October 25, 1994 -- It finally came to town, ``Pulp Fiction,'' that is, the highly acclaimed Quentin Tarantino film.

In the audience were all those college kids I was talking about in last week's review, with their short baggy cold weather pants and their baseball hats on backwards. ``Why are they here?'' I wondered. Christian Slater wasn't in the film. Neither was Nicholas Cage, just a bunch of long-in-the-tooth actors like John Travolta and Samuel Jackson.

Later, it dawned on me. These generation X people were raised on television and ``Pulp Fiction'' is very much like television. Director Tarantino is like a channel-surfer with a remote control.

Except for the high level of violence (there's a lot of blood and body tissues showing) and the high level of profanity, the movie is already edited for television. It fades to black every five or ten minutes. All you'd have to do is insert the commercials.

Tarantino's genius is that he can tell a story in these short snippets. These small segments all fit together to make a series of interlocking stories. Most films, like ``The Shawshank Redemption,'' start at the beginning and go to the end like food in the alimentary canal. ``Pulp Fiction'' starts in the middle, goes to the end and back to the beginning.

I didn't particularly like ``Reservoir Dogs,'' Tarantino's earlier effort, but ``Pulp Fiction'' shows real film making genius, perhaps rivaling that of Alfred Hitchcock. For one thing, Tarantino has a real ear for dialogue. The screenplay, by Tarantino and Roger Avary, has rich, sparkling fresh dialogue. He also seems to develop characters quickly and with ease. The story, however, is not convincing and there isn't much need for real acting, because the characters are mostly running on a single note.

Tarantino also loves plot twists, as Hitchcock did. The plot constantly turns in unexpected directions. In fact, Tarantino teases us with potential movie cliches, like the intruder in the back seat, and then disdainfully swats them away.

This film is a conceptual tour-de-force. Now, if Tarantino can just find some characters worth caring about. It rates an A.

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