Analysis of The Film Reservior DOG - Essay Example

Task Analysis of the film "Reservior DOG" "Reservior DOG" is a 1992 film directed by Quentin Tarantino and produced by Lawrence Bender. Reservoir Dogs is one of the most brutal and still a creative piece of art to be screened. The acting is high ranking because all the actors seem to be natural. They thus produced excellent performances. The movie casts six criminals who are unfamiliar with each other and are employed by a master planner Joe Cabot to execute a diamond robbery (Berardinelli, "Reservoir Dogs"). They are nicknamed form the onset of the movie with the intention of having them concentrate on their appointment rather than getting to know each other. They are completely optimistic that the robbery will be successful. They are thus taken by a surprise when law enforcers emerge at the exact place and time they are executing the deal. In the course of the ensuing confrontation with the police, one of their own is killed with a few police officers and civilians escape with gun wounds. When the surviving gangsters meet at the designated meet point after the ordeal they begin to infer that one of them is working as an undercover cop. Joe Cabot a crime planner contracts five thugs to rob a diamond hoard. Although the criminals are almost certain that the plan will succeed, the police botched the robbery. As the criminals regroup in the warehouse to discuss the unsuccessful robbery, they ponder the possibility of a set-up. The story is expressed in form of a flashback while Tarantino maintaining an element of suspense by not revealing the actual diamond store (Berardinelli, "Reservoir Dogs"). Plot construction and background Tarantino has used a complex plot construction which is very effective in the development of the story line. He has taken out the warehouse setting’s claustrophobia and has instead offered a sparkling background on the robbery plot, the undercover police officer’s activities and the thugs’ aggressive relationships. The director has gathered a perfect cast for the movie and the plot is filled with excessive chauvinist and racist colloquialisms and dialogue full of threats. The cinematographer Adrerzej has produced an excellent background as well as on screen lighting for the movie. Tarantino thus has an effective visual on the screen, changing from ominously mobile cameras to brief long shots to create an action relief. Sally Menke is very effective at cutting and helps maintain the entire scenes firm and the time-jumping plot conclusive. The time jumping plot of the film ensures that the film is short but interesting. Some of the details especially the actual robbery in the diamond store is kept off-camera. This helps in creating a kind of mystery in the plot construction. Although the movie is exceptionally violent from the first scene to the last, Tarantino has maintained the confrontation between the thugs and the cops off camera (Berardinelli, "Reservoir Dogs"). Since the botched robbery is the major part on which the film is created, leaving the details unrevealed is a unique way of creating suspense. The director describes the confrontation and the ensuing results through a dialogue between different actors in the cast. The entire movie is shot after the botched robbery and the discussions and mysteries facing the thugs make the film very captivating. This is thus not a normal crime movie because the crucial part of the confrontation between the thugs and the cops is not shown to the audience. This makes the movie pure and natural hence making it appear as a reality (Berardinelli, "Reservoir Dogs"). Film position Tarantino managed to minimize the discovered covered while making the movie by ensuring that the casting took long in one location. This enabled him to save a lot on the limited resources that were available to make the film. Productions that are length usually spend a lot of money and can be very costly. In Tarantino’s case, time and resources are saved by limiting the movements in shooting and ensuring that no time is lost while moving from one location to another. An example of a scene that Tarantino controls the level of movement in making the film is where two actors talk for almost 16 pages of the script. In fact, most of the film was shot in the warehouse because more than 45 pages of the 100 pages of the script take place in the warehouse. Shooting the film in one location for a long period enabled the crew to concentrate in filming and perfecting the fine details of the movie. This is because they were not distracted by decisions involved in movements during the filming process. Although this technique of minimizing movements during the shooting process is effective in reducing the budget of the production process, the producer is required spread the location scenes in order to avoid clustering them together (Paul 102). Tarantino ensured that the scenes were not clustered together by cutting down long sequences of shooting like the one in the warehouse. Tarantino directs the movie in a unique way such that he creates an image of himself as a great movie director. The actors are exceptional in the manner in which they turn the unsentimental dialogue into real scenes. Keitel in particular performs his role very well. He plays a fatherly figure of kind and is at times short tempered while maintaining his composer in others. Buscemi though wide-eyed and shy in some parts of the film plays his part very well. Roth, Madsen and Tierney are also good and are above average in their performances. Penn completes the list of the major characters and is an average performer. Off-screen effect Another technique that Tarantino used in shooting the film is the elimination of on-screen effects. This technique allowed him to save on the production costs and allowed the producer to engage the audience in the production process. Tarantino left the audience to imagine and deduce the events of the movie that were not shown on the screen. Thus, apart from cutting down on the production costs, introduction of off-screen effects in the film allowed the producer to compel the audience to take part in the filmmaking process by acting as collaborators in unraveling the mystery created. Though the movie contains several violent scenes, the violence does not take place in the screen but in the audience’s imagination because the audience is required to deduce and supply the missing action. This is an ideal technique to make a movie appear real. Tarantino exposes the botched robbery in form of flashbacks. He first sets up his characters in a coffee house which at first seems funny but at the end, it ends up creating the base of the storyline (Clarkson 180). The producer of the movie Tierney Lawrence is also a unique character both on the screen and in real life. Tierney is perfect on screen and plays Joe Cabot in the movie. He is able to bring out the character of Joe Cabot, a master planner and the leader behind the robbery. Tarantino has a creative idea to derive the plot and make the movie a reality. The idea is that most of the tough characters in the play are bluffers. They are not perfect at controlling themselves particularly in desperate moments. He has a unique and kinetic method of showing the action. Although the thugs are running down the area, with gunshots, blood and yells heard, the main action is shot in the warehouse where Madsen sadistically jokes with one of the actors that he thinks is a police officer. Tarantino also uses the great performance talent in Madsen to make his movie a reality. He is thus able to produce a natural character that other characters ape to make the movie appear real. Reservoir Dogs is one of the unique movies that have a director who is also the movie writer. Costumes and allusions to popular culture Tarantino chose the most appropriate costumes for this film. The criminals are well as the thugs had distinct uniform from the rest of the people. In fact, the choice of costume created an aspect of “real people” and the rest in the film. In one of the scenes after the botched robbery, Mr. Pink described the civilians as real people. The policemen are dressed in their characteristic blue uniforms while the thugs are dressed in black suits (Paul 103). This is a perfect costume to make the film appear unique and real. This is because the audience can easily associate the police with their usual blue uniforms and thugs with distinctive black suits. In addition to the appropriate uniform, the film is spiced with allusions to popular culture. This has made Tarantino to be regarded as a postmodern filmmaker. The plot of the movie includes references to Madonna and the movie “The lost Boys (1987)”. Conclusion The movie has clearly established Tarantino as one of the most outstanding directors of the modern film market. He has used various techniques to ensure that the film is one of the best on offer. One of the techniques that he has used is the off-screen effect which has assisted in minimizing the production costs. The technique has also helped to create a mystery in the plot construction and hence engage the audience in the filmmaking process while trying to unravel the mystery. Tarantino has demonstrated a unique way of directing movies in the reservoir dogs. He also has an extraordinary way of storytelling that is not necessarily conventional. He can thus be described as a tribute director. Tarantino fancies movie watching and has watched several of them especially when he worked at a video library and likes to pay compliment his favorite videos through his own videos. He uses other people’s ideas in such a creative way to produce original and real works. He has produced the film in such a way that though it is excessively violent, he maintains the most violent parts off the camera by merely described them in dialogues. The first scene actually entails an aftermath of the ordeal where Mr. White is helping a badly injured Mr. Orange into a car. When Mr. Pink enters warehouse and finds Mr. White and Mr. Orange, the ensuing dialogue establishes the mystery. The mystery is that one of the supposedly criminals is a police informer. Although they cannot identify the culprit, they blame him for the botched robbery (Clarkson 180). Some of the robbery scenes are introduced later in the film while others are introduced before the actual robbery. This idea of not following the expected sequence in telling the story develops curiosity among the audience. Works Cited Berardinelli, James. "Reservoir Dogs". ReelViews. 20 Dec 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2011 Clarkson, Wensley . Quentin Tarantino – Shooting From The Hip. London: Piatkus. pp. 180– 181. 1995. Print. Paul A. Woods. King Pulp: The Wild World of Quentin Tarantino. London: Plexus, 1999. Print. Read More