Sunday 24 January - RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
I'm not sure what to make of Quentin Tarantino films. They have cult fame and for a long time I've told myself that they are excellent movies and that I'll love them all. I think the first of his I watched was Kill Bill, which was entertaining, and then last year Inglorious Basterds, which I also liked. A little over a month ago I saw Pulp Fiction, perhaps the highest-praised Tarantino film. However, partly due to that hype and partly due to my cynical wariness of the hype, I was disappointed by the film, perplexed by its bizarre narrative style. This altered my expectations of Reservoir Dogs, but luckily I enjoyed it a lot more than Pulp Fiction.
Like Tarantino's later films, Reservoir Dogs is an unorthodox movie, with the story jumping around within the narrative timeline between characters. My problem with Pulp Fiction was that it pretentiously emphasised its dialogue, which I found to be delivered with an unnatural smoothness. Its plot was fairly compelling, but like I said, it unfolded in a peculiar fashion which didn't sit well with me. A lot of people will argue that's the quality that charactierises Tarantino's work, and I understand it's a deliberately sideways take on cinema, but Pulp Fiction didn't appeal to me. Anyway, enough on that--Reservoir Dogs I enjoyed a lot, being much more straight-forward and resembling the more traditional crime thrillers. The bottom line is that it was a strange movie that I enjoyed more than I had hoped, without embracing it to the extent of cult fans. 7/10
Having also recently watched Reservoir Dogs, my own rating of it would probably be in line with yours. I found the simple, natural dialogue fed within the more complex and serious narrative to be an amusing necessity in order to bring what is essentially a crime film ''down to earth'' in a sense. A good example is the heated debate over tipping at the beginning of the film.
ReplyDeleteAnother feature is the almost satirically confronting violence which seems common throughout all of Tarantino's films. While by the latter stages of RD this perhaps hampered by enjoyment, it draws an entertaining contrast to the sometimes trivial nature of the dialogue.
Unlike you Jesse, my opnion of Pulp Fiction is that it is an entirely higher class to RD. While the two films share many common characteristics, in PF Tarantino finds a brilliant balance between action, comedy and suspense, and the combination of several parallel stories. I found myself both laughing at the witty interactions, and wincing at the comic book violence, and would give PF as high as 9, even 9.5 out of 10.
- Victor
10/10 for the comment Vic. I really think I need to watch Pulp Fiction again; I'm sure I'd enjoy it more. You described Reservoir Dogs well (albeit perhaps satirically), so thanks haha cos I couldn't find the words or space in my post.
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