The Curious Case Of Quentin Tarantino

So as I sat in my kitchen, going to town on some serious midnight snackage, I happened on something that reminds me of why I want to be a filmmaker. I flip on IFC, and what do I stumble upon but the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs, oh how luck befalls us. For those of you who have not seen the movie, I will spare you my hack attempt at breaking down anything written by Mr. Tarantino, but I still do implore you all to watch it, even if you've seen it "a million trillion fuckin' times" (yes that's a quote from the movie).

Now, back to my rant of the night. The reason why the opening sequence of this movie can inspire me to keep plugging away at this stuff is because the mark of a good filmmaker, at least to me, is the ability to take any subject matter that you find personally intriguing, and make it as interesting to the audience. I can think of few examples that can compare to this cold opening. In a sense, Quentin Tarantino has made a run-of-the-mill conversation that ranges from interpreting a Madonna song to the ethics of gratuities into a completely engaging experience. The conversation itself is nothing terribly insightful (although his take on what "Like A Virgin" is really about can be a bit hard to digest), but the way in which Tarantino so early on exposes us to the nature of each character makes it incredibly easy to become absorbed by the scene.

I'm definitely not the first one to praise ole Q for his knack for interesting dialog, but I propose a slightly different take one precisely WHY his interactions are so fascinating. Quentin Tarantino is the master of building a complete profile of a character in his film by the time their first scene finishes. This is what makes his dialog so captivating: through clever writing, he can show you exactly what each character stands for in an indirect way that makes it completely believable. Take Mr. Pink. From the moment he begins his rationale for his protesting to tip the waitress, you know exactly what kind of person you're dealing with. Mr. Pink is a calculating, eerily rational, and brutally honest man. He's proud of his contentions, and cannot be told he is wrong by anyone. We figure this all out before he even admits to most of this later on in the film, and all he was talking about was why he won't tip the waitress! This technique is definitely subtle, because otherwise the entire sequence would just be filed under "exposition," but Tarantino is clever. He weaves the backstory of his characters into their dialog, often times never directly addressing it. This, to me, is great filmmaking, because Tarantino is clearly fascinated with these sorts of people, and I now find myself completely invested in what each and every one of these hitmen have to say. Obviously, the scene is shot exceptionally as well, but for me personally, Tarantino's ability to develop a character in 5 minutes of dialog is an extremely rare and venerable talent.


-You gonna bark all day, little doggie? Or are you gonna bite?