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Looking at - RESERVOIR DOGS


The last movie I am concentrating on in my study of American Independent Cinema is Quinton Tarantino’s ‘RESERVOIR DOGS’.

Reservoir Dogs marks a changing point in American film history, much like the late 1960’s, the early 1990’s saw a younger generation become more interested in independent film, possibly a direct impact on the Seattle grunge scene, and the growing popularity of alternative music, young people had become interested in  what wasn’t mainstream – and the young filmmakers of the time, like Tarantino, had grew up watching films like Night Of The Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so it could be argued the boom in American Independent Cinema in the 1990’s was destined to happen.

I have always adored the way Tarantino plays with dialogue and story telling in his scripts, he gets characters talking and sharing casual conversation, which for me enhances my like for them, and expands the character’s outside of just what they do on screen, this is something I always try and add to my own writing.

 

Quentin Tarantino was born March 27, 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He became interested in films at a young age and acted in community theatre. Through the 80s he held various jobs with video store clerk top of the list. He also attended acting classes and eventually got a part in an episode of the Golden Girls. It was this pay that helped support him during the preproduction of Reservoir Dogs.

 

Reservoir Dogs was also the movie that Tarantino came up with during those video store days. As an avid admirer of heist films, he came up with the idea of a film that takes place after the robbery and during the rendezvous. He pitched the idea to producer friend Lawrence Bender, who was attending acting classes. Just so happened Bender’s teachers wife knew Harvey Keitel and told him about the movie idea. He loved it, called Tarantino and told him he was in as a producer, actor and would help do whatever it took to get it funded and made.



 

Keitel got the team to New York to start casting with one of his casting director pals and they soon had everyone on board. Tim Roth who plays Mr. Orange recalled, "You get a stack of scripts sent to you and this was the first refreshing thing I'd read that had real energy and something new about it.”

 

With the budget only1.2 million, the crew were asked to bring their own clothing most notably Chris Penns infamous tracksuit. The black suits were provided for free by the designer as she was a huge fan of the American crime genre.

 

It’s also no secret that music makes up a big part of Tarantino’s movies. The soundtrack is something he admits is always on his mind, saying, "I love the use of music in movies.” He went for a 70s pop rock soundtrack because, “The sugariness of it, the catchiness of it, really lightens up a rude, rough movie." And it’s definitely true Masden’s dance during the ear cutting scene would not be the same without the song Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel.

 

  Overall, Reservoir Dog’s is one of the movies that sparked a new beginning for independent cinema in the 1990’s and is personally one of my favourite movies of all time.



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