----------------------------Original message----------------------------

On Apr 12,  4:49pm, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Subject: Reservoir Dogs

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------

> I recently saw reservoir dogs and it has to be the most bloody movie I've

> seen. Aside from the gore of it all, I thought the acting was superb, with

> Keitel and Penn at the forefront.

> Did anyone make anything out of the colors each charater represented? For

> example, why was Keitel Mr. White...so on. I'd be interested in your

responses

>                                                           Chuck

>-- End of excerpt from [log in to unmask]

 

Chuck,

 

I've got a couple of ideas concerning the "colours" (spell it right - the

Canadian way ;)

 

1.  As a plot device to instigate the humourous scene involving the "Mr.

Pink" appelation.  On one level, Tarantino is highlighting the

ultra-masculine flavour of the movie (is the only woman with speaking lines

the waitress in the beginning?).  No one wants to be pink as it is associated

with feminine or homosexual attributes.

 

2.  Perhaps Tarantino is poking fun at the PC movement's preoccupation with

"naming" and the power therein invoked.  By chosing colours, an innocuous ,

unhierarchical (except for the pink) set of signifiers, Tarantino allows the

audience to view the character's divorced from a personal signifier.  As

stated in the movie, the colours are ostensibly to keep the characters from

"knowing too much" about each other - to avoid creating a situation where one

is caught all will be.  However, the audience too is not allowed into the

personal realm of the name and perhaps denied a fundamental way of "knowing"

them.  Again, this may also be what Tarantino is after - collapsing ways of

knowing and ways in which patterns of meaning are constructed of "others"

through somewhat arbitrary sets of signs.  Remember when the "old guy" (can't

recall his name - the boss) when he tells them their names?  Its totally

arbitrary - just like much naming is.

     A cool book on this is Tzvetan Todorov's "Conquest of America" where

he describes Cortes' and the Spanish colonization of the "New World" and how

it was accomplished as much through naming and linguistic appropriation as

through fire and sword.  "Language has always been the companion of empire".

I digress.

 

Hope this helps Chuck.

Scott

 

 

--

R. Scott Burnham                        Whatcha makin' there?

York University                         Looks like sodie-pop -

North York, Canada                      Watch it fizz...

E-Mail: [log in to unmask]                     - Foghorn Leghorn