Thursday, July 31, 2014

Week 4 Blog - Pulp Fiction






The film Pulp Fiction has many iconic actors in it which helps make this an American Film Institute Top 10.  Personality actors are actors that by the sheer power of their personality are cast in specific roles that coincide with their persona.  Samuel Jackson is one of those actors whose voice and tone are identifiable across all genres and through a sea of other actors.  Although his characters in different films may not be similar, how he portrays each character is.  In his role as Stephen in Django Unchained, Samuel Jackson plays a slave which is quite different from his role as Jules Winnfield, a gangster in the movie Pulp Fiction, yet his demeanor and tone is the same.  No matter what role he plays he comes across to the viewer as simply a “bad ass” who is capable of anything.
Another iconic actor who falls into the personality actor category from the film Pulp Fiction is Christopher Walken who plays CAPT.  Koons a war veteran who is sent to speak to Bruce Willis’ character when he was a young boy.  He is another actor who has a very specific tone and speaking manner that is very easily identifiable. Films with strong personality actors can make it diffi­cult for audiences to differentiate between the actor and the character (goody & Koontz 2014) and he is one of these actors that you refer to as Christopher Walken vice CAPT Koons. 
One of my favorite actors and characters in this film is Butch Coolidge played by Bruce Willis.  Bruce Willis is one of the wild card type actors, although he has acted in many action movies he has also done well in other genres.  His roles in the movies “A New Daughter” and in the “Sixth Sense” were far from his typical action packed typical roles like in the “Die Hard” series.  His ability to cross genres and perform well is a testament to his acting abilities making him a block buster film actor.

References:


Tarentino, Q.  (Director).  (1994). Pulp Fiction [film]  US., Miramax Films
Tarentino, Q.  (Director).  (2014) Django Unchained [film]. US., Columbia Pictures



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