QWhy does Butch save Marsellus?
AHonour. Butch puts himself in Marsellus' position and decides that he would hate to be left to such a horrid fate - he cannot just leave somebody there, no matter who it is. Butch does the "right thing" to put it simply - he realises that Maynard and Zed cannot get away with what they are doing to anybody. Butch may have also considered saving Marsellus an act of redemption. By saving his skin, he may have hoped that Marsellus would forgive him and let him go. This becomes the case, whether that was Butch's intention or not. Also, if Marsellus ever escaped and learned that Butch had left him there to his fate, Marsellus would sure unleash even more retaliation against Butch than he was subject to after double-crossing him at the fight. Consider the weapon Butch chooses: a samurai sword. The samurai are long-associated with honour towards their masters. If you want to simplify the overarching theme of the film, you could say it's about honor among thieves. There is also a clue to why Butch saves Marsellus, in the flashback scene with Christopher Walken's Captain Koons, and the young Butch. In the scene, Koons is relating his imprisonment with Butch's father, and tells Butch "Hopefully, you'll never have to experience this yourself, but when two men are in a situation like me and your dad were, for as long as we were, you take on certain responsibilities of the other". It's possible that these words came to Butch's mind as he was attempting to leave the pawn shop.
QWhat's the deal with the guy in black?
AThat's "The Gimp," an extreme sexual submissive who is apparently kept prisoner in Maynard and Zed's basement. The character was Roger Avary's idea, who got it from the movie "Deliverance." Unfortunately, nothing is specified about the character's origin or the circumstances of his time in the basement, except that he has no apparent desire to be freed. Another character named "Russell" once inhabited the same room. The screenplay implies that Russell was a previous prisoner whom Maynard and Zed eventually killed. The text commentary on the Pulp Fiction Special Edition DVD is similarly vague. It only refers to the Gimp a few times, and calls Butch the "victim of violence" and the Gimp the "perpetrator of violence."
QWhich book is Vincent reading?
AThe book is the first Modesty Blaise novel, which tracks the adventures of female spy Modesty Blaise. Though not of general reference to anything in the movie, it could be noted that Modesty is of some comparable significance to Mia's earlier mentions of "Fox Force Five," a show about a group of female spies. The edition Vincent reads has a mock-up cover that Tarantino had his prop department make, based upon the cover of an early edition of the novel.
Share this