I have a
sneaking suspicion that over the course of the next couple of weeks, Quentin
Tarantino’s entire filmography may well creep its way into the blog. Yes there
is a “because I say so” element to this creeping. What can I tell you. I love the guy. I gush
and gush about his films. People who
know me in offline life have learnt to deal with it. I’m sure you will too. Why
only the other day a colleague at work was saying how Quentin Tarantino was
“this weird guy who never even finished school”. I spent the next fifteen
minutes verbally crushing her about that statement. Yes, he never went to film
school. Despite this fact, his first feature film? RESERVOIR DOGS. Beat that as
far as entrances go, I mean seriously. I do agree that the most important thing
is watching movies as opposed to film school. If you love it enough, it will
creep into your bones. If you have sh.tloads of talent to go with it, you’ll
make a film like Reservoir Dogs. I can
report (with some pride) that other colleagues present ended up agreeing with
me and the colleague who initially made the observation was silent and then
changed the topic (although that may have been due to the sentences pouring out
of me ever louder and quicker, accompanied by sweeping gestures with hands and
arms). Now, being an Aries, I am at the very least amused by fighting off such
objections with posture and tone of voice alone (admit it you guys – we are a
zodiac sign that is especially partial to grandeur). But you know, there is
logic behind this argument. Queue, this post.
Let’s talk about Quentin Tarantino and Reservoir Dogs. Not like it’s one
of my favourite movies by my favourite director or anything…
The story
itself is easily told and is, in truth, as old as the hills. It is a gangster
movie. A heist movie to be exact. A major crime boss of the area, Joe Cabot
(Lawrence Tierney), puts together a group of criminals he trusts (to varying
degrees, it should be said, but it is pretty clear they are all “cool”) to pull
off a jewellery heist. It seems like a very basic, easy job for a group of
seasoned criminals such as we have here, however things do not go according to
plan. The whole affair is carnage from beginning to end. As the survivors make
their way back to the rendezvous point, one thing is clear: there is a rat in
their midst. How else would the police
have appeared on the scene so quickly and so well prepared? Thing is, the
criminals don’t know anything about each other, for security reasons they are
not even allowed to exchange first names. Thus begin the mind games. Who is the
rat, how to find him and how to deal with him when they do? And oh by the way,
where have the diamonds they managed to grab got to?
Ok, right
off the bat, this is vintage Tarantino. This is another reason I respect the
guy so much, like a lot of great directors, he had a style from the word go,
and although it has been “added to” as years went by, the basic tenets have
never changed. Here we have a heist / gangster movie – a favourite genre of the
director as we know rather well – with a vintage soundtrack and a storyline which is both simple and at
the same time fuller of surprises than you could possibly imagine.
Stylistically, Tarantino starts on something he will elaborate on further later
on with Pulp Fiction – non-linear narration. And while in Pulp Fiction, the
narration tends to go in larger chunks – that is to say the “morsels” of story
we see out of order are larger / longer, here that length is a great deal
shorter. This is mainly due to the fact that there is only one story line
here. So as you watch, a bit like the
characters, you are piecing the story together, trying to figure out what the
heck happened. As the film progresses – and we are, as viewers, blessed with
multiple points of view, and hence info the characters don’t all possess, the
suspense grows. Because, in a bizarre kind of way, the more we know, the less
sure we are how the whole thing is going to end. Expect plot twists. Like, a
barrel load or two. This film includes one of my favourite “raaaah” moments in
a film. I would call this moment the precise incarnation of why I like
Tarantino’s films so much. I’m obviously not going to describe it here but ask
me in real life and I’ll be happy to tell you.
And if
nothing else, people, here is a thriller that actually needs you to use your
noggin as you watch. A rarer and rarer breed of movies these days as I am sure you have observed. Oh and the
cast : Tim Roth, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsden and Steve Buscemi to name but a
few. Come on. Admit it. You’re tempted…
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