Samuel L Jackson: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Jules Whitfield - Pulp Fiction (1994)

If you were looking for a flashpoint in Jackson's career that negatively influenced a significant portion of his later work, his iconic and fan favourite performance as devout hitman Jules, opposite John Travolta probably insists of its blame quite noisily. Though Jackson is brilliant as the soundbite spewing, gun-toting apostle, his fearsome persona, which had only been one facet of his repertoire up until 1994 leapt to the front of his profile, thanks mostly to the irresistibly brilliant scene in which Jules quotes (as it happens wrong) scripture to his mark and made himself one of the entertaining pillars that the film is founded on. Because of Tarantino's fascination with interlaced vignettes, it isn't story arcs, but moments that are the most memorable, and Pulp Fiction boils down to a few: the diner, Jules' scripture, the diner dance, the Wolf, and "Zed's Dead," and it is arguably Jackson's finest moment of the film that is the film's most enduring legend. But it isn't that remarkable scene that is Jackson's best work on the film: instead it is the dynamic he builds with Travolta - generously given the second chance of a career thanks mostly to Jackson's willingness to play off, and not overbear - the easy exchanges about burgers, and pork, and foot massages, and it is thanks to the rapport between the two hitmen, which relies entirely on Jackson's almost outraged straight man to Travolta's laid-back surf graduate, that those moments have become a hallmark of Tarantino film-making.