Jane Fonda’s complicated relationship with violence: “On one level, I hate ‘Pulp Fiction”
The 1960s were a transformative period, with attitudes to everything from sex, cinema, fashion and civil rights changing rapidly. Music was becoming more experimental, skirts were getting shorter, women were slowly beginning to be heard, and psychedelic drugs were used more widely.
Out of this era came more daring on-screen depictions of themes and images that would’ve previously been censored. Nudity, sexual freedom, violence and taboo topics all found a place on cinema screens, with avant-garde European cinema leading the charge. By the end of the ‘60s, the Hays Code allowed Hollywood productions to feature more shocking and explicit content, with successful movies like Blow-Up, a British and Italian production which featured casual nudity and sex, suggesting that American audiences were ready to view such things.
Jane Fonda emerged in the early ‘60s, following in her father Henry Fonda’s footsteps, intent on becoming a star. She made her first film appearance in the movie Tall Story, and within a few years, she began to appear in more liberal and sexually ambitious European productions, beginning with Roger Vadim’s Circle of Love. She appeared nude in the film, which was a landmark moment for an American actor in a foreign production, but her willingness to take her clothes off for the role reflected the laxness of European cinema.
She found herself at home here, appearing in several more European movies which established her as a sex symbol, such as The Game Is Over and Barbarella. She also appeared in some well-received American movies during this period, like Barefoot in the Park and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, cementing herself as a multi-faceted actor who was more than just the star of some sexy French films.
Still, she came to represent an era of liberation and sexual freedom, reflecting the decade’s propensity for progression. Since then, Fonda has starred in many challenging roles, from Bree Daniels in Klute to Chelsea Thayer Wayne opposite her father in On Golden Pond.
Many of Fonda’s roles have been morally complex, such as in Klute, where her character is a call girl. She was initially hesitant to play the part, believing that it wasn’t a feminist move. Yet, she was persuaded to do so by a friend who insisted that she could bring depth to the kind of character which is so often stereotyped and presented without dimensionality.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fonda explained her thoughts on movies that are morally dubious, suggesting that some works of cinema are fantastic to watch, but when it boils down to it, the ethics they promote are questionable or potentially harmful. One example of a film that Fonda finds herself torn over is Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino. The film was released to great acclaim in 1995, and according to Fonda, she thought it was “brilliant”.
It follows several characters whose storylines overlap, with Tarantino using a non-linear narrative to explore violence and corruption with a highly stylised flare, utilising unconventional camera angles and popular music such as Dick Dale’s ‘Misirlou’. Tarantino has long been criticised for presenting violence through a romanticised lens, making brutality and danger seem thrilling and attractive, and Pulp Fiction is a prime example of this.
She explained, “Take Pulp Fiction, for example, or [The] Deer Hunter. Movies that, on some levels, are reprehensible to you. On a moral level, I hate gratuitous violence. You know, on one level, I hate Pulp Fiction. But I think it’s brilliant.”
Thus, despite emerging from a period in cinema where boundaries were being pushed and violence was becoming more and more common on the silver screen, Fonda finds that much of this is still unnecessary. Still, that doesn’t seem to detract from her opinion of a film – if it’s well-made and “brilliant” in other aspects, it seems as though Fonda can look past the violence and think about a film’s moral stance critically.
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