This was the first movie made by Quentin Tarantino that I watched. I didn’t know anything about the movie, apart from a handful of references I observed from memes.
The story was undoubtedly different from other movies yet in a way still entertaining. However I am unbeknownst to what the actual plot of this movie was supposed to be nor what was special about it to be considered so popular. Does the fact that it deviates from traditional storytelling in itself act as a selling point?
My take is that it was very successful because it combined ‘art movie’ with grind house action.
Mixing up the time line, the long monologue about the watch, the general conversations, those were all things you’d expect in a art film. The violence was pure Roger Corman/Times Square.
Think of Queen and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ Nobody had combined high opera and rock-and-roll like that before [afaik]
You might want to look up a novel titled “Red Harvest” by Dashiell Hammett.
It’s been a template for almost a century. Hard core action and meditations on violence and corruption.