Fim Studies Macro Essay

Analysis of a 10-minute sequence from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1993)
Narrative within a film creates the structure and organization that a story needs so that it can be told. The narrative organizes events within a film into an order which helps to create meaning for the audience. Within the film industry, narrative conventions are very much what the audience expects to see in certain genres. For example an audience that went to see an action adventure film would be very disappointed if the story did not involve a hero and show their struggle to overcome the villain. The conventions of genre work in a similar ways to the conventions of narrative and create an expectation of what the audience is going to see. For a director to ensure that there film’s make a financial profit, they must ensure that the narrative and genre conventions engage and meet the every expectation of the viewer. In this essay I will consider both Genre and Narrative conventions within the opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs.
Reservoir Dogs is very much an example of a gangster film. This powerful and controversial film uses many conventions of the gangster genre including criminal acts, men who believe they are above society’s rules, violence, betrayal within the gangster’s circle, corruption, the false united front (family) which gradually crumbles throughout the film making each gangster increasingly isolated, the lust for more wealth and the eventual demise of the gangsters. Reservoir Dogs was Quentin Tarantino’s debut movie he has since made other great gangster movies such as: Jackie Brown and Pulp fiction. His gangster films tend not to hold anything back with great story lines and brilliant cinematography.
This opening sequence introduces the problematic within the narrative and the main characters involved. The opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs immediately establishes the main characters and it is already evident that there a cracks within the group each man showing little respect towards one another butting into each others conversation. Also within seconds there is confrontation between Mr. White and Joe over a book, this indicates conflict between the two characters and that they may lead to each others eventual demise. The conflict between these two characters will very much build up tension and suspense within the narrative. The first few minutes already highlight the convention of the false united front showing the coarse of there eventual demise.
I believe that the sequence that I have taken is a classic example of the gangster genre I believe this because it has all the conventional aspects of a Gangster film and does not go of into other sub-genres. The convention of costume is what first catches my eye, all of the gangsters wear the traditional sharp suits and ties and this use of costume is seen in most gangster films. Quentin Tarantino uses the same costumes to portray the gangsters in his film Pulp Fiction. There are many conventions within this film that stick with the classic traits of the gangster genre such as the theme of organized crime, violence, murder and betrayal.

The pre-credit sequence of this film has similar generic conventions of the gangster genre but this film has slight differences for insistences we usually see the opening of the film with a murder and we immediately know that they are gangsters weather we are told or weather we see it, but in this film we are not immediately told or see that the bunch of men are gangster. We first see them having breakfast in a diner with the camera panning around them introducing each of them and at this point they seem pretty normal although there conversations may not be the most civilized and it is not apparent that they are involved in organized crime. The opening sequence of this film is completely different to the opening sequence of other gangster films, such as Goodfellas; within the opening sequence of Goodfellas the audience immediately knows that the group of men are gangsters. The audience can immediately tell that they are gangster because we see them brutally killing a man that is stuffed in the back of a boot and the first non diajetic words the main character are “ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a gangster”.

After the opening credits we jump straight to a shot of the back seat of a blood stained car, I feel that after seeing this shot the audience would immediately see what they would have expected from a gangster film which is the convention of graphic material. The use of the white interior of the car helps to make the blood stand out and makes the picture that more graphical, I feel that if they were to have used another color such as black then the effect on the audience would not have been as big. I feel that this shot immediately makes the audience aware that these men are criminals due to the fact that instead of being in an ambulance Mr. Orange is in the back of a car bleeding to death, whilst Mr. White is driving him to a warehouse so that Joe can get him medical attention. I feel that this highlights the convention of the false united front (family), I feel this because instead of taking his friend to a hospital he takes him to a warehouse this tells me that Mr. White would risk Mr. Oranges life to save the skin of his own back

The convention of the eventual demise of the gangster starts to begin as Mr. White carries the blood soaked body of Mr. Orange into the warehouse, at this point the audience can see that they have no where to go and are now backed into a corner with Mr. Orange bleeding to death on the floor and non of the other gangsters to be seen which marks the beginning of the end for the gangsters.

When going to see a gangster film audiences have a high expectation of seeing violence and gore. In opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs it is apparent that throughout there is going to be a high content of explicit violence; I feel that this will draw the audience in immediately hitting all the right buttons. The opening ten minutes gives everything that you would look for in a gangster films with the conventions of costume, violence and organized crime. I feel that the opening ten minutes is very good at setting a tone for the rest of the film.

I feel that the opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs helps create great tension by using time effectively. The beginning of the film is quite slow in pace and at first not much is happing but after the opening credits we are immediately drawn into the action with a bloody scene in the back of a car this then immediately raises the question to the audience of what has happened. I feel that in not telling the audience what has happened straight it creates great suspense and tension within the audience. This use of timing is also seen within Goodfellas when the audience is immediately confronted with a bloody body in the back of a boot, raising questions of why, when and how.

The opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs clearly uses the genre and narrative conventions of a gangster film. This film can attract audiences from past gangster films that have come before this film. I feel that this film will help bring in further audiences to the future films of Quentin Tarantino. This film is a perfect example of a cult film.