Soundtrack to My Life

I’m not into blood and gore. Quite honestly, too much of it makes me sick to my stomach and I don’t want to finish the rest of the movie. Perhaps this is why I did not enjoy Reservoir Dogs.

Please note that I say “enjoy,” not “like.” I liked the movie, yes, in the sense of appreciating the detailed characters and engaging storyline. I liked where Quentin Tarantino was going with this. I did not enjoy watching it unfold. I honestly do not see the need for all the violence. We get that these guys are robbers. Killing is what they do. Is it completely necessary to cut a police officer’s ear off to demonstrate their violence? Is it completely necessary to kill nearly every character off? Is it completely necessary to have so many pools of blood across the warehouse?

Which brings me to another point. I found it incredibly interesting that nearly the entire movie was shot in one location. The warehouse.

Granted, the movie opens in a restaurant, the flashbacks take the viewers to the scene of the crime, and the robbers step outside of the warehouse every now and then. But everything in present time took place at the warehouse, or just outside the doors. Tarantino does a very good job of keeping the viewers interested even though the setting never changes. I would have never thought that a movie that takes place entirely in an empty warehouse could hold my attention. Then again, the vicious storyline took care of that.

The lack of background music in Reservoir Dogs made it unique. In class we came to the conclusion that Tarantino probably decided, “Hey, I really love this song. I’ve always wanted to use it in a movie…let’s put it here.” Kind of like closing your eyes and randomly picking a place to eat from a list of restaurants, so went Tarantino’s method of song selection. We also discussed how lack of a score made the movie tenser. A score usually moves the action along, and can encourage views to feel certain things based upon the emotion within the song. I assure you that audience would be bothered if a fanfare-battlecry song was being played in the background when two characters are falling in love. We have certain expectations for a score depending on the direction the movie is taking us. Because of Reservoir Dogs lack of a score, there lacked an underlying force to tell us how to feel. All we hear is gunshots and natural noises. We, in a way, don’t know what to think, because the music hasn’t told us what to think. For me, the lack of background music made the action more real. I felt like I was in the very warehouse. If I were there in real life, there would be no music in the background, besides the radio. Although I would personally love having a score playing for everything I do. That would be one random soundtrack.