Reservior Dogs Essay -- essays research papers

Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty were a duo known as Stealers Wheel when they recorded a Dylanesque pop hit, "Stuck in the Middle With You", in April of 1974. The single reached number five on the charts - little did they know that eighteen years later it would become a cult favorite. In 1992 Quentin Tarantino, a little known writer/director, took the Cannes film festival and the world by surprise with his motion picture Reservoir Dogs. The movie is about the difficulties that occur when five "master" criminals are hired by a crime king pin named Joe to pull off the biggest diamond heist of the century. Stuck right in the middle of the movie, the Egan/Rafferty hit is played as a introduction to one of the best or worst torture seens ever in the history of movies. It depends on how you look at it. I'll set-up the scene in the movie where it is being played, try and follow me... The five criminals hired go by color-coded names . During the heist the cops show and things got out of control. Two of the robbers were shot and killed after Mr. Blonde, the "on the edge" gangster started shooting up the place when an employee triggered the alarm. Mr. White and Mr. Orange (an undercover cop) escaped the scene and headed for the hideout where all the men were supposed to meet. On the way to the hideout Mr. Orange was shot, he was bleeding severely but the injury was not life threatening. Shortly after their arrival, Mr. Pink met with them and they all anxiousley waited for Mr. Blonde. Mr. Blonde, acting cool and unaffected by the mornings events, made his entrance. After being questioned by Mr. White about why he went psycho in the store, Mr. Blonde called them out to see a "surprise" he had in his trunk. Mr. Blonde in an effort to find out how the police heard about the robbery in advance had kidnapped a police officer. They carried the man into the warehouse and after tying him to a chair Mr. White and Mr. Pink commenced beating the hell out of him. They Asked him to tell how the police knew of the heist, he said he knew nothing and after beating on him some more, Nice Guy Eddie came in. He was Joe's son and told Mr. White and Mr. Pink that they would have to come with him to ditch the cars. Mr. Blonde was told to stay and keep an eye on the... ...t's about as cinematic a thing as you can do. You're really doing what movies do better than any other art form. It works in this visceral, emotional, cinematic way that's special. And when you do it right and you hit it right, then you can never really hear that song again without thinking about that image from the movie. That's what comercials are counting on, but it never quite works with commercials. The thing is, once a movie has done that with a song, as far as I'm concerned that movie owns it. I mean, they've used "Stand By Me" so many times, but to me the one that used "Stand By Me" that way was The Wanderers. They play "Stand By Me" as the lead character, Ken Wahl, realizes that JFK has been shot. And it's perfect." I couldn't agree more with what Tarentino is saying. His movies especially draw upon music to make the scenes flow together in a surreal, inspiring style. What more can a movie connoisseur like myself ask for in a movie? As Tarentino says "Stand By Me" is perfect in The Wanderers, I say "Stuck in the Middle With You" is perfect in Resovoir Dogs.