Thursday, January 28, 2010

Pulp Fiction analysis - part 15: The metaphorical meaning of 'The Bonnie Situation'

CATEGORY: MOVIES








Jimmie Dimmick (left) and Winston Wolf ('The Wolf') get ready to clean up Vincent and Jules.


One part of the movie that we have not yet discussed is the 'Bonnie Situation'. We note that when The Wolf is first contacted by phone, the view we get of the inside of his home indicates that an evening get-together is in progress; this is, of course, inconsistent with it being morning in Los Angeles. The Wolf is located in the San Fernando Valley, which is actually part of the city of Los Angeles, but the evening event indicates that he is, within some metaphorical context, 'in' Asia, where it would be many hours later than it would be where he is physically located.




Top left: The Wolf's watch indicates that it's about 8:40 when he gets the call from Marsellus. Top right: We note that the dress and seating of The Wolf's guests (shown at the right-hand part of the screencap), suggest that an evening get-together is in progress. While the daylight that we can see through the windows of the house, taken together with the reading on The Wolf's watch, indicates that outside, it's 8:40 a.m., the inside of the home is, within some metaphorical context, on it's 'own time', one in which it's 8:40 p.m. The Wolf tells Marsellus that the location of Jimmie's residence is 30 minutes away, and that he'll get there in 10 minutes. Above left: As The Wolf heads down Jimmie's street (his silver car is just barely visible in the distance in this screencap - click to enlarge), a screen caption confirms that his prediction as to time of arrival was correct. Above right: That it's morning-time, is confirmed by the fact that Jimmie (foreground) is wearing a robe, and that he serves The Wolf coffee. The 'discrepancy' of its being morning at Jimmie's, with the evening setting inside The Wolf's house, is one indication that, metaphorically speaking, The Wolf has 'arrived (at Jimmie's) from Asia'.




While The Wolf and the other men in Jimmie's house are attempting to solve the problem of getting rid of the corpse that was in Jules and Vincent's car, we are at one point shown the 'potential' scenario should Bonnie, Jimmie's wife, arrive home from her night shift job while the action is still in progress. In this scenario, the corpse is shown as being in Jimmie's house, in full view of Bonnie (as shown in the screencap at left).


Regarding The Wolf's arrival at Jimmie's place, his shorter than normal travel time from his residence to Jimmie's house (10 minutes instead of 30) is a suggestion that a 'contraction' in time has occurred during his travel; this is another hint that he is arriving from a place a great distance away, specifically, Asia. The overall idea here is that Jules and Vincent are, metaphorically speaking, obtaining 'help' from Asia, and in specific, from the concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism, and/or Indian Buddhism.


      





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