Reservoir Dogs (1992) is a independent film directed by Quentin Tarantino. This is the second movie he created and it has garnered him critical acclaim since the movie shows in 1992 Sundance Film Festival. It has laid the foundation for the success of his next filmPulp Fiction (1994), which was been nominated 7 Academy Awards.[1] (imdb.com) This analysis is dedicate to analyse this film by around the main line of Quentin Tarantino's unique features.
The Director
aestheticization of violence. From a assistant in a video rental shop to a legend, may be this different experience has made him to be such a successful filmmaker. Most of his early films were been categorize into cult film.
“Cult films have limited but very special appeal. ... They are often considered controversial because they step outside standard narrative and technical conventions. They can be very stylized, and they are often flawed or unusual in some striking way. ” [2] (Film Site)
Every Tarantino Film has his own personality in it, his trademarks were in many details, such as, the nonlinear story lines, a lots of dialogs seem nonsense with the main
story, using special camera angles, making references to other classic cult films, many black humors, etc.
Genre
Reservoir Dogs was never a film about story, it was about the characters. As Tarantino admitted, he did borrow the robbing jewelery shop story from a famous Hong Kong gangster film City on Fire(1987), directed by Ringo Lam.
The story in Reservoir Dogs only holds a support role, to portray every character's personality. The main story of robbing jewelery shop and having a undercover cop in the gang is very similar with City on Fire, but turns out the film were totally different. Tarentino used his own way by changing the story line, he transformed a normal commercial film to a masterpiece.
Yet the genre of this film is well known as crime, but actually it is more remain with drama. In Reservoir Dogs,there is not even one scene shows how they robbed the shop. Except the eight robbers were having breakfast at the beginning, the entire rest of the film is talking about how they deal with the unexpected result along with several flashbacks of how the robbers were recruited and what they did after the accident happened. This symbolic retrospect/nonlinear story line trick was also been used in Tarantino's later works, such as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill vol.1&2 (2003&2004). The difference between these two and Reservoir Dogs is, after audience finished the entire film, they can put every pieces together and make it become to a whole story. However, in Reservoir Dogs, it is easily to see that Tarantino was dedicating to let audience know who the characters are but not what the story is.
Characters
The characters are the key element of this film, each of the character has his own story. Actually, in Reservoir Dogs Europe version, Tarantino made a series of film poster which is each character individually in one of them, it shows how important that each one of them is. Another unusual way of making a film, there was no female character with dialogue in this one.
"...the character names in "Dogs" are borrowed from "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3" (1974). The four subway train hijackers are all dressed alike (hat, glasses, moustache, big overcoat and machine gun) and had the pseudonyms of Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Brown and Mr. Grey." [3] (ronlim.com, 2002)
The characterization was absolutely impressive. Even just from the very beginning scene, the eight main characters were sitting around one table and having breakfast. Although the dialogue have nothing to do with the story, audience could still easily read almost every character's personality by their conversation.
Mr. Brown
There are two highlights in this breakfast scene, the first one is Mr.Brown (Quentin Tarantino) analysing Madonna's famous song "like a virgin". Tarantino used a unusual way to define this song by himself, to show how illusioned Mr. Brown is. There were only a few lines for Mr. Brown in this film, but it still shows the character has very obvious personality. In addition, Mr. Brown is very similar with his another character Jimmie Dimmick from Pulp Fiction.
Mr. Pink
The other highlight is when they all giving out one dollar for tips, Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) refused. It revealed Mr.Pink is a selfish, egotistic person and sets up the plot for the ending. Another portrayal for Mr.Pink is when they were giving aliases, only he argued about he doesn't like his colour.
Mr. White
Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is one of the main character of this film, he is experienced, trustworthy, professional and sympathetic. There were many scenes show Mr. White's personality. For example, the third scene of the film, Mr. White was driving the car and Mr. Orange was got shot, he was laying down at the back seat and suffering extreme pain. Mr. White was not just comforting Mr. Orange, he was holding his hand and encouraging him like encouraging a child.
Moreover, during their conversation, Mr. Orange called Mr. White Larry which means he has already told Mr. Orange his real name, this bank robbing project was meant to be anonymous. There was another contrast between Mr. White and Mr. Pink, when Mr. White wants to tell Mr. Pink his real name, Mr. Pink flatly refused for his own safety.
Mr. Orange
Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) is another main character, he is brave and hard working. However, he is the most ordinary character in this film. As a undercover cop, Tarantino didn't make him a hero, a non-breakable man like other crime films. After he got shot, he scream for the pain.
Furthermore, In the chapter "Mr. Orange", audience could see how ordinary he is. He loves comics, there were comic book on his desk and comic posters on the wall, he had many times of rehearsals for the meeting with the boss. Those details are what made him different, he is not like a ordinary hero in other films, he is just that normal.
Mr. Blonde
Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) could be said is the villain. Tarantino used a lot of word to describe how mad this character is during Mr. White and Mr. Pink's conversation before this character actually shows up. It makes audience really wondering what he is and what he has done. Indeed, he is mad, he is a true criminal who really enjoy the procedure of committing a crime.
Especially from the scene he was drinking soft drink when he shows up in the mass, and also in another scene he was dancing before he execute the police officer. In addition, all the Michael Madsen's characters are similar, a cool feelingless criminal, for example, Budd from Kill Bill (2003), Bob from Sin City (2005) and The Gent from Hell Ride (2008), etc.
Camera
The camera using in Tarantino's films is another key element. There are several trademarks of the way he using camera, and those trademarks were being found in his every film. For instance,
he likes to give a medium shot or closeup to one person's face when another person speaking off-screen. At the beginning of Reservoir Dogs, the breakfast scene, the camera was panning around the table with a middle shot from the behind of everyones' back, most of the shots the camera didn't focus on the talker, it perfectly shows every character's different reaction towards the same topic. Tarantino also used this way in Kill Bill, he gave a closeup on the bride's face when bill was talking.
Reservoir Dogs & Kill Bill Vol.1
Another trademark of Tarantino, he likes to give a long unbroken take by following the character walking around. In Reservoir Dogs, before Mr. Blonde execute the police, he walks out the warehouse and gets the petrol from his trunk then walks back. These series of action only token by one single long take. This trademark also been used in Pulp Fiction, the camera follows Vincent (John Travolta) and Mia (Uma Thurman) when they walking into the theme bar and looking around. The reason of using long take is it can give the audience a relatively real and utility experience.
Mise-en-scène
In Reservoir Dogs, there were only a few sets Tarantino could rent because of the limited budget. But he do knows how to use limited resources. The main set is the warehouse, Tarantino used various camera angles in the same place to make sure it doesn't seems boring for the audience.
A highlight of the mise-en-scène is when Mr. Blonde torturing the police man, Mr. Blonde turns on the radio, dancing towards the police man and holding a shaving knife. The camera was switching between dancing Mr. Orange and the face of scared police man, it shows the contrast of two people in different situations.
Mr. Blonde Dancing
Another highlight of mise-en-scène is when Mr. Orange talking his drug-smuggling story. At the beginning Mr. Orange's voice is from the background and the scene is what he doing in the fake story, but when the story goes to the climax, the Mr. Orange in the story begins to talk the story and the camera was giving a middle shot and panning around him. Audience could see his lively speech and at the same time the intense scene is just happening around him. This is a very unique and stylized way to tell the story.
Video of The Mr. Orange's Story Scene
Music
"An unusual feature of the soundtrack was the choice of songs. The film uses music from the 1970s. Tarantino has said that he feels the music to be a counterpoint to the on-screen violence and action."[4](Marcus Breen, December 1996)
It's apparently that Quentin Tarantino is a classic song lover. May be because he has listened plenty of songs since he used to work in the rental shop. In a word, all the songs in Reservoir Dogs are great and match the theme. For example, Little Green Bag by The George Baker Selection from the title and introduction scene, the rhythm of the jazzy bass fully fits the 8 robbers walking out the restaurant coolly.
Video of The Intro Scene
Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel, shows in the torturing cop scene that mentioned earlier, Mr. Blonde was dancing and even singing with the radio when he holding the knife and about to torture the cop. After that, he walks out to pick up the petrol from his trunk, the outside world is silence and peace, it makes Mr. Blonde kind of uncomfortable, then the camera follows him walking back into the warehouse and the music comes back at the moment he walks in, it gives the feeling that we are back to his twisty brutal world.
Video of The Mr. Blonde Dancing Scene
No comments:
Post a Comment