At the age of 29, Tarantino made his directorial debut in Reservoir Dogs having worked as a production assistant as far back as 1987. Reservoir Dogs is filled with some pretty gory scenes and extreme violent content, Tarantinos' trademark
In this essay I will be discussing whether or not reservoir dogs deserves and lives up to being classified as a 18 movie.
Reservoir Dogs is a gangster movie with a difference. Instead of the gangsters being portrayed as slick professionals who always stay calm and collected, they are portrayed realistically, which means they have the occasional argument, mishap and let their frustrations catch up with them which leads to violence.
The violence in Reservoir Dogs is not as shocking as some claim it to be. For the most part, violence is played out, just off screen, although one often sees blood splattering in front of the camera. One of the most shocking scenes is when Mr Blonde is torturing a policeman and he cuts off the cop's ear. However, before Blonde cuts his ear, the camera moves away, so that we are left looking at the wall of the warehouse, hearing the screams of the cop. Some may argue that as this movie is rated an 18 we should be exposed to seeing his ear being cut off. Although we do see the bloody ear and that is enough to make our stomachs turn, Mr blonde’s tortures rain does not end there he travels to his car and we see him emerge with gasoline, Mr. Blonde pours the gasoline all over the cop, who's pleading him not to do this. With the close up camera angles we feel as if we are the ones being tortured and this is not a scene that makes good viewing for any age.
"I don't give a fuck what you know or don't know, but I'm goanna torture you anyway, regardless. Not to get information. It's so amusing for me to torture a cop. All you can do is pray for a quick death, which you aint goanna get” this is Mr blonde, the twisted and sickly perverted guy in the whole movie. He had no uncertainties about killing people .He loved torture and death. By his own admittance he liked to see the peoples expressions when they died. He was totally ruthless. He was a man who insisted on having total control. He liked controlling situations and people. When they were in the jewellery store he advised the employees not to hit the alarm. When they did, he started killing them. This was his way of regaining control of the situation. At the same time he was acting out this concept, he was actually totally out of control. This type of character is brutal, he does not care what happens, he has no conscience in the movie, only a 18 movie could have such a heartless character as the movie was classed less than 18 younger audiences may be influenced by this guy and try to copy him.
Towards the start of the movie reservoir dogs has an unnecessary high amount of death related shootings, in the movie guns are shown as a way of life and a quick escape from the police Having this in mind I do think that an 18 certificate is a pro, although reservoir dogs does not touch on any controversial issues of guns, which haven’t been dealt with in other movies.
Also the movie uses very abusive language, there are also racist comments made in the opening café scene. These all live up to the expectations of an 18 movie, although curse words are usually common in society these days, even 12 classified movies use lighter abusive words.
This movie being classified as a 18 movie is does not have adult sexual content, although the movie focuses more on a robbery gone wrong most 18 movies dedicate them self’s to having some type of sexual material, the movie does not even contain nudity which is even common in 12 movies.
Although this movie may at first seem brash, violent, quickly paced and out of sequence, when one sees the movie with in its entirety and concentrates on the movie, and thinks about what is happening, it is actually a superb picture. It is important that the viewer looks past the layers of violence and swearing and looks deeper into the meaning of the film; it is a truly enjoyable and thought-provoking film. Some viewers will have to put aside their standards to tolerate some of the less desirable aspects of the movie; if viewers have a problem with profanity or violence, this is definitely not a movie for them.
To conclude I think reservoir dogs values the 18 certificates very much by having a extreme violence; shootings and torture, also constant swearing and general adult conversation which even a young teen wouldn’t understand. A plot to which only a adult would relate to as its all gangster underground stuff. Although the lack of sexual content lets down Reservoir dogs from being rated an 18, but the Mr. Blonde’s torture scene makes up for that any day.
