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A pointless narrative device, but everyone but Tarantino is using it

Author: Robert Skuch Published

We all know that quarter pounder cheese is called royal cheese in France for a very specific reason: pulp Fiction Doesn’t rely heavily on teleportation conversations. What is teleportation? Whenever a character in a movie or TV series starts a conversation in one location and completes it in another location, there’s never a beat missed.

Delivery of conversation is a necessary narrative device because without it there would be a lot of lifelessness. No one likes awkward silence. Well, I do, but my wife also thinks I should talk to someone about it.

Pulp Fiction Barely Delivers Speech

Teleportation talk is used to carry thoughts that begin in one location and end in another. Crime procedurals on television use a lot of ridiculous information to keep things going.

NCIS, criminal mindand both law and order and CSI Use this device like Kleenex at a snot party. Just light any classic NCIS Wait for the moment Agent Jethro Gibbs and Field Agent Anthony DiNozzo realize they have a hot clue.

dinozzo and gibbs NCIS

The scene transition usually goes something like this: “Hey, we’ve got to go across town to interview this witness.” Then we make the arduous transition to two agents on the other side of town, and one of them says, “Yeah, I bet he’s our guy.”

What did they talk about in the car? Or do they just teleport to speak?

Maybe they can learn from pulp Fiction script and actually do the dialogue. I want to hear Agent DiNozzo pontificate on why Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s in Australia. Is this a licensing thing? Perhaps this is just a clever rebranding effort to not pander to citizens of a constitutional monarchy. I need dialogue like this every now and then because I refuse to believe that these characters are just sitting in silence, stuck in an impasse, waiting for the lines they need to provide continuity for viewers at home.

Of course, not every show or movie can be relied upon pulp Fiction Logic, that’s why we need to teleport the conversation to collapse the necessary instructions.

Transmitting a conversation is not a question of bad art vs. good art

It’s not just crime procedurals or bad TV shows that rely on delivering conversation; it’s everywhere. There are countless instances in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy of Batman (Christian Bale) and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) casually moving from precinct to some rooftop or alleyway, and I can’t help but wonder what kind of small talk we’re missing out on.

In 1995 hotRobert De Niro’s crew beams dialogue between a lookout point and a car. Val Kilmer’s Chris and De Niro’s Neal start talking about their last score as they leave the restaurant, and seconds later the same conversation continues in the car without confirming the time jump.

Will Smith and Kevin Kline wild west

In a bad movie, this would be even more ridiculous. In 1999 wild westJim West (Will Smith) rides alone on horseback, flanked by Artmus Gordon (Kevin Kline) and Rita Escobar (Salma Hayek), who travel in a stagecoach. They talk about meeting up later and then part ways, knowing they will meet up later at the same time and place. They are both moving at top speed, so if the camera zooms out, they remain side by side the entire ride, silently pretending that the conversation just happened.

For the sake of continuity and sanity, it’s best to ignore this trope

Teleportation speaking, silly as it may be, is a cinematic limitation we’ve learned to accept. But once you notice it, it’s hard to stop pointing it out and annoying everyone in the room.

I’m not saying every movie or show needs to be filled with those quiet moments pulp Fictionstyle joke, but when breaking Bad When Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) got into an argument before getting into their RV, then drove it back a hundred miles in the middle of the desert, I couldn’t help but wonder: were they stewing in silence, or were they talking about the good things in life while driving?


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