Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 19:41:47 -0700
From: foonym-AT-ix.netcom.com (Johnson Watts)
Subject: Re: eliminating recuperation: ethical stoicism


You wrote: 

>> snipped <<
 Violence is viewed with complete indifference in 
>Tarantino films, and the act of violence itself may very well prove to 
be 
>positive for the character who carries it out. It is definitely a 
>strong/weak relationship that is portrayed, and in fact Samuel 
Jackson's 
>monologue at the end of PULP FICTION, despite its Biblical references, 
is
>quite clearly a reiteration of a Nietzschean master/slave idea ("I'd 
like 
>to think that you're evil men, and I'm the shepherd...but the truth 
is, 
>you're the weak, and I'm evil men," he says to another criminal at 
gunpoint).
>In Tarantino films we are expected to sympathize with murderers as 
easily as
>he intends us to ignore (if not mock) the deaths of innocent 
bystanders...

>>snipped<<



  I can not bite my tongue any longer. Just to set the record straight 
about this cinematic *watershed*, here is the actual ending :

                                  VINCENT
                       Jules, if you give this nimrod
                       fifteen hundred buck, I'm gonna
                       shoot 'em on general principle.

             
                     JULES
                You ain't gonna do a goddamn thing,
                    now hang back and shut the fuck up.
                       Besides, I ain't givin' it to him.
                       I'm buyin' somethin' for my money.
                       Wanna know what I'm buyin' Ringo?

                                 PUMPKIN
                       What?

                                  JULES           
            Your life.  I'm givin' you that money so I 
              don't hafta kill your ass. 
                 You read the Bible?

                                 PUMPKIN
                       Not regularly.

                                  JULES
                       There's a passage I got memorized.
                       Ezekiel 25:17.  "The path of the                 
                   righteous man is beset on all sides
                       by the inequities of the selfish                 
                    and the tyranny of evil men.
                       Blessed is he who, in the name of                
                   charity and good will, shepherds
                       the weak through the valley of the
                       darkness.  For he is truly his
                       brother's keeper and the finder of
                       lost children.
                       And I will strike down upon thee
                       with great vengeance and furious
                       anger those who attempt to poison
                       and destroy my brothers.  And you      
                        will know I am the Lord when I lay  
                          my vengeance upon you."  


                       I been
                       sayin' that shit for years.  And if
                       you ever heard it, it meant your
                       ass.  I never really questioned
                       what it meant.  I thought it was
                       just a cold-blooded thing to say to              
                   a motherfucker 'fore you popped a cap in his ass.
                        But I saw some
                       shit this mornin' made me think
                       twice.  Now I'm thinkin', it could
                       mean you're the evil man.  And I'm
                       the righteous man.  And Mr. .45
                       here, he's the shepherd protecting
                       my righteous ass in the valley of 
                darkness.  Or it could be you're 
                     the righteous man and I'm the
                       shepherd and it's the world that's
                       evil and selfish.  I'd like that.
                       But that shit  ain't the truth.  The
                       truth is you're the weak.  And I'm
                       the tyranny of evil men.  But I'm
                       tryin'.  I'm tryin' real hard to be
                       a  shepherd.

        Jules lowers his gun, lying it on the table.
        Pumpkin looks at him, to the money in his hand, then to
        Yolanda.  She looks back.  
         Grabbing the trash bag full of wallets, the two RUN out the    
             door.     
         Jules, who was never risen from his seat the whole time, takes 
         a sip of coffee.

                                  JULES
                            (to himself)
                       It's cold.
        He pushes it aside.
        Vincent appears next to Jules.

                                  VINCENT
                       I think we oughta leave now.

                                  JULES
                       That's probably a good idea.
        Vincent throws some money on the table and Jules grabs the 
     briefcase.  
        Then, to the amazement of the Patrons, the Waitresses, the
        Cooks, the Bus Boys, and the Manager, these two bad-ass dudes   
     -- wearing UC Santa Cruz and "I'm with Stupid" tee-shirts,
       swim trunks, thongs and packing .45 Automatics -- walk out of
        the coffee shop together without saying a word.



                                THE END




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