Reservoir Dogs; opening sequence analysis

Reservoir Dogs opens will sound rather than picture. Before you see the characters, you hear them talking. This voice over provides the audience with some suspense or an element of surprise when sound is matched to a picture. Voice over’s soon become a common occurrence through out ‘Reservoir Dog’ and other Quentin Trantino films.

When the film opens with its first few shots the audience is met with a group of men sitting in a café talking. The audience’s immediate attention would have been drawn to the costume and mise on scene, within the scene. This would have given them their first insight into the film.

The collaboration of mise en scene and costume, produced a very unbalanced scene in some respects, compared to the usual, stereotypical, gang/crime meeting scenes in other films. The large group were sitting in a very average café, not too run down, the sort of place you would image a range of people would go to eat. We got this impression from, as it was clean, busy and well lit. The group around the tables were all dressed in smart attire (shirt, tie, blazer etc), all in black. This clever choice of costume I felt, quickly put a dark edge on the scene, being given the impression that these men are well paid, choose not to associate themselves together in more upmarket places, maybe because of the way they earn their money? Even though they could afford to eat there. Further more, the all black suits, provide this image of organised crime, suggesting an under current of dodgy goings on.

Contributing further, briefly mentioned earlier, the lighting used, is very high key. The café is lit like any café would be, there is no hidden goings on in or out of the light that the audience can’t catch. The lighting contributes to this scene, tilting the scenes unbalanced nature. A well-lit scene/ café suggesting there is nothing hidden or sinister going on, however there is a table of robbers and criminal sitting at the table. I find this aspect of the scene really interesting and a good component that could be used in our opening sequence.

The camera shots and movements also strongly drive the opening sequence. With a scene set around a table, the camera was placed on a track on moved around the table, capturing characters speaking and other character reactions. With the camera constantly moving the scene becomes more hectic and busy. Often the camera when moving would move behind someone and the image would go black, leaving the audience with sound only. Again that common occurrence in Trantino’s films, that I mentioned earlier, making the film more stylised. These un-fluent camera movements could be a reflection on what happens later in the film. Not everything flowing so smoothly and being so clean cut, and even being left in the dark at times.

In addition to this, the scene allows the audience to get a brief insight into complex and unique character around the table. We get this insight through the convocations being had. The realist script, opens with a the group talking about the meaning of a song, and then quickly moves on to a more deeper and possibly more intellectual conversation about women works the minimum wage and whether or not to tip. I also liked the idea that even though they are criminals, they have certain morals and respect for women works, taking into consideration the class and employment issues concerning America. Characters as complex and this are often not found in most crime capers. The script is a key and strong tool used by Tarentino, in ‘Reservoir Dogs’.