Reservoir Dogs observations
So basically I'll be addressing things as they occur to me and present themselves.
We start off with silence, overlain with background noise of the diner, and then we get Mr. Brown's mouth. This is interesting, because most movies will start off with some kind of music to grab the viewer's attention and set the tone. Also, it gives us a hint on how character-driven the movie is, as well as its tendencies toward immersion in the film.
Don't get me wrong, music can go a long way in dunking you full body into a movie, but Reservoir Dogs doesn't cater to those tendencies. We get gritty realism juxtaposed against surreal posturing.
Speaking of surreal posturing, we'll note that Mr. Brown is speaking in an undertone right now, as though he's very much aware that spouting off at the mouth about dicks and cooze isn't exactly proper dining etiquette.
Then we get a direct challenge, offered by Mr. Blonde of all people, and we go full volume from there. (Side note: the fact that it's Mr. Blonde who's constantly sticking up for the women folk in the diner is noteworthy. Mr. Blonde isn't a movie-version psychopath. He's a psycho, sure, but he's a system-created monster, and he's one of the characters who does things under the guise of the job and the system, even when they're very personally fueled grudges. Or rather, he used to doing things under the guise of the organization, but I have a feeling that prison time made him view things on a very personal level. He's a complicated character, where he's mafia-connected, and talks about "jobs" with Joe and Eddie as if he's talking to a legitimate business that he has an in with, and defends waitresses and women in songs, but then he slips. He slips, and all that nasty shit that's been brewing in him for four years comes spilling out, and he starts doing crazy shit, like killing civilians and torturing cops.)
The round-table panning shot does a long way in establishing the characters without really paying any particular interest in any of them. It also establishes dynamics in the group without actually forming a concrete hierarchy. Joe pays, since he's the employer, so there's a certain amount of dignity in footing the bill for this. Also, Joe going off on his own tangent and, for all intents and purposes, ignorning the rest of the group, also tells us something about Joe's pull over the group. And the fact that the only one that comments about his vocalizing about his address book is Mr. White shows us that you need signority to really be able to level with Joe. Mr. White is the only character (here, anyway) who offers a direct challenge to Joe, and gets away with it. Mr. Blonde establishes his familiarity with Joe by mockingly offering to shoot White.
It's clear that White and Blonde aren't entirely familiar with each other, if at all, by the way White counters Blonde with the laugh and the old-timer remark that asserts his place above the ladder from Blonde.
Mr. Blonde is clearly enjoying fucking with Mr. Brown's brain. XD
Orange is very clearly the low man on the totem pole- he engages very little in the dialog, but he's watching everybody, observing the chemistry and trying to stay downwind. Eddie's remark about Freddy not knowing "True Blue" is perfectly natural in the group dynamic, and would be something he'd say to anybody at the table, and shows that Eddie sees Orange as one of the guys. Orange kind of botches this, though, by fumbling through a slightly defensive, and very mild, repartee. Note that he doesn't swear like the other guys, even when provoked. He's got no connection to the group, but he does seem to gravitate and be comfortable around White, and White in turn seems to both try to include Orange with constant eye contact, and looking at Orange while he's fucking with Joe, and allows Orange to hang off the back of his chair and lean toward him. Given the whole machismo bullshit that's swarming around the table, this is slightly unusual, and unlike the whole prickly attitude that seems to go part and parcel with interacting with "the guys". He's quite a bit closer to White than any other guy is to anybody else at the table, but it's a very natural position. You get the feeling Freddy is staying to the person he feels is safe, and given the amount of time he spends with White before the heist, you get the idea there's a bit of a "old guy-young guy" dynamic, almost mentor-like.
Blue's much like White- he's a died-in-the-wool criminal, and viewers are probably meant to assume he's had a criminal career longer than most of these guys have been alive. The way he addresses the younger Mr. Pink, and tries to re-assert some morality to the situation of the tipping shows us that he belongs to the criminal generation of White and Joe, who are both adamant about tipping the waitress (even while they're going to go down the street and rob a jewelery store.) He doesn't talk much, but unlike Orange, this shows a little more dominance than the others, mostly because of his age.
As another side note, the fact that none of these guys seem to really know each other is really quite true to the criminal world, especially when someone like Joe organizes a crew. Generally, unless you belong to a larger organization, like Eddie, Joe, and Blonde seem to, you end up doing stuff mostly with one other person, or by yourself. The fact that none of these guys knows each other is really pretty accurate.
Anyway, White is clearly disgusted by the amateur patter that's going around the table, and establishes that he's both too old for these guys, and that when he was doing stuff like this at their age, they didn't engage in silly banter. More of that when he tries to take Mr. Pink to task (but then it degenrates when he gets frustrated, and resorts to tactics that are just as immature as the rest of them, and he flicks a wad of something at Pink).
Love Orange's wince when Brown goes on, with great relish, to expound upon the pain a woman feels when she's having sex with a man who has a large penis. It sets him apart from the other guys, who seem either incredulous to Brown's interpretation, or unphased.
Pink is somewhat of the odd man out- it occured to me before that he's a classic example of somewhat totally stewing in institutional anomie. Basically what this means is that he no longer has faith in the economic system that he lives in, and has resorted to appealing to his subterranean values: crime. He feels as if the system is broken, no longer cares for the individual, and is frustrated by it. His rancor at the whole minimum-wage situation shows us that he was one of the people who couldn't reach the goals that society said that he should have met- namely to become wealthy legitimately- and instead decided to undermine the system, and doesn't feel bad for it.
But he also has a certain amount of general anomie- where he feels that society's norms (not just the economic ones) and roles are similarly broken, and he's divorced himself from them. We can see this with this simplification of the heist and botching, when he classifies people into three groups: cops, robbers, and 'real people'. It's alright to shoot cops, because they're not real people. But even so, real people aren't really worth grief over, according to Mr. Pink, if we remember his unwillingness to tip back at the diner. That, and his attitude toward the people Mr. Blonde massacred- he feels consternation about it, but not in the way Mr. White does, who seems genuinely disturbed at the loss of life. Mr. Pink seems to be more bothered on a professional level.
So in order to survive in this world, Mr. Pink has simplified the world and divorced himself from the most of it. He refuses to "play ball".
Okay, back to the intro.
Eddie has so much goddamn bling, it looks like he's starting his own pawn shop, but doesn't have anywhere to sell it, or pockets to put it in. He's very "mafia", but new generation, west-coast mafia. You'd never see east-coast mafia as high up as he is dressed in jeans and a track suit when he's going off on a job. Granted, he's not actually working, but it shows the different kind of world Eddie lives in from, say, Joe, who's wearing muted, normal clothes. Even so, Eddie seems to belong to a world closer to White, Blue, and Joe's- he may be closer to the age of Pink, Blonde, and Orange, but he does things like automatically tipping the waitress. Orange and Pink, who are younger and are isolated criminals, see the sense in not tipping. Blonde is one of the "soldiers", and does anything his boss tells him, which explains why he doesn't comment or raise an objection.
(I also find it very amusing that Eddie carries the handset to the phone. I mean, seriously, it's not even a fucking cellphone, and it's this blocky thing that gets its own place at the table.)
Scene note: the fan behind Blue isn't going- it's still early morning, and the heat hasn't gotten stifling yet, like later in the warehouse. Even with the early time, Eddie's already drinking. Pfft, it's not even noon, if you believe the clock above the cashier's desk.
White believes in the system, and he doesn't commit crime as a way to stick the middle finger to society. Given that he first got caught at 21, we can safely assume he probably just grew up doing crime, like it wasn't another option. He still respects people who play by the system.
Freddy's such a goddamn boyscout. He's the one who says Mr. Pink doesn't tip, but probably because he was asked a question by his boss, so he responds. I'm undecided whether or not he agrees with Mr. Pink's tip policy because he believes in it due to his own experience with getting fucked over by the system (hello, unprotected undercover cop), or because he's trying to stick to his cover. I'm going with the latter, because his next move is to toss his napkin in the way White tossed the wad of whatever. He gets shut down when Joe tells him to shut up, and it's another way of showing the new guy omega status Freddy seems to have. He seems younger than the rest of the guys.
(Random scene note: Pink had toast and coffee for breakfast, and probably something like eggs or bacon, Eddie looks like he had pancakes (or toast), coffee, and beer, Joe looks like he had pancakes and coffee and a beer, White looks like he had pancakes and coffee, Orange looks like he had cereal (seems to have a penchant for the stuff; in the deleted scene "Backgroudn check, he's munching on dry cereal from the box), pancakes and coffee, and either juice or milk. Brown looks like he's got pancakes, coffee, and orange juice. Blue looks like he had coffee, though I'm unsure of what he had on his plate.
About Freddy's cereal: it's a bit of a kid thing to order, and his youth is constantly being capitulated on throughout the movie.
Also, if Pink listened to Heartbeat it's a Love beat in the fifth grade, he's probably 29 or 30, if we say he was 10 or 11 in 1972. Eddie's the same, give or take five years, since the Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia was done in '72. 30 may be too young for handling mob business in the way Joe trusts him, so maybe 31-35 is a good age for him.
Speaking of that song, it's a sly little reference to how most of the crooks in the movie view cops: corrupt and lording over people, and a big damn fucking nuisance. You can read the summary of the song here and see for yourself.
We start off with silence, overlain with background noise of the diner, and then we get Mr. Brown's mouth. This is interesting, because most movies will start off with some kind of music to grab the viewer's attention and set the tone. Also, it gives us a hint on how character-driven the movie is, as well as its tendencies toward immersion in the film.
Don't get me wrong, music can go a long way in dunking you full body into a movie, but Reservoir Dogs doesn't cater to those tendencies. We get gritty realism juxtaposed against surreal posturing.
Speaking of surreal posturing, we'll note that Mr. Brown is speaking in an undertone right now, as though he's very much aware that spouting off at the mouth about dicks and cooze isn't exactly proper dining etiquette.
Then we get a direct challenge, offered by Mr. Blonde of all people, and we go full volume from there. (Side note: the fact that it's Mr. Blonde who's constantly sticking up for the women folk in the diner is noteworthy. Mr. Blonde isn't a movie-version psychopath. He's a psycho, sure, but he's a system-created monster, and he's one of the characters who does things under the guise of the job and the system, even when they're very personally fueled grudges. Or rather, he used to doing things under the guise of the organization, but I have a feeling that prison time made him view things on a very personal level. He's a complicated character, where he's mafia-connected, and talks about "jobs" with Joe and Eddie as if he's talking to a legitimate business that he has an in with, and defends waitresses and women in songs, but then he slips. He slips, and all that nasty shit that's been brewing in him for four years comes spilling out, and he starts doing crazy shit, like killing civilians and torturing cops.)
The round-table panning shot does a long way in establishing the characters without really paying any particular interest in any of them. It also establishes dynamics in the group without actually forming a concrete hierarchy. Joe pays, since he's the employer, so there's a certain amount of dignity in footing the bill for this. Also, Joe going off on his own tangent and, for all intents and purposes, ignorning the rest of the group, also tells us something about Joe's pull over the group. And the fact that the only one that comments about his vocalizing about his address book is Mr. White shows us that you need signority to really be able to level with Joe. Mr. White is the only character (here, anyway) who offers a direct challenge to Joe, and gets away with it. Mr. Blonde establishes his familiarity with Joe by mockingly offering to shoot White.
It's clear that White and Blonde aren't entirely familiar with each other, if at all, by the way White counters Blonde with the laugh and the old-timer remark that asserts his place above the ladder from Blonde.
Mr. Blonde is clearly enjoying fucking with Mr. Brown's brain. XD
Orange is very clearly the low man on the totem pole- he engages very little in the dialog, but he's watching everybody, observing the chemistry and trying to stay downwind. Eddie's remark about Freddy not knowing "True Blue" is perfectly natural in the group dynamic, and would be something he'd say to anybody at the table, and shows that Eddie sees Orange as one of the guys. Orange kind of botches this, though, by fumbling through a slightly defensive, and very mild, repartee. Note that he doesn't swear like the other guys, even when provoked. He's got no connection to the group, but he does seem to gravitate and be comfortable around White, and White in turn seems to both try to include Orange with constant eye contact, and looking at Orange while he's fucking with Joe, and allows Orange to hang off the back of his chair and lean toward him. Given the whole machismo bullshit that's swarming around the table, this is slightly unusual, and unlike the whole prickly attitude that seems to go part and parcel with interacting with "the guys". He's quite a bit closer to White than any other guy is to anybody else at the table, but it's a very natural position. You get the feeling Freddy is staying to the person he feels is safe, and given the amount of time he spends with White before the heist, you get the idea there's a bit of a "old guy-young guy" dynamic, almost mentor-like.
Blue's much like White- he's a died-in-the-wool criminal, and viewers are probably meant to assume he's had a criminal career longer than most of these guys have been alive. The way he addresses the younger Mr. Pink, and tries to re-assert some morality to the situation of the tipping shows us that he belongs to the criminal generation of White and Joe, who are both adamant about tipping the waitress (even while they're going to go down the street and rob a jewelery store.) He doesn't talk much, but unlike Orange, this shows a little more dominance than the others, mostly because of his age.
As another side note, the fact that none of these guys seem to really know each other is really quite true to the criminal world, especially when someone like Joe organizes a crew. Generally, unless you belong to a larger organization, like Eddie, Joe, and Blonde seem to, you end up doing stuff mostly with one other person, or by yourself. The fact that none of these guys knows each other is really pretty accurate.
Anyway, White is clearly disgusted by the amateur patter that's going around the table, and establishes that he's both too old for these guys, and that when he was doing stuff like this at their age, they didn't engage in silly banter. More of that when he tries to take Mr. Pink to task (but then it degenrates when he gets frustrated, and resorts to tactics that are just as immature as the rest of them, and he flicks a wad of something at Pink).
Love Orange's wince when Brown goes on, with great relish, to expound upon the pain a woman feels when she's having sex with a man who has a large penis. It sets him apart from the other guys, who seem either incredulous to Brown's interpretation, or unphased.
Pink is somewhat of the odd man out- it occured to me before that he's a classic example of somewhat totally stewing in institutional anomie. Basically what this means is that he no longer has faith in the economic system that he lives in, and has resorted to appealing to his subterranean values: crime. He feels as if the system is broken, no longer cares for the individual, and is frustrated by it. His rancor at the whole minimum-wage situation shows us that he was one of the people who couldn't reach the goals that society said that he should have met- namely to become wealthy legitimately- and instead decided to undermine the system, and doesn't feel bad for it.
But he also has a certain amount of general anomie- where he feels that society's norms (not just the economic ones) and roles are similarly broken, and he's divorced himself from them. We can see this with this simplification of the heist and botching, when he classifies people into three groups: cops, robbers, and 'real people'. It's alright to shoot cops, because they're not real people. But even so, real people aren't really worth grief over, according to Mr. Pink, if we remember his unwillingness to tip back at the diner. That, and his attitude toward the people Mr. Blonde massacred- he feels consternation about it, but not in the way Mr. White does, who seems genuinely disturbed at the loss of life. Mr. Pink seems to be more bothered on a professional level.
So in order to survive in this world, Mr. Pink has simplified the world and divorced himself from the most of it. He refuses to "play ball".
Okay, back to the intro.
Eddie has so much goddamn bling, it looks like he's starting his own pawn shop, but doesn't have anywhere to sell it, or pockets to put it in. He's very "mafia", but new generation, west-coast mafia. You'd never see east-coast mafia as high up as he is dressed in jeans and a track suit when he's going off on a job. Granted, he's not actually working, but it shows the different kind of world Eddie lives in from, say, Joe, who's wearing muted, normal clothes. Even so, Eddie seems to belong to a world closer to White, Blue, and Joe's- he may be closer to the age of Pink, Blonde, and Orange, but he does things like automatically tipping the waitress. Orange and Pink, who are younger and are isolated criminals, see the sense in not tipping. Blonde is one of the "soldiers", and does anything his boss tells him, which explains why he doesn't comment or raise an objection.
(I also find it very amusing that Eddie carries the handset to the phone. I mean, seriously, it's not even a fucking cellphone, and it's this blocky thing that gets its own place at the table.)
Scene note: the fan behind Blue isn't going- it's still early morning, and the heat hasn't gotten stifling yet, like later in the warehouse. Even with the early time, Eddie's already drinking. Pfft, it's not even noon, if you believe the clock above the cashier's desk.
White believes in the system, and he doesn't commit crime as a way to stick the middle finger to society. Given that he first got caught at 21, we can safely assume he probably just grew up doing crime, like it wasn't another option. He still respects people who play by the system.
Freddy's such a goddamn boyscout. He's the one who says Mr. Pink doesn't tip, but probably because he was asked a question by his boss, so he responds. I'm undecided whether or not he agrees with Mr. Pink's tip policy because he believes in it due to his own experience with getting fucked over by the system (hello, unprotected undercover cop), or because he's trying to stick to his cover. I'm going with the latter, because his next move is to toss his napkin in the way White tossed the wad of whatever. He gets shut down when Joe tells him to shut up, and it's another way of showing the new guy omega status Freddy seems to have. He seems younger than the rest of the guys.
(Random scene note: Pink had toast and coffee for breakfast, and probably something like eggs or bacon, Eddie looks like he had pancakes (or toast), coffee, and beer, Joe looks like he had pancakes and coffee and a beer, White looks like he had pancakes and coffee, Orange looks like he had cereal (seems to have a penchant for the stuff; in the deleted scene "Backgroudn check, he's munching on dry cereal from the box), pancakes and coffee, and either juice or milk. Brown looks like he's got pancakes, coffee, and orange juice. Blue looks like he had coffee, though I'm unsure of what he had on his plate.
About Freddy's cereal: it's a bit of a kid thing to order, and his youth is constantly being capitulated on throughout the movie.
Also, if Pink listened to Heartbeat it's a Love beat in the fifth grade, he's probably 29 or 30, if we say he was 10 or 11 in 1972. Eddie's the same, give or take five years, since the Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia was done in '72. 30 may be too young for handling mob business in the way Joe trusts him, so maybe 31-35 is a good age for him.
Speaking of that song, it's a sly little reference to how most of the crooks in the movie view cops: corrupt and lording over people, and a big damn fucking nuisance. You can read the summary of the song here and see for yourself.