Enshrined in the cultural zeitgeist for all eternity, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction has made its indelible mark on us forever. While Tarantino is one of the most celebrated filmmakers working today with an impressive collection of movies under his belt, a lot of people would still say his sophom*ore film is his magnum opus. Filled with dozens of quotable lines, memorable scenes, and nuanced characters, there are volumes worth of information surrounding it and its impact. However, one scene, involving a Christopher Walken cameo, might baffle anyone as to how it came to be and how it was made. This, of course, is the infamous gold watch scene.
The scene is simple enough on the outside, Christopher Walken’s character delivers a speech to a younger Butch Coolidge, Bruce Willis’ character, about a pocket watch that belonged to his great-grandfather, grandfather, and his late father, all military members during World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War, respectively. Butch’s father had unfortunately been captured and died as a POW in Vietnam. Walken explains that the watch was kept hidden for years inside the boy’s father’s anal cavity and then Walken's anus as well, after Butch's father died of dysentery, so he could pass it on to Butch when he got back to the States. A dark and funny monologue delivered in the characteristic, bordering on deadpan way that Walken is known for, it is probably one of the more memorable scenes in any Tarantino film.
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The 'Pulp Fiction' Watch Scene Isn’t One Take
Much to the chagrin of the film bros on Twitter, the scene is in fact not one take but a combination of several takes. Quentin Tarantino himself has described his process for using several different takes in his 1994 Cannes interview with Hubert Niogret for Postif magazine “I wanted the flexibility of being able to choose among several shots of Chris, who is such an amazing actor. I also added several shots of the little boy which I liked… I also have a close-up of the watch.” Even though the cuts to the watch and the young Butch are clear, the Walken shots are less so, and there is a good reason for this.
Since Tarantino decided to use different takes of Christopher Walken’s monologue in this scene, he was able to choose slightly different connotations and tonalities at each stage of the speech. The filmmaker explains that it is guided by what ancestor of Butch had the watch. Tarantino told Postif: “For the great-grandfather, I chose a light-hearted interpretation. For the grandfather, when he’s talking about himself on Wake Island, I made a sea-green, sort of hard tonality. For the third section, the beginning was more matter-of-fact and informative.” If you watch this scene in isolation, guided by the words of Tarantino himself, you can pick up on what he is describing, and the tonal shifts become clearer.
How Did Quentin Tarantino Shoot the Watch Scene?
During an interview for Film Comment in 1994, Tarantino gives us a little more insight into the way he shot and chose the takes. He did "maybe 13 or 14 takes of the basic shot that you see in the movie, the kid's point of view." and spliced the selected shots from this batch with "five or six takes of him doing it in closeup." When he edited the scene together, following the tonal shifts described above, Tarantino explains "I could use the more humorous take on the First World War and then the Second World War story where he’s talking about Wake Island, which is more tragic, I took his darkest take, and then for the Vietnam story I took his most irreverent one, which is the funniest." The mashup of the takes shot and the choice of which ones to use in the final cut provided an odd rhythm to the overall monologue that worked to complement Walken's delivery and make the scene so memorable.
The Watch is a Real WWI Antique
In an interview for Hodinkee, the prop master for both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Jonathan R. Hodges, explains “Almost all the information about the watch is given in the speech by Christopher Walken: It was one of the first wristwatches.” This is true of the Lancet Trench Watch that is now enshrined in film history forever. During his search, Hodges was trying to find a watch that “had the basic shape of a pocket watch but could be used as a wristwatch.” In fact, for being such an iconic piece of film prop history, Hodges isn’t even sure where he got it, attributing it to some antique store where one would go in the pre-internet era of prop sourcing.
When Butch is older, there is a Spiedel stretch band on it that Hodges says in the same interview was a personal request by Bruce Willis. In fact, the watch was the only one Hodges showed Tarantino and Bruce Willis, both agreeing “that’s it” when they saw it. Although this Lancet watch with Spiedel band combo is not normally found in the wild that way, fans can purchase the watch face from certain private sellers or eBay, being priced upwards of $600.00 in some cases for a working model. Because of the rarity, there was no double of the watch on set, revealed by Hodges, a risk not often taken by productions for obvious reasons. As for where that watch is now, Hodges says it is with Tarantino himself.
Now regarded in film buff circles as one of the most effective and darkly humorous monologues in all of cinema history, the gold watch scene in Pulp Fiction, is part of a long-standing tradition of dissecting Tarantino’s work. Armed with the various minutiae of what went into the scene, you will be unstoppable when it comes to flexing your film nugget wisdom. The next time someone tries to pull some fiction about the production out of their ass, take comfort in knowing you have this less-researched topic to fire back with and reign movie buff supreme!
