I chose to review the first 15 minutes of 'Reservoir Dogs' because it is along similar lines to our film. Reservoir Dogs was the first film of Quentin Tarantino, yet was criticised for it's violence throughout the film. The notorious 'torture' scene, caused many people to walk out of the cinema, as they found it too sickening. Our film, is not similar to Reservoir Dogs in the amount of violence and blood it has in it, yet does contain violence and blood which is expected in a mafia film. One way in which it is similar is that 'Reservoir Dogs', is that it has a non linear narrative, in which it is depicted through flashbacks, similar to which our film would be, if we were to make the entire film.
As for the story, there are other ways in which 'Omerta' is similar to 'Reservoir Dogs'. In Reservoir Dogs, we see that Mr Orange is an undercover cop, similar to Luciana Messina helping out Marco Ramone to take down the mafia.
In the opening of the film, we see conversation taking place in a black scene, to which it cuts to a shot of men at a breakfast table, talking. A panning shot around the table and over the shoulders of some characters, establishes who is at the table and what they are doing. We see in the first minute, that it has familiar traits of a mafia film, suits and cigars being the main ones. The camera continues to circular pan around the table as Mr Brown is telling the rest of the people at the table, his theory on Madonna's song 'Like a Virgin'. A close up of Mr Brown while he is telling his story, gives the impression that he's not very smart.
As Mr Brown finishes telling his story, we see a medium shot establishing 3 characters and a conversation pursues. The cutting is quite slow, and has no fast paced about it, and seems to be just men sat at a breakfast table having a conversation. Apart from the suits and the cigars, there is no real evidence to show that this is a mafia film. Over the shoulder shots are continued to be used as conversation continues. From what the audience has seen so far, the film could lead in to anything.
In the first opening minute, we see a lot of swear words used. This is common for an 18 rated film but also for a mafia film. The swearing is used so much, that after a while it seems to blend into the conversation. Another common camera shot included up to this point, is that whenever we see a Medium Shot of characters, 3 characters are always in the shot.
One line that seemed to strike me when watching the opening 15 minutes is when Mr Blonde asks if he should shoot Mr White. Mr White replies "If you shoot me in your dream, you better wake up and apologise". This struck me as an important line as it could be foreshadowing in what is going to happen in the rest of the film.
The conversation goes back to normal banter after the original joke of being shot in the dream. We see that these set of men, are enjoying a conversation with each other and seem to be in good company. As the conversation comes to an end, we see "Joe" stand up and he is focused on a medium shot. As he stands above everybody else, he seems to have authority over the men sat at the table, and the camera is a low angle shot, slightly looking up at Joe. Again, 3 men who are at the table, are in the shot. Joe tells everybody that they all owe a "buck" for the tip, before leaving, he asks someone to shoot Mr White, only jokingly. We see a close up or Mr Blonde pretending to shoot him, which looks somewhat menacing.
As everyone throws in a dollar, close ups are used on some characters and we see that Mr Pink does not put in a dollar. Conversation follows of Mr Pink telling the fellow men at the table, that he does not believe in tipping. A lot of close ups are used as characters talk, and we see that Mr Pink seems to be the stray one of the group, and likes to stand up to society and play by his own rules. Again, with the close up of characters, they are over the shoulder shots. The characters at the table again share a joke about the waitress 'sucking his dick'.
The rest of the characters at the table, seem distressed that Mr Pink is refusing to tip the waitress, over the shoulder shots are continued being used. From this scene we can see some friction between the group, but it's over nothing really. We see one of the characters asking for his dollar back, yet he is not allowed. As Joe returns, again stood up to show his authority, to ask for the tips, he asks who has not payed. Mr Pink eventually gives Joe a dollar after Joe says he paid for the entire breakfast.
As the scene comes to end, we see that a voice over is used as we go into the next scene, as the scene fades to black, bouncy music begins to play. As we cut into the next scene, we see the characters from the previous scene, walking in slow motion, a long shot is used to establish this. We then see close ups are used to establish characters and which actors are playing them. In the close ups, we see the characters looking sinister, smoking cigarettes ad engaging in conversation, even though none of this can be heard. As we see all the characters in the centre of the screen walking towards a road, the title 'Reservoir Dogs' moves up the screen and stays at the top, above the back of the characters. This shot has connotations that they are the centre of attention.
A black screen follows this scene and names scroll upwards similar to the title. Important roles within the making of the film are then displayed at the centre of the screen, as the music continues to play. Talking from the next scene talks over the title and the music, we see when we cut into the next scene, one of the men who was at the breakfast table, Mr Orange, is in the backseat of the car with Mr White driving. Mr Orange is bleeding from the abdomen. This comes as quite a shock to the audience, as the previous scenes were general banter, so it goes from one extreme to another. As the car is driving, we see close ups on both character and particular distress is shown from Mr Orange. For the entire film, this is quite ironic as Mr White is keen to find out who is the rat in the operation, and it's in fact Mr Orange, the man who he saves and the man who worked with and trusted.
All in all, Reservoir Dogs uses a lot of characteristics that we plan to use in our film. For example, the costumes of the film are similar to what we would want to feature in ours, and any sort of mafia film. Also, we see that in Reservoir Dogs, they use aliases to cover there identity, much like Luciana does with her name 'Miele'.
There are some other characteristics that we may think about using when we are filming. The one that i paticularly liked was the over the shoulder shots used in the breakfast scene. I feel that this could be used well in our poker scene, and could help establish the characters and the setting. We will also use the obvious things such as close ups on characters and nice slow paced editing.
Our film is similar to Reservoir Dogs in quite a few ways. Apart from the obvious reference of the mafia, the costumes are very similar within the 2 films. The Reservoir Dogs are all dressed smartly in suits, which is similar to our film. If we were to carry on making our film, then it would be similar to reservoir dogs as it would contain weapons and mild swearing. Another way in which our films are different is the nicknames we use, we see that in Reservoir Dogs it is revolved entirely around nicknames. In our film, they use the nickname 'Miele' to protect Luciana Messina.
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