Pulp Fiction - Analysis of the Movie - part 1: The briefcase contents

CATEGORY: MOVIES; WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'Pulp Fiction (film)' page; "Pulp Fiction (1994) poster",[a] licensed under fair use via Wikipedia.]

















Welcome to the analysis of Pulp Fiction. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis. You may want to view the table of contents.


Pulp Fiction was released in 1994, and was directed by Quentin Tarantino, with stories written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. It stars Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, Maria de Madeiros, Rosanna Arquette, and Eric Stoltz.

The first topic to be discussed in this analysis is the all-time question, what is in the black briefcase that is in Jules Winnfield's possession (as shown at left), at certain points in the movie?


Ever since people have been asking Quentin Tarantino what is in the briefcase, he has been responding by indicating that it contains whatever each viewer thinks it does. Many people have inferred this to mean that the issue of the case's contents is a totally subjective one, and that the case is a 'MacGuffin', in that its contents (if there are any) are unimportant to the overall plot. However, there is a way of interpreting Tarantino's response, that can be used as a starting point to show that the case and its contents are important insofar as the film's actual plot: Tarantino's response can be taken to apply to the movie characters, and not just to the members of its audience, i.e., for each character, the case contains what that character thinks it does. For example, as will be explained later in this analysis, that which Marsellus believes to be in the briefcase is important, when one considers the fact that we are never shown Jules returning the case to him.

The question is, what does each character think is in the case? As explained below, Vincent thinks drugs are in it, Ringo thinks it contains gold, Marsellus believes it to contain cash (in the form of paper currency), and Jules believes that it contains enlightenment (in the Buddhist sense).

Above left: Vincent flips the briefcase around with ease while in the kitchen in Brett's apartment, prior to opening it; this indicates that for Vincent, the case cannot contain anything heavy, such as gold (i.e., Vincent does not think the case contains gold). Above right: Vincent dials the combination to open the case.

Above left: We see that when Vincent opens the briefcase, to check its contents, there is a light shining on his face, implying that whatever he sees in the case is tied in with something that glows. While Vincent is looking in the case, Jules asks him, "We happy?" Then there is a pause when Vincent doesn't answer, then Jules says, "Vincent! We happy?" and Vincent responds, "Yeah, we happy", and shuts the case. As indicated by Vincent's heroin use (as shown in the screencaps below), drugs are what makes Vincent 'happy'; therefore, he sees drugs in the case. Above right: From where Jules is standing in Brett's apartment (in the living room), Jules can see the glow of the case contents shining on Vincent's face, even though he (Jules) cannot see inside the case. Note that Jules' verbal interaction with Vincent here, suggests that he knows what Vincent believes to be in the case, for he knows that what Vincent sees in the case makes him "happy", indicating that he knows Vincent sees drugs in the case (of course, as Vincent's partner, he knows Vincent is a drug user).

The glow Vincent sees in the briefcase, is a reference to the glow from the open flame he uses to prepare his heroin.

Above left: Vincent injects some prepared heroin. Above right: As indicated by Vincent's mellow facial expression on his way to Mia's house, while high on the heroin he has just injected, drugs are what makes Vincent happy.


Ringo's desire is for things of monetary value - recall that in the movie-ending diner scene, he and his partner rob the diner's cash register (and the diner's patrons of their wallets, as well).

Above left and right: Ringo robs the diner's cash register.

As shown at left, Jules easily handles the case prior to opening it for Ringo (at Ringo's 'request' - as shown in the screencap, Ringo is pointing a gun at Jules); this indicates that it cannot contain anything heavy (such as gold) for Jules, i.e., gold is not what Jules believes to be in the case.

Above left: When Jules opens the case in front of Ringo, Ringo gazes inside it. He asks Jules, "Is that what I think it is?", and Jules responds that it is. There is a pause, then Ringo, fascinated with what he sees in the case, says, "It's beautiful." The fact that we see a gold-colored light inside the case itself here, taken together with the fact that Ringo's desire is for things of monetary value (i.e., 'free' money - money obtained by robbing people, as opposed to that obtained from, say, gainful employment), we conclude that Ringo sees gold in the case. Above right: From where Jules is sitting, he can see the glow of the case contents shining on Ringo's face. Ringo himself never handles the case.


We are never shown the briefcase opened in Marsellus Wallace's presence at any point during the movie, but during the diner robbery, Jules tells Ringo the case contains his boss's "dirty laundry", suggesting money laundering. Since Marsellus is Jules' boss, Marsellus must believe that the case contains cash (in the form of paper currency).

Note that the contents of Jules' verbal interaction with Ringo, suggest that Jules knows what Ringo and Marsellus, respectively, think is in the case; and recall from above that he knows what Vincent sees in it. Jules has wisdom, for he knows what each of the other men sees in the case, indicating that he knows the men themselves. Jules knows other people, but he feels the need to reach the stage of enlightenment, so that he will know himself. It is, in fact, enlightenment (as stated above, in the Buddhist sense) that Jules believes is in the case. Jules' recognition that he has not yet attained enlightenment, is what is indicated when he says to Ringo, "But I can't give you this case, cause it don't belong to me" - meaning Jules recognizes that enlightenment does not belong to him.


a. Poster for Pulp Fiction: The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Miramax Films, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.


   

Pulp Fiction analysis - part 20: Wrapping up the analysis

CATEGORY: MOVIES

We begin this post by re-arranging the narrative structure of Pulp Fiction so that we can see the various segments of the movie in their proper chronological order, and then we add comments to each item on the list based on observations we have made during this analysis, as well as certain new observations:

1. Prelude to "The Gold Watch" - flashback. Captain Koons hands a young Butch Coolidge the gold watch. This event marks a kind of initial awakening (in the Buddhist sense) for Butch. Metaphorically speaking, Koons, a leading-edge baby boomer, is also handing the watch to the Pulp Fiction audience; this represents the historical hippies/yuppies handing down shit to the members of Generation Y (and by implication, to all of us).


As indicated in part 14 of the analysis, the film's screenplay says the scene in the Coolidge residence (the handing down of the watch) is set in the year 1972. As was said, for Butch to be either 8 or 9 years old in this scene, he would have to have been born in 1963. Recall that in the bar scene, Marsellus asks Butch, "how many fights you think you got left in you - two?" A boxer who has only two fights left in him would be in his late 30's - about 38. Then, 1963 + 38 = 2001, so Pulp Fiction is set in the year 2001. Note the year match with the title of Kubrick's movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also note that Butch himself is a trailing-edge baby boomer (i.e., he is a member of the segment of baby boomers that was born between 1956 and 1964).

2. Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife." This segment includes the scene in Brett's apartment (Brett is shown seated at above left), and is the first scene in the film in which the briefcase appears (Vincent is shown handling the briefcase at above right). The briefcase represents, in part, the black monolith from A Space Odyssey.

3. "The Bonnie Situation." The Wolf's arrival at Jimmie's house represents help arriving from Asia (i.e., from certain concepts of Buddhism, Hinduism, and/or Indian Buddhism), as evidenced by the 'contraction' in time during The Wolf's trip to Jimmie's house, and by the fact that an evening get-together appears to be going on at The Wolf's starting location while it is morning-time. Shown at left is The Wolf looking inside Vincent and Jules' car.

4. Prologue: The Diner(i). Ringo and Yolanda decide to rob the diner. The camera perspective is from their own point of view (i.e., the POV of their table). This is the first scene shown in the movie.

5. Epilogue: The Diner(ii). The POV begins at the table Jules and Vincent are occupying. The robbery takes place. The presence of Vincent in the diner scene suggests that he has undergone a (metaphorical) rebirth, since he had 'previously' been killed by Butch. Since this is the final scene shown in the movie, then it taken together with the diner prologue effectively make Pulp Fiction a circular narrative; we note that Buddhism views the continual process of death and rebirth as a circular (cyclical) process.

6. "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife." Butch accepts money from Marsellus to (supposedly) throw his upcoming fight. Jules seems to look over at Butch intently (above left screencap), then he heads to the men's room with the briefcase. We are never shown Jules handing the briefcase to Marsellus; this represents Jules failing to save mankind by virtue of him not paying the Devil (ransom view of the atonement). Later in this segment, Mia is depicted metaphorically as dying and then being reborn. We note that Mia and Vincent (above right, removing their shoes) represent the complementarity of yin and yang.

7. Prelude to "The Gold Watch" - present. Butch rises upon the culmination of his flashback to the handing of the gold watch, having achieved enlightenment.

8. "The Gold Watch." It is during this segment of the movie, that Butch saves Marsellus from the two men shown at left, Zed (in blue shirt) and Maynard.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some readers of this analysis may have noticed that when his face is viewed from close up, Captain Koons looks too old in 1972, the year of the watch-handing scene, to be a baby boomer - if he was born around 1947, as stated in part 14 of the analysis, he'd only be about 25 years old in '72; but, his facial appearance places him in his 40's. One implication of this is that Koons is some sort of impostor; at the same time, the discrepancy can be explained within a certain context, when we see that in addition to representing Kung Fu's Master Kan, and a leading-edge baby boomer, Koons also represents Stanley Kubrick: Kubrick was born in 1928, so he would have been 44 years old in 1972. We can take this even further and say that Kubrick (represented by Koons) is handing the watch, which here represents the 'time puzzle', to Butch insofar as Butch represents Quentin Tarantino himself - Tarantino was born in 1963, and we have said that Butch was born in 1963, so there is a birth year match. Another correspondence between Tarantino and Butch is that Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is precisely where Butch and Fabienne are headed at the end of the gold watch (present)/boxing match/basement scenario. Also note that Tarantino would have been five years old in 1968, the year in which 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. Recalling that the Pulp Fiction screenplay says the camera perspective in the watch flashback scene is that of a five-year old boy, what's being suggested is that the audience watching Pulp Fiction in 1994 corresponds, in some way, to Tarantino watching A Space Odyssey when he was five.

It is important to recognize that to the Pulp Fiction audience, Koons represents a leading edge baby boomer, since he was born between 1946 and 1955 (specifically, from the audience's perspective he was born in about 1947, so he'd be in his mid-40's in 1994, the year of the movie's release). On the other hand, Butch and Tarantino are both trailing edge boomers, the group which consists of those people born between 1956 and 1964 (as indicated above).


   

Pulp Fiction analysis - part 19: Tarantino on Kubrick and violence in films

CATEGORY: MOVIES














The theatrical release poster from Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (at left),[a] is reminiscent of Mia Wallace sucking on a cherry as she sits across from Vincent Vega in Jack Rabbit Slim's (above). The protagonist in Kubrick's movie, middle-aged Humbert Humbert, becomes obsessed and sexually involved with a 14-year old girl named Dolores Haze for whom his private nickname is Lolita.

Upon Mia and Vincent's return to the Wallaces' residence, Mia begins to dance to the song Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon. One thing that is being suggested by the way Mia is portrayed in Pulp Fiction, is that she is immature or incompletely developed in some way.



Lately we have been discussing connections between Pulp Fiction and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are known connections between other films created by Tarantino and Kubrick. For example, Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs corresponds somewhat to Kubrick's The Killing. Tarantino himself has commented on this, saying, "I didn't go out of my way to do a rip-off of 'The Killing,' but I did think of it as my 'Killing,' my take on that kind of heist movie."[b]

The seemingly senseless violence in some of Tarantino's films, such as that in Reservoir Dogs (above), are a 'homage' to the violence in The Killing, and to that in some of Kubrick's other films as well, such as A Clockwork Orange (left). This comprises part of Quentin Tarantino's way of saying that Kubrick's message was, that we as a society have become insensitive to violence in films, and to real-life violence as well. In fact, Tarantino himself is sending us this same message with his own films.


a. Image from the Wikipedia 'Lolita (1962 film)' page, LolitaPoster, licensed under fair use via Wikipedia. Source: Scope Advertising, e.g. Herman Zuckerman (design) and Frederick L. Hyman (copy). The photograph of Sue Lyon used in the poster was not in the movie but was taken randomly on the set as she was waiting for her next shot. Zuckerman and Hyman found the picture in a batch of publicity shots.
b. Hartl, John (October 29, 1992). "'Dogs' Gets Walkouts And Raves." The Seattle Times. Web. URL = http://web.archive.org/web/20090126084703/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19921029&slug=1521437.


      

Pulp Fiction analysis - part 18: A theme in common with '2001: A Space Odyssey'

CATEGORY: MOVIES









Stanley Kubrick as a Look magazine photographer in 1949. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Stanley Kubrick' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]



In part 17 of the analysis we observed that the black briefcase in Pulp Fiction corresponds to the black monolith from Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another connection between Pulp Fiction and 2001, is that they both have a theme of enlightenment-death-rebirth. We have already discussed Pulp Fiction's enlightenment theme, and we know that Mia is depicted as 'dying' and then being 're-born': Mia 'dies' when she mistakenly inhales heroin, then she is 'reborn' when given an adrenaline injection.

Above left: Mia appears to be dead after having accidentally inhaled heroin. Here she is shown being driven by Vincent to Lance's house. Above right: At Lance's, Mia is revived with an adrenaline injection to the heart.


The enlightenment-death-rebirth 'theme' in Pulp Fiction, is meant by Tarantino as a hint that this is also one of the themes of A Space Odyssey.

In Kubrick's movie, the fact that astronaut David Bowman points to the monolith in the ending 'hotel room' scene (above left), indicates that he's reached a kind of enlightenment. Just after this, he dies, then he is reborn, as indicated by the fetus inside an orb of light (above right).


      

Pulp Fiction analysis - part 17: The briefcase and the 'Space Odyssey' monolith

CATEGORY: MOVIES

The Pulp Fiction briefcase is, in some ways, similar to the black monolith in the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. First, the two objects are similar in physical appearance: Both are flat, black, and rectangular-shaped. Also, both objects are portrayed in their respective movies as being mysterious - there's a certain amount of mystery surrounding the origin of the monolith in A Space Odyssey, and the Pulp Fiction briefcase is mysterious in that its contents have been considered by many people to be uncertain.

Above left: The Space Odyssey monolith is the rectangular black object jutting upward from the rocks, in this shot from the 'Dawn of Man' segment of Kubrick's movie. Above right: The first time we see the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, it is shown being handled by Vincent Vega in Brett's apartment.


Another correspondence between the briefcase and the monolith is that the first killings in Pulp Fiction occur very soon after the briefcase makes its first appearance , near the movie's beginning in Brett's apartment. Similarly, the first killing in 2001 takes place not long after the monolith makes its first appearance (in the above-mentioned 'Dawn of Man' segment).

Shortly after we see Vincent handling the briefcase in Brett's apartment, one of Brett's cohorts is shot and killed by Jules (above left), and not long after this, Brett himself is killed (above right).

Above left: Man's early ancestors, the members of a tribe of 'ape-men', begin to investigate the black monolith in A Space Odyssey. Above right: Not too long after this encounter with the monolith, a member of the tribe that encountered it kills a member of a competing tribe, by striking him with a hand-held bone.


The overall point here is that the Pulp Fiction briefcase is a representation of the Space Odyssey monolith.


      

Pulp Fiction analysis - part 16: Switching of control among the characters

CATEGORY: MOVIES

The diner standoff: Jules points his gun at Ringo (foreground), while Vincent and Yolando (standing on a table) point their guns at each other.


In part 2 of the analysis, we talked about the 'situational switching' going on in the movie - certain 'roles' and their 'opposites' are played out. An example we looked at was that in one scene, a character pays someone for their help, and in another scene, a corresponding character accepts pay to help someone. Now we will look at one specific context in which much of the switching in the movie occurs, that of being in control: A given character in the movie may be in control in one situation, but find himself under control in a different one.

The most obvious example of this 'switching of control' is the sequence of events that takes place in the diner at the movie's ending, i.e., the armed holdup of the diner by Ringo and Yolanda ('Pumpkin' and 'Honey Bunny', respectively). At the beginning of the holdup, the pair take control of all the employees and customers at gunpoint. However, once we're fairly well along into the robbery, soon after Ringo begins speaking to Jules, Jules grabs Ringo's gun, pulls out his own, and takes control of Ringo. Immediately after this, Yolanda re-asserts at least partial control for her and Ringo - if Jules shoots Ringo, Yolanda will shoot Jules. Then, control switches back toward Jules again, when Vincent returns from the diner's men's room and, upon seeing what is happening, points his gun at Yolanda. Eventually, the whole standoff ends in a neutral outcome, in the sense that no one is killed or wounded.

Another instance of control switching in the film occurs during the scene in Jimmie Dimmick's house. Jules and Vincent, who have been in control in most or all of the situations they have been in up to this point, now find themselves subject to Jimmie's good will. Note that Jimmie effectively forces Jules to acknowledge that he did not see a sign outside his house saying "dead nigger storage." Then, when The Wolf shows up, we notice that Jimmie becomes somewhat obsequious toward him - control now belongs to a different character, with Jimmie, Jules, and Vincent all under the control of The Wolf.

The scene in Jimmie's house.



      

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.


      

Pulp Fiction analysis - part 14: Further exploration of the gold watch scene

CATEGORY: MOVIES

In part 11 of the analysis, it was stated that the meaning of the gold watch being handed (metaphorically speaking) down to the Pulp Fiction audience, is that we have had shit handed down to us by a previous generation. To identify who the specific metaphorical 'handing' and 'receiving' generations would have been in the year of Pulp Fiction's release (1994), i.e., to determine what year spans their birth years fall into, let's start out by examining the scene in the young Butch's home. Instead of trying to guess the year of the flashback scene from the home furnishings, dress of the characters, etc., it is easier to start out by simply looking at the screenplay, which is available at the Internet Movie Script Database. The portion of the screenplay we're interested in begins by saying, 'BUTCH'S POV', and then describes the setting:

"We're in the living room of a modest two bedroom house in Alhambra, California, in the year 1972. BUTCH'S MOTHER, 35ish, stands in the doorway leading into the living room. Next to her is a man dressed in the uniform of an American Air Force officer. The CAMERA is the perspective of a five-year old boy." (capitalization in original).

The problem with this is that Butch's facial appearance places him at significantly older than five; in fact, he physically looks eight or nine years old (as shown in the screencap of the young Butch below).

Above left: The scene described in the fragment of screenplay quoted above. Above right: Butch's facial appearance places him at eight or nine years old in the watch flashback scene, not five.


The implication of this is that the five-year old referred to in the screenplay is not Butch. In fact, the 'five-year olds' are the members of the (1994) Pulp Fiction audience, who are effectively the persons Koons is addressing during the latter portion of his monologue (as discussed in part 11 of the analysis, Koons is addressing the audience during this part of his monologue).

Now let us examine Koons' monologue itself. He tells Butch that his (Butch's) father was an infant near the end of the Battle of Wake Island. This battle occurred in the year 1941, so we can take Butch's father as being born in the same year. Taking Butch as either eight or nine years old in 1972, the year of the watch handing scene, he was born in 1963. Therefore, Butch's father was in his early twenties when Butch was born. This seems reasonable, especially considering that he would have been in his early thirties in 1972 (if he was still alive), which is close to the age of the mother (around 35 in this year, as indicated in the fragment of screenplay quoted above). Note that Butch's father was born prior to 1946; 1946 is commonly considered to be the first year of the baby boom. Koons is a Captain, and Butch's father was a Major, which is one rank higher than Captain, so Koons is a few years younger than Butch's father would be if he were still alive. In fact, based on the rank difference, Koons would have been born in 1946 or 1947, making him a 'leading-edge' baby boomer. Thus, it is some subset of leading-edge baby boomers who are the metaphorical 'handers of shit'.[a]

The specific metaphorical 'receiving audience' for the watch was five years old in 1994, the year of Pulp Fiction's release, so was born in the late 1980's and thus consists of members of Generation Y. Members of this generation are sometimes called echo boomers, due to the significant increase in birth rates through the 1980s and into the 1990s, and because many of them are children of baby boomers. They are also often called millenials.[b]

Above left: The small hand reaching into the lower left of the movie frame to grab the watch from Koons, although it can be taken to be Butch's hand, is also the 'audience's hand'. Therefore, the underlying message is that some sub-group of leading-edge baby boomers has handed down shit to their children's generation (as represented by the audience), and by implication, has left all of us with this. In this context, Koons' name corresponds to the word 'goons', i.e., the subset of the leading-edge boomers represented by Koons, are to be considered to be goons. Above right: One of the film's minor characters (played by the film's producer, Lawrence Bender) is billed in the closing credits as "Long Hair Yuppie-Scum". Noting that historically, a yuppie is an aging hippie, this billing is a hint that it is the hippies/yuppies who are the group that has handed down shit to us.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The reader of this analysis might be wondering how we, the Pulp Fiction audience members, are supposed to know that the year is 1972 during the watch flashback scene, and how we are to know that the camera perspective is that of a five-year old boy, without having to look at the screenplay. It would seem that we are to deduce the year of the flashback by the dress of the characters and the furnishings and decor of the Coolidge home. How we are to deduce that we are looking at Koons from the perspective of a five-year old boy, is by noticing that when we see Butch's face, his (Butch's) eyes are only directed upward by a small amount, because Koons has knelt down in front of the nine-year old Butch such that his eyes are at almost the same level as Butch's. On the other hand, when the camera is on Koons' face, while he is speaking to the audience, it is evident that we are viewing it from a lower height than Butch is, i.e., we need to look upward more than Butch does to look into Koons' eyes. Ultimately, we're supposed to realize that we're looking upward through the angle that a typical five-year old boy, when sitting, would have to look up through to look into Koons' eyes.

Butch's eyes are directed upward by only a small amount while Koons is speaking to him, because Koons has knelt down in front of him. (Butch is sitting on the floor).

Above left: Captain Koons talking to Butch. Above right: Koons speaking to the audience. Note that he looks further downward to address us, than he does when speaking to Butch.


a. The leading-edge baby boomers are generally considered to be those Americans born during the years 1946-1955.
b. Wikipedia, 'Millennials'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials.