A Director Whose Name We Actually Know

Reservoir Dogs is, in its own special way, cool, not so much because of all the gore or the story line, but because Quentin Tarantino stepped outside the box to make a revolutionary movie. For one thing, the characters are so much more dynamic than in a typical action movie. Each one had his own little quirk; it was evident that Tarantino loved his characters and thought out each one in laboring detail. The coolest character in the movie is Mr. White because he stands up for what he thinks is right, even though he is actually wrong; no matter what, he doesn’t waiver in what he thinks is right and wrong. He is willing to kill his boss for some man he barely knows because it's "right."

This new type of plot line is cool. Making the audience play the detective instead of just watch one is so much better than the cookie-cutter, predictable, boring plot lines of the past. The mixed up time line throws the audience knee-deep into the action of the movie right after the opening credits. The movie-goer is now forced to think; action movies are no longer mind-numbing experiences. Instead, Tarantino actually had a unique vision and was determined to make movies according to that idea even if it didn’t follow the norm.

This is what makes QT cool, his courage to be different and make the movies the way he wanted to. He wasn’t afraid of looking disturbed or being too graphic for his audience. Before Reservoir Dogs, movies like Hostel, Saw, Momento, or Fight Club would have never come out. Momento is actually one of my personal favorite; it’s cool. A movie where you guess seven different possible outcomes before the end and all of them are wrong is entertaining.

Although all the gore seems a little much at times, there are obviously people who enjoy it because it seems that movies just keep showing more and more blood and guts. For someone to be the first to put that kind of stuff in a movie, you have to be cool, indifferent about others opinions, and driven towards a goal.

Not only is all the gore a new feature in his movies but also that he writes about the down time of the criminals along with the action. The characters in his movie become so much more real when we see them talking, going out to eat, or hanging out. Before this, all we saw of the life of the criminal was the crime, but Tarantino exposes the uncool side of the criminal. The side that is concerned with looking good and telling the right stories in front of his buddies, the side that won’t give a dollar for a tip, the kind that fights over the meaning of Madonna’s songs. The criminal is no longer a hardened man who only thinks about crime.

Quentin Tarantino is cool for being able to come up with something new which is why he is such a well-known director. He is unique, indifferent, passionate, and innovative, all ingredients to cool. So, while the characters in Reservoir Dogs aren’t necessarily cool as we’ve seen it throughout the semester, Tarantino is cool for making the new style of movie.