men react quite differently to their brush with death. Vincent dismisses it as a lucky break or coincidence, but Jules has an APOTHEOSIS. He is deeply moved and recognizes it as a miracle, an act of God, a sign which requires a change in attitude. Their reaction is a kind of TEST, one which Vincent appears to fail and Jules appears to pass with flying colors. Jules wins a REWARD from the experience, a greater spiritual awareness, but Vincent gets nothing out of it.
(The fact that we have already seen Butch kill Vincent makes this scene a kind of RESURRECTION for Vincent; we have seen him die, but now we see him alive again. This is another manifestation of the fractured postmodern time sense, which says the notion of linear time is an arbitrary convention.)
On the ROAD BACK from this death-and-rebirth moment, Vincent makes a deadly error, again due to his flaw of lack of respect. He has insufficient respect for the tools of death, and waving the gun around in the car, accidentally puts a bullet through the head of their accomplice Marvin in the backseat.
Jules recognizes that this must be cleaned up and drives to the house of his friend and ALLY, Jimmy Dimmick, played by Quentin Tarantino. He appears to be a middle-class fellow whose connection to the criminal world is never specified. He is worried about the moral wrath of his wife, Bonnie, who will soon be returning home from the night shift. (Here the filmmaker is creating contrast between the criminal underworld and the bourgeois world in which most of us live. The joke is that they are more afraid of Bonnie's irritation than of the danger of the law coming down on them for manslaughter.)
Jules and Vincent try to clean themselves up, but are only partially successful. Jules scolds Vincent for getting blood all over the guest towels, another sign that Vincent is careless and disrespectful, traits which we know will get him killed. He is in danger of turning another ALLY, Jimmy, into an ENEMY.
Jules calls Marsellus for help, and he in turn summons a MENTOR and ALLY in the form of Winston Wolf, played by Harvey Keitel. His name links him with Esmerelda Villalobos, Esmerelda of the Wolves, an Ally in another thread of the story They fulfill some of the same functions performed by Animal Helpers in many folktales.
Wolf appears to be a specialist in problem solving, experienced at getting rid of inconvenient evidence. He arrives at supernatural speed and takes charge of the problem, issuing orders authoritatively However, once again Vincent is disrespectful of his elders, and balks at being ordered around. Wolf handles it with humor but also unquestionable authority, making it clear that Vincent should not make an ENEMY of his ALLY.
Wolf supervises as Vincent and Jules cleanse the bloody car. The whole sequence is a protracted RESURRECTION for the young men, in which they and their vehicle are purified before the RETURN. Meanwhile Jimmy has to make a SACRIFICE, surrendering sheets and towels for the cleanup, but Wolf prompdy compensates him with a REWARD of money for new furniture.
Then, acting precisely like a shaman putting warriors through a cleansing ordeal of RESURRECTION, Wolf orders Vincent and Jules to strip off their bloody clothes. He makes Jimmy hose them down with icy water as they soap themselves clean of the blood. Next Jimmy issues them new clothing, significantly, boyish shorts and T-shirts. They look like schoolboys or college kids instead of tough gangsters. Like returning hunters, they have been put through a death-and-rebirth ritual that makes them innocent children again. Now they can re-enter the ORDINARY WORLD cleansed of the death they have faced and dealt with. Throughout, they have hung onto the mysterious briefcase, an ELIXIR which they brought back from the ORDEAL in the yuppie apartment.
Wolf escorts them to an auto graveyard where the body and the car will be disposed of. He says farewell and goes off with his young girlfriend Raquel, daughter of the junkyard owner, showing how an experienced Mentor enjoys his ELIXIR, won through "correct" behavior by the rules of this movie's universe. He compliments Jules for showing respect to his elders, a sign of character.
"EPILOGUE"
Finally, the narrative returns to the original scene in the diner for the Epilogue, the last word on the subject. While Pumpkin and Honey Bunny plan their stickup, Jules and Vincent review what has happened. Vincent, typically, tries to dismiss it, but Jules insists they have seen a miracle today. He resolves to live his life diff
erently from now on, "walking the Earth" like Cain in the TV series "Kung Fu." This seems to mean wandering about doing good and seeking peace rather than living a criminal life. He has truly been through a moral RESURRECTION and transformation. Vincent doesn't value any of this and gets up to go to the bathroom, the same action that ultimately gets him killed.
As a final TEST of Jules' resolve, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny start screaming and waving their guns around. Pumpkin tries to seize the ELIXIR of the mystery briefcase, opening it and falling under its spell, but Jules gets the drop on him. (Pumpkin's attempt echoes the fairy-tale motif of the False Claimant, who appears just as the hero is ready to claim his reward.)
Jules talks calmly but intensely to Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. He makes a deal with Pumpkin, giving him money from his wallet in return for leaving the briefcase alone. It's a final moment in which we are balanced between life and death. Jules recites his Bible passage for a third time, although on this reading it has a totally different meaning for him. Where before he identified with the wrathful face of God, dealing death to the unrighteous, now he identifies with the hand of mercy and justice, trying to be the blessed one "who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness." He has moved his center from thoughtless killing to a new level of heroic action, from which he can use his warrior skills for good. He is able to defuse the potentially deadly situation and walks away with the ELIXIR in hand. A SHOWDOWN which would normally leave at least one person dead has been handled with finesse and grace worthy of Mr. Wolf. Jules has grown from being a SHADOW, a ruthless killer, to being a true HERO. Pumpkin and Honey Bunny walk away with the ELIXIR of their lives, which they won by making the right decision and keeping cool under Jules' orders. If they are smart, they will move up the ladder of souls and prepare for adventures on the level of Jules and Vincent.
Vincent and Jules walk away with the ELIXIR-filled briefcase. The tale is "over," although we know that in linear time, there is still much of the story ahead. Vincent and Jules will now deliver the briefcase to Marsellus at the bar, Vincent will show disrespect for Butch and will undergo his ORDEAL with Mia, Butch will not throw the fight and will kill Vincent before surviving his ORDEAL with Marsellus. The real ending, if these events are rearranged in linear sequence, is the moment when Butch and his girlfriend ride off on the motorcycle.
The theme of Pulp Fiction seems to be the testing of men by ordeals. Different characters react differently to their respective confrontations with Death. Despite the relativistic tone of the film, the storytellers do seem to have a moral point of view. They sit in God's chair, dealing out the punishment of death for Vincent, who offends against the moral code of the movie, and rewarding Jules and Butch with life
for making the right choices in the scheme of the film. In this the filmmakers, despite the appearance of unconventionality, are quite conventional, following a moral code as strict as that in a John Ford or Alfred Hitchcock movie.
The most interesting case is that of Vincent, who faces ordeals in two completely different arenas, with different results. In the arena of love and loyalty, on his date with Mia, he behaves with chivalry and courage, like a knight of old, and for this he is rewarded by brief survival. But in the arena of respect for Higher Powers and for his more experienced elders, he fails, and is swiftly punished. Once again a relativistic note is sounded, suggesting that mastery over one area of life doesn't necessarily mean mastery of all aspects.
The interwoven Hero's Journeys of Vincent, Jules, and Butch present a full spectrum of heroic possibilities, encompassing the dramatic, the tragic, the comic, and the transcendent. Like Joseph Campbells definition of myth, Pulp Fiction is a "shapeshifting yet marvelously constant story... with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told."
THE FULL MONTY
At the opposite end of the spectrum from Titanic is a little film that Fox produced at the same time through its Searchlight division. As a work in the iconoclastic independent film spirit, it makes a good contrast with the old-time Hollywood epic scale of Titanic, and yet both films exhibit the signposts of the Hero's Journey. The Full Monty expresses it on a more intimate scale but the elements loom large in it nonetheless.
The Full Monty tells the comic adventures of a group of men whose ORDINARY WORLD is the ailing steel town of Sheffield. The men are different from one another, gay and straight, fat and thin, divided by social class and race, and yet they are united by the new conditions of their society. In the old days, sketched by a hilariously upbeat promotional film from the 1960s, Sheffield was a booming industrial center where the men were in charge, earning the wages and heading the households. Now the world has been stood on its head. The mills have been closed, the men are out of work, and it's a service economy in which the women are more likely to be the breadwinners.
Gaz is the principal protagonist, a boyish man whose immaturity isolates him from his ex-wife and son. His OUTER PROBLEM is to scrape together some money, his INNER challenge is to earn his son's respect and to learn to respect himself. He gets his CALL TO ADVENTURE when he sees his ex-wife and her girlfriends exercising their freedom by taking in a male strip show. He conceives the idea of raising money by staging a strip show of his own, recruiting a chorus line from the rejected men of Sheffield.
There are many REFUSALS from his skeptical friends and associates, who are not eager to expose themselves. These men, like all men, have many secrets to protect and conceal. Gaz doesn't want the other men to know he's done jail time. His overweight friend Dave hides his lack of sex drive, which leads his wife to think he's having an affair. Gerald, Gaz's former boss at the steel mill, has kept secret from his wife the fact that he lost his job months ago. Lomper, the mill security officer, has hidden the fact that he's gay, perhaps even concealing it from himself. Guy is a fellow who can't dance, but makes up for it by revealing a secret — he has the fullest monty of them all. His willing self-exposure sets an example for the men who will all be slowly unveiling themselves throughout the movie. Horse is the best dancer of the lot and becomes a kind of MENTOR to the rest, along with Gerald, who has been taking ballroom dancing lessons with his wife. But even Horse has a secret — the reason for his name — and this one is never revealed.
Gaz's steadfast MENTOR in his quest is his son Nathan, a Wise Young Man who voices an emotional wish early in the story, "Why can't we do normal things once in a while?" He keeps Gaz honest and on the track, and at the end gives him the courage to face the ultimate exposure, the final test of his commitment to something.
Gaz CROSSES THE FIRST THRESHOLD when he holds an audition for his male strip show. He turns an ENEMY into an ALLY, recruiting his old supervisor who initially wanted nothing to do with the project. The men slowly reveal themselves and experiment with the SPECIAL WORLD of trusting each other and allowing themselves to be honest and vulnerable.
Their APPROACH is a phase of preparation and rehearsal, in which they learn more about themselves. An encounter with Death marks the central ORDEAL, when Dave has severe doubts and wants to quit the enterprise, and Lomper's mother dies. In addition the men are arrested for indecent exposure when their dress rehearsal is captured on a plant security camera. It looks like they're finished. But this is quickly followed by REWARD, a phase in which Gaz gets reassurance that word of his show is spreading; the arrest has been good for their publicity. Lomper and Guy also reap a reward, discovering that they care for each other as they run from the police.
In another thread of the plot, Dave faces an ORDEAL of honesty, revealing to his wife the true reason for his lack of sexual interest. His REWARD is the knowledge that she loves him anyway, which gives him courage to rejoin the strip show. On THE ROAD BACK, he joins the men in the final preparations for the big act.
The hall fills with rowdy women. The RESURRECTION is enacted when Gaz gets cold feet at the thought of exposing himself, not only to women, but to a few men who
have slipped into the hall. His involvement with the group seems to die for a few moments as the other men go on stage without him. But his son encourages him to go on and he is REBORN with a late entry into the strip act, passing the final test of commitment and honesty. The men reveal themselves totally, RETURNING WITH THE ELIXIR of self-knowledge, cooperation, understanding, and self-respect. They have found a new way to be men in the new society.
The Full Monty connected with audiences because of its infectious good humor and its upbeat music and dance, which combined effectively with the realistic settings and believable, down-to-earth characters. It is a "feel-good" movie that communicates a sense that the filmmakers like people and believe that though they are complex and troubled, they are basically good and are capable of change. The audience has the identification and satisfaction of cheering for the underdogs. The film has a visual inventiveness that employs many poetic touches like the image of Dave and Gaz stranded in a canal on a sinking abandoned car as Gaz's practical son Nathan scampers away on the bank. Meanwhile the multilayered plot, telling little stories about six men and a boy, is organized into a coherent dramatic experience by the use of Hero's Journey motifs and devices. By their actions within this framework, these ordinary men are transformed into heroes for the edification and enjoyment of the audience. And because of the universal recognition of the Hero's Journey pattern, audiences around the world could find something of themselves in this story.
STAR WARS
Before closing the book on the permutations of the Hero's Journey in popular films, I have to acknowledge the lasting impact of the Star Wars series. The first Star Wars film, now re-titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, was released in 1977 as I was just beginning to digest the ideas of Joseph Campbell, and was a stunning confirmation of the power of the mythic patterns I had found there. Here was a fully developed expression of his concept of the Hero's Journey, exactly as Campbell described. It helped me work out the theory and test my own ideas, and it quickly became one of those quantum movie events, breaking records and setting a higher standard for what a movie could be.
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