Ezekiel 25:17 - Greatest Scene in Satire History

So for part of my textual analysis I have chosen to analyse the ‘breakfast scene’ from Quieten Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’. This is a very lengthy scene so I will only be analysing the last 5-6 minutes of the scene, which is the most climactic part of the scene.

Within the scene we have Jules Winnfield played by Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent Vega played by John Travolta. They play the gangsters, associates of the mob boss Marcellus Wallis. They have been sent to the hideout of three young men who were the flaky business partners within a crime with Mr Wallis. Jackson and Vega have been sent to retrieve a briefcase from the apartment.

Before I dive in I would like to point out that Tarantino only uses natural lighting and digetic sound within this scene, the reasoning behind this is to preserve the quality of the acting, Opposed to over-extravagant film techniques. He does this to show that Jules and Vega are putting on a show, they’re not morally invested into the crime, and they’re just acting out these feelings of betrayal on Mr Wallis’s behalf. Reaching out to religion and popular culture to harness the character of the verbose Jules Winnfield.

Early on in this scene we can see that Jules has completely taken all the power in the room and is leading the conversation in any way he sees fit. Helping himself to food and drink in sarcastic tones, with the camera directly pointing up at him to extenuate that he is on top of everything metaphorically. The 666 lock combination is important for religious reasons, but the briefcase itself is also very important. The content of the briefcase has this constant glow that heightens the spectacle and mystery of what it is. Tarantino, when asked about this will always reply ‘It’s whatever you want it to be’. We look into this as ‘Whatever man desires’ or ‘whatever drives mans actions for violence and crime’. This could also mean different things for each character, with each character being unique and very different to anyone else around them.

“I’m sorry, did I break your concentration?” these words define Jules through his actions and calm and casual manor in which he took a man’s life without even glancing at him. Just to give Bret the message that he is capable of doing such deeds without any signs of moral strain or physical effort. Long lens close ups are used to show the intensity and seriousness of their conversation. The angles change high and higher for Brets character and lower for Jules to show who is running the conversation. Lower camera angles are used again when Jules become more dominant and starts flipping out. Jules’s theatrical dialog really defines his character here with shooting the man for stuttering and drawn out jokes like “Does he look like a b*tch!?”.

Ezekiel 25:17, I believe this is where Tarantino has perfected dark side of Dark Comedy. His use of satire within this scene is unparalleled and perfected to an art my Jackson. Tarantino shows how crime and sin are no longer morally relevant to these men. This can be viewed as the representation of Jules and how this modern man have lost sincerity and has become almost cynical when making sense of his life. To which in the end of the film is also discussed again. What Tarantino is trying to say is that religion is only used in modern society as a way of man trying to find meaning in their lives.

What i've learnt

The video's are undoubtebly going to to be useful when carrying out my research. However there was a lot of information in the video that I already knew about. That being said it's always useful as a reference if I become unsure about the basics such as primary and secondary evidence. I was interested about the videos methods on the wrong way to search on google. Learning about these irrelivent links will be extremly helpful when deciding on what evidence I choose to use.

Piracy In Video Games

The main thing that Video game publishers and developers must realise is that in their attempts to combat piracy they must punish the pirate without punishing the consumer. Many companies incorporated anti-piracy software onto the install disks. Consumers were getting the sense that they were being punished for what the pirates do. EA games tried to do this with the game 'Spore', they added DRM software onto the disk. It backfired and the game went on to be one of the most pirated games ever. It turned out that pirates could bypass this software protection while consumers were forced to live with it. Publishers therefore must reward the consumer for purchasing the game; this can be done in many ways. They could offer money off the sequel of that game when it comes out, offer free downloadable content or offer free merchandise with every order. One of the main reasons for piracy is that people demand more for their money. 

More and more games are being released per year and the consumer only has a certain amount of money available to spend on video games. By offering a better value proposition the consumer is more likely to purchase the game rather than pirate the software. Punishing the pirates can be done through numerous ways but the traditional way of fining the odd pirate just does not work. Video games must play to their strengths; just recently EA games unveiled 'Online pass' which allows the consumer to enter a code to access the online play, a code is given to anybody who buys a new copy of the game. The importance of this is that people who pirate games will not be able to use one of the most important features in today's games, online play. Of course people could still pirate these games and use the online feature by only paying $10 to acquire a code; this will allow publishers to get extra income from pirates who would not consider paying for any part of the game.

Grand Theft Auto has always been renowned for very boastful ladies of the night, this wasn't always the case. Up until the 3rd/4th game of the series did prostitution and all the aesthetic glory that comes with the trade make it's appearance. From then on the games started to become even more controversial as the sex appeal became a lot stronger and the main audience of the game started to change to children in their early teens even though the marketing for the game is an obvious 18+. As the game progressed the developers put no stop to the controversial appeal to the game as the women characters of the game have become more seductive and more revealing as the series continues.

Woman of Impossible proportion

One of the most popular games in game history and game characters is the famous Tomb Raider, which was released in 1996.  The heroine and main focus of the game is the much sought-after Lara Croft. She is an intelligent, ass-kicking, gun-wielding, sexpot, who is ready to take on an army of gunfire before your jaw has even dropped.  So why is it that many women don’t play Tomb Raider these days if she is the heroine symbol that most women campaign for in the game industry?  In this game the role of females are not the damsel in distress, eye candy portrayed in many other games, but she is still again, an overly sexualized version of women and the female role in video games.  It seems the portrayal of a strong and intelligent sexy main character would provoke women in video games, in many ways this character seemed to further part the already wide divide between women and male gamers due to her still overly sexualized concept. Lara Croft is a beautifully aesthetic character but is still a woman of impossible proportion. Her pouted lips and athletic physique would be attractive to many but un-realistic to still look that dolled up whilst gunning down a knife-wielding Libyan.

What was the first woman video game character you can remember? Describe her. Misty from Pokemon

Who was the first woman you knew that played video games? describe her. Christie Jefferies (Cousin) her game choice consisted of nintendogs and cooking mama. She was/is very femanine and very up herself.

Do you think the woman gamer felt she was 'represented' in the character you decribed? why, why not? No, she disliked Pokemon very much, to qoute Christie "That game with the lightning rat is stoopid"

Can you think of another female character that this woman would feel is a representation of her? why? Dream wedding, because she is the perfect target market for that game.