Grindhouse Kids

Last years Moving Images final. Better late than never.

                                         Storytelling In Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 debut film Reservoir Dogs focuses on the stories of six men who have taken part in a jewelry heist gone bad. The film has a non-linear narrative to it and first follows the aftermath of the jewelry heist, and then gives the back-story on each character. Essentially, Reservoir Dogs is a collection of stories, rather than just one story, however, the stories blend together so well that this goes unnoticed by most audience members. There is a scene in which Mr. Orange (played by Tim Roth), an undercover cop amongst the six thieves, , must tell a convincing story to the man planning the heist, to successfully join the group. Since he is an undercover cop, this is a fabricated story, which he has been practicing for weeks to deliver. This sequence shows the film’s ability to tell multiple stories at once, while referencing the idea of actors causing the audience to believe a story is real.

            Mr. Orange’s story begins in a bar with Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn), and Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). The camera moves with a sweeping tracking shot from the back of the table up to Mr. Orange, showing the viewer who exactly is at this bar. The men are seated in a way where Nice Guy Eddie, Mr. White, and Joe are all sitting together and Mr. Orange is standing in front of the table. This shows the division between Mr. Orange and everyone else, supporting the idea that Mr. Orange must make his story convincing in order to gain the trust of these men. He lights a cigarette, which is the cue to start his story.

            We then go to a shot counter shot of Mr. Orange telling his story, shot from an angle as if we the viewer are sitting with the three other men at the bar, but with no particularly POV angle. Occasionally, while he tells his story, one of the three men listening will ask a question which leads to the counter-shot at the bar table of the three men.

This continues in the bar for a little over one minute and then we are suddenly in the bathroom watching what is, presumably, a flashback, and Mr. Orange’s story becomes a voice-over as we watch the flashback of him entering the bathroom. Putting the viewer in the bathroom along with a past Mr. Orange proposes the idea that as he tells his story it becomes more and more believable. We do not see him in a bar anymore, we see him in a bathroom. This shows that his story is convincing the three at the table because since we know this story never happened, we are seeing what these three men are imagining as Mr. Orange tells his story.

After Mr. Orange walks into the bathroom we get a static shot of the four Los Angeles County Sheriffs and the German Sheppard waiting in the bathroom. We get a medium static shot and all four sheriffs and the German Sheppard stare at the camera giving it a POV effect. The German Sheppard barks, breaking the silence, and letting the audience know that this dog can smell the pot Mr. Orange is carrying with him. Nice Guy Eddie asks another question and we come back to the bar from the bathroom. After answering the question, the next shot is back in the bathroom; this time with the camera all the way in the back of the bathroom and showing Mr. Orange’s back and the sheriffs who are facing him. The scene is set very similar to that of a western before a showdown. This technique works well because cutting between the two bathroom shots would have been awkward, however, the bar is used as a bridge to connect the two shots.

As the story continues, Mr. Orange brings up the fact that the German Sheppard is barking at him. This raises tension because he is carrying a large amount of marijuana on him and this drug dog can smell it. The viewer sees several close-up shots of just the German Sheppard barking into the camera. The barks are rather loud which stress the tension in this scene. We cut back and forth between the bar and the German Sheppard barking as Mr. Orange is telling the story. The viewer has fallen into believing this bathroom story by now so we suspect that the men at the bar have as well.

Following this montage of the bar and the German Sheppard shots, the most elaborate camera movement of the scene occurs. Mr. Orange is still in the bathroom facing the sheriffs, except now his body moves as though he is telling the story at the bar. It is as if he is telling the story of the event to the sheriffs themselves. This transcends realities between the bar and the bathroom, and shows that Mr. Orange is indeed acting and this event did not happen; yet he tells it so convincingly. There is a 360-degree camera track surrounding Mr. Orange and the camera spins an entire rotation around him as he gives his performance in front of the sheriffs. After this shot, the voice-over cuts out and we are in the bathroom both visually and audibly. This brings the viewer into the realm of “show don’t tell”, which suggests that at this point the story Mr. Orange’s telling is so convincing that his words do not need to be heard and the story can simply be observed.

Following this shot, there is a break in the tension when one of the sheriffs tells the German Sheppard to “shut up”. The viewer becomes aware that the sheriffs are not interested in Mr. Orange. One of the sheriffs begins to tell a story to the others as Mr. Orange walks to the urinal. As he gets to the urinal the sheriff gets more and more into his storytelling and begins to talk about a roadside stop. The story the sheriff is telling has lines such as “Asshole! I’m gonna fucking blow you away right now!” While these lines are not directed towards Mr. Orange, they nonetheless can be interpreted that way. Hearing this story the sheriff is telling begins to raise the tension again because it can be interpreted as though it were directed at Mr. Orange.  

As the sheriff wraps up his story, Mr. Orange makes his way towards the sinks and washes his hands. It is evident that he feels uncomfortable in the bathroom due to the tight framing and awkward headroom he is given. He washes his hands and then makes his way over to the hand dryer. When Mr. Orange presses the button to turn the hand dryer on the noise is extra loud, which sends all attention in the direction of Mr. Orange. The hand dryer stops the sheriff’s story and puts all eyes on Mr. Orange. We get a close-up profile shot of Mr. Orange staring at the hand dryer as he dries his hands, along with a close up of his hands, as they are under the hand dryer. Following this we have a slow, close-up, panning shot of all of the faces of the sheriffs starring directly at Mr. Orange. The German Sheppard barks in slow motion. The purpose of shooting this scene at a high frame rate is to get across the feeling of wanting a moment to be over, a moment which feels like it takes forever. Finally, the hand dryer shuts off and Mr. Orange walks out of the frame as a voice over from Joe Cabot, back in the bar comes on. Following shortly after, the image cuts to Joe at the bar, as well giving his two cents on the story. Joe lights a cigarette, which functions as a bookend for the scene since to start the story Mr. Orange lit one as well. The viewer now knows that the scene is over and the camera is back to the present time.

This bathroom scene is such a great scene in Reservoir Dogs because it is the primary way Quentin Tarantino shows off his ability to transcend time in a film. He bounces from two different points in times and has them interlapse over one another. The editing which cuts finely between settings adds a great deal of tension, whist keeping the clarity throughout the scene.