The Movie: Pulp Fiction is seen by many as a defining movie in 90's cinema. At least for those people of my generation, it was one of the first new films we'd seen that showed us that there was more to the medium of film than just what Hollywood had been spoon feeding us all those years we were growing up. It was new, original, and daring, and many of us loved it.

I'm not really sure what people older than myself think of this film, and I'm not even sure people younger than myself have even heard of this movie, but if you've never seen it before, please do.

Pulp Fiction follows three different story lines that are intertwined by the characters. It's raw, and downright violent, but artfully made, and has been the center of many debates -- debates about its importance in film history, debates about what the film means, debates about what the little details in the film mean -- what's in the brief case? What's with the band-aid?

Love it or hate it, there's no denying that Pulp Fiction has influenced films and popular culture. It's been quoted and parodied more times than anyone can count, and to this day, every time I see Samuel L. Jackson in any movie, I'm reminded of his role in this film as Jules... and who isn't?

The DVD:

This is the Collector's Edition two disc set, released in 2002, not the original DVD release. Anyway. The anamorphic widescreen video transfer was damned near perfect. While it looked gritty and grainy in places, that's how the movie is supposed to look -- and I didn't notice any compression artifacts worth mentioning. A very clean transfer.

There are two audio choices for this title, Dolby Digital 5.1, and for those with the proper equipment, DTS 5.1. Honestly, it doesn't really matter which one you pick, if you ask me. While both are perfectly clean and clear, this is a movie driven mostly by dialog, with a very sparse sound track. There aren't many huge explosions. There aren't any amazing ambient surround sound effects going on in the movie, so you won't find them on the disc either.

As far as features go... on the first disc with the main feature, rather than an audio commentary track, we are given an extra subtitle track which contains a bunch of trivia from the movie. It is actually quite similar to what you'd hear in a typical audio commentary track, but you have to read it.

The rest of the stuff is on disc 2 where you'll find a number of documentaries and interviews. You also get some deleted scenes with introductions by Quentin Tarantino -- these were lifted from a previous special edition VHS release. In the commentary before the deleted scene featuring Uma Thurman interviewing John Travolta, Tarantino mentions that the conversion of video to film actually didn't look too bad (like "bad 16mm", he said) and that if he were an up and coming filmmaker today, he'd probably shoot on video and transfer it to film.

You also get a bunch of theatrical trailers, including a number that were used in foreign markets, which were all more or less the same, with the exception of Japanese trailer which would probably be rated R by the MPAA. Basically, the extra features of this DVD are all the ones that have appeared in previous releases of this disc on VHS and Laserdisc, all compiled in one place. But you do get some cool packaging, which includes a Jackrabbit Slim's menu. When all is said and done though, with the exception of the deleted scenes (and more so, their introductions), I didn't find many of the extras to be of great value.

If you're faced with the choice between getting the original 1998 DVD release and the 2002 Collector's Edition, I would have to recommend the new version all the way. The original version uses an old, non-anamorphic transfer, and absolutely no extras whatsoever. The new video transfer alone makes the new version worth it. Add in the enhanced sound and the extras, and I think the choice is pretty clear.