Tarantino wanted Travolta in Pulp Fiction for the same reasons he’d liked Travolta in Urban Cowboy and Saturday Night Fever and Welcome Back, Kotter. The culture may have shifted, but—within the aisles of the video store—all those performances remained unchanged. It’s like the philosophical difference between viewing time as linear and believing all time is happening at once: Travolta was still Travolta, and Travolta was what Tarantino wanted.
