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Vincent Vega (Pulp Fiction)


Vincent Vega

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What are your opinions on Vincent Vega, the character from Pulp Fiction who inspired my name on here?

I feel he was arguably the best character in the film. A perfect match for the coolness of Jules as played by Samuel L. Jackson; Playing the role of Vincent Vega revitalized John Travolta's career and pretty much automatically made him an A list star again after a decade of decline. The character was totally cool. Travolta should've won Best Actor for the part and Samuel L. Jackson should've won Best Supporting Actor.

I wish that Vega Brothers movie--which would've been a prequel with John Travolta reprising his role and Michael Madsen reprising his role as Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega from Reservoir Dogs (The two characters are brothers). It'd have been set in Amsterdam.

The only thing I hate is...

He shouldn't have been killed

Edited by Vincent Vega
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honestly I thought Sam Jackson and Bruce Willis gave significantly stronger performances than Travolta in Pulp Fiction, not to take credit away from him but thats just how good they were imo. He was cool I guess but I don't get the infatuation with Vincent Vega, had some good lines but he's just not really the most memorable character next to Jules and Butch, and he looked kind of annoyingly gay. My favorite scene with Vega was the whole thing with him and Uma Thurman's character when he has to revive her after she overdoses, fucking great

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Everytime he went to the bathroom, bad things happened.

-Mia OD'd

-He got killed

-The robbery in the end (/beginning, but you don't see him go to the bathroom in the beginning)

He was also an asshole who couldn't take responsibility for anything on his own.

When he kills Marvin, he says Jules must have went over a bump and then tries getting out of the hard detail work as well. He drags Lance in to the situation when Mia OD's and threatens to tell Marcellus that he wouldn't help when he refuses to.

He liked to talk shit to/about people for no reason really ("all the shit in her face", giving Butch (punchy) shit for no reason, etc)

Overall, he is quite the asshole in the film.

With all that said, I love the character and think it is a fantastic performance by Travolta and the movie itself is tied with Basterds for my all time favorite, but yeah when it comes down to it, as cool as he may seem, in reality his character is sort of pathetic.

Edited by Stiff Competition
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Everytime he went to the bathroom, bad things happened.

-Mia OD'd

-He got killed

-The robbery in the end (/beginning, but you don't see him go to the bathroom in the beginning)

He was also an asshole who couldn't take responsibility for anything on his own.

When he kills Marvin, he says Jules must have went over a bump and then tries getting out of the hard detail work as well. He drags Lance in to the situation when Mia OD's and threatens to tell Marcellus that he wouldn't help when he refuses to.

He liked to talk shit to/about people for no reason really ("all the shit in her face", giving Butch (punchy) shit for no reason, etc)

Overall, he is quite the asshole in the film.

With all that said, I love the character and think it is a fantastic performance by Travolta and the movie itself is tied with Basterds for my all time favorite, but yeah when it comes down to it, as cool as he may seem, in reality his character is sort of pathetic.

But that's kind of what makes him cool. He's a goofball sort of asshole, and somehow, just somehow, is really cool in the process.

Also, I don't think he was talking shit about the "girl with all the shit in her face". He didn't know her name, that's basically his main descriptor of her.

Also, his comments to Butch are sort of understandable in the context of what had went down before he encountered Butch.

Firstly, Vincent had a horrible morning--Nearly being killed by the guy with the handcanon, the whole Marvin incident (even if self created), Jules telling him he's leaving the life, Vincent couldn't even go to breakfast without some dopes trying to rob the place, and right before Butch came, he was basically being teased about taking Mia Wallace out on a "date", something he seemed really uneasy about and not really interested in talking about. And maybe he bet money on Butch's matches in the past and lost out or disrespected him for taking money to throw the fight.

And bringing Lance into the Mia situation was his only option really. He wasn't a doctor, so he had no way of saving her himself. He couldn't take her to a hospital, that was out of the question.

Who better to take an O'Ding bitch to, given the desperate circumstances, than to a drug dealer you trust, who could possibly know how to handle an O'D given he was a dealer?

Edited by Vincent Vega
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honestly I thought Sam Jackson and Bruce Willis gave significantly stronger performances than Travolta in Pulp Fiction, not to take credit away from him but thats just how good they were imo. He was cool I guess but I don't get the infatuation with Vincent Vega, had some good lines but he's just not really the most memorable character next to Jules and Butch, and he looked kind of annoyingly gay. My favorite scene with Vega was the whole thing with him and Uma Thurman's character when he has to revive her after she overdoses, fucking great

Bruce Willis was just kind of playing Bruce Willis in the film, IMO. He's not really that great of an actor and if you watch any early-mid 90s Bruce Willis film, he's pretty much the same as Butch....Weary sort of cynical badass. Watch The Last Boyscout or Striking Distance.

Whereas the role of Vincent was really sort of out of character for Travolta. He'd not played a gangster/heroin addict before.

And I find Butch the least interesting character. His subplot is probably the weakest part of the movie. And I hate his girlfriend, so annoying.

I'd rather have had Winston Wolf had as big a part instead.

Edited by Vincent Vega
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Everytime he went to the bathroom, bad things happened.

-Mia OD'd

-He got killed

-The robbery in the end (/beginning, but you don't see him go to the bathroom in the beginning)

He was also an asshole who couldn't take responsibility for anything on his own.

When he kills Marvin, he says Jules must have went over a bump and then tries getting out of the hard detail work as well. He drags Lance in to the situation when Mia OD's and threatens to tell Marcellus that he wouldn't help when he refuses to.

He liked to talk shit to/about people for no reason really ("all the shit in her face", giving Butch (punchy) shit for no reason, etc)

Overall, he is quite the asshole in the film.

With all that said, I love the character and think it is a fantastic performance by Travolta and the movie itself is tied with Basterds for my all time favorite, but yeah when it comes down to it, as cool as he may seem, in reality his character is sort of pathetic.

But that's kind of what makes him cool. He's a goofball sort of asshole, and somehow, just somehow, is really cool in the process.

Also, I don't think he was talking shit about the "girl with all the shit in her face". He didn't know her name, that's basically his main descriptor of her.

Also, his comments to Butch are sort of understandable in the context of what had went down before he encountered Butch.

Firstly, Vincent had a horrible morning--Nearly being killed by the guy with the handcanon, the whole Marvin incident (even if self created), Jules telling him he's leaving the life, Vincent couldn't even go to breakfast without some dopes trying to rob the place, and right before Butch came, he was basically being teased about taking Mia Wallace out on a "date", something he seemed really uneasy about and not really interested in talking about. And maybe he bet money on Butch's matches in the past and lost out or disrespected him for taking money to throw the fight.

And bringing Lance into the Mia situation was his only option really. He wasn't a doctor, so he had no way of saving her himself. He couldn't take her to a hospital, that was out of the question.

Who better to take an O'Ding bitch to, given the desperate circumstances, than to a drug dealer you trust, who could possibly know how to handle an O'D given he was a dealer?

I agree with everything you're saying really but it's just fun to look at both sides of it and play devil's advocate a little. It just goes to show the dual nature of his character really; while he was kind of pathetic in some ways, he still comes off as cool. He's a smooth talker too which helps the cool factor as well.

I'm with you on the fact that I wish the Vega brothers movie would have been made. It would have been a glorious coming together of the Tarantino Universe.

Did you see the small connection from Django to Pulp Fiction?

glncolu.png

pretty rad.

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But that's kind of what makes him cool. He's a goofball sort of asshole, and somehow, just somehow, is really cool in the process.

Agreed. I would say he's the best character in the film as well thanks to Travolta. Apparently Daniel Day Lewis wanted the role but Tarantino turned him down.

I think the point of his death though is that without Jules his death was inevitable. He had the opportunity to quit along with Jules and didn't - so he dies. It's a necessary part of the movie.

I'm with you on the fact that I wish the Vega brothers movie would have been made. It would have been a glorious coming together of the Tarantino Universe.

Did you see the small connection from Django to Pulp Fiction?

Another possible connection exists between Django and Kill Bill. The grave The Bride is buried in belongs to Paula Schultz, possibly the wife of Dr. King. Although in the Tarantino universe Kill Bill is a movie within the universe, which Django clearly isn't, so it doesn't really fit.

Also, because Kill Bill is a movie in the Pulp Fiction universe, its implied that the actress playing The Bride is Mia Wallace.

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  • 6 months later...
Guest Len B'stard

None of the characters are particularly good or interesting but they're not really meant to be, it's a plot-based film, it's about the design, the characters and just an excuse to be cool. The most interesting character by far is Mia Wallace because you know so little about her and she just looks/acts like the last person on earth you'd expect to be a dippy moll to some massive black gangster dude, it kinda hints and like a variety of facets to her character. There's this electricity between her and Vincent Vega yet she has a lot of like, loyalty to Marcellus. She shows herself to be of pretty assertive and strong character yet she has a gentle playful side.

By far the best characterisation of the lot of em really. Purely in terms of the character and the potential of the character.

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Guest Len B'stard

I find it a bit odd yes, especially considering the character is absolutely and totally devoid of any substance and is basically just a contrived (in the literal sense of the word) image of cool invented by a movie geek in his late 30s. I mean, it's sad to want to be any like, film or TV character but at least certain characters have infinite facets and sides and substance to them that evoke an image of complete human being, Vincent Vega (the Pulp Fiction character) is basically just cartoon-cool. Brilliant, amazing even for the film that he was in but as something to emulate? I'm not sure how one would go about it. It's just Tarantino writing a character with John Travolta in mind so he can make him the kind of cool that he was in all his wet dreams and not what he ended up being with Look Whoose Talking etc.

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I find it a bit odd yes, especially considering the character is absolutely and totally devoid of any substance and is basically just a contrived (in the literal sense of the word) image of cool invented by a movie geek in his late 30s. I mean, it's sad to want to be any like, film or TV character but at least certain characters have infinite facets and sides and substance to them that evoke an image of complete human being, Vincent Vega (the Pulp Fiction character) is basically just cartoon-cool. Brilliant, amazing even for the film that he was in but as something to emulate? I'm not sure how one would go about it. It's just Tarantino writing a character with John Travolta in mind so he can make him the kind of cool that he was in all his wet dreams and not what he ended up being with Look Whoose Talking etc.

Actually the character was written with Michael Madsen in mind. It was written exactly for him. But Madsen turned him down, choosing to do some other film that turned out to be a gigantic flop. So then after Madsen rejected him, Tarantino turned to Travolta. The whole thing that the character was made for Travolta is just a bit of mythology.

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