Discusssion of the Narrative Structure of Reservoir Dogs

A detailed Summary of Discusssion of the Narrative Structure of Reservoir Dogs

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF RESERVOIR DOGS

Analyse the narrative structure of one film text, giving particular attention to suspense and resolution.

Narrative is the device by which a story is told. Although there are many possible narrative forms, the majority of media texts we view rely on what is known as the `classical` Hollywood narrative. That is, they attempt to tell a story that the audience expects to make sense of like a book; as if reading the text as events unfold, usually in chronological order.

For this essay, I have chosen to analyse the narrative structure of Tarrentino's controversial 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs. I will be contrasting the `classical` narrative structure with Reservoir Dogs, and examining how Tarrentino's use of structure is an essential part of the effectiveness of the movie.

Reservoir Dogs is the story of a group of seasoned criminals assembled by a mastermind to raid a jewellery store. During the heist, things go wrong and when the characters slowly arrive back at the rendezvous, they suspect that one of the group has tipped off the police. The main part of the movie is set at the rendezvous point, where the characters try to discover who the `rat` actually is.

Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarrentino (1992)

Again, due to the non-classical nature of the narrative we can not easily apply this to RD, as Tarrentino does not give us the opportunity to judge the characters as a specific group as most classical texts would. Indeed, we are not overtly asked to adopt any ideological stance to the `group`, but encouraged to feel sympathies with certain characters. In most `classical` texts such as Star Wars, there is an overtly `good` side and an overtly `bad` side, and from this, a hierarchy of oppositions can be drawn; we know we should support one side over the other. With RD, have no clear distinctions. This in itself adds to the enigma's contained within the text.

Giannetti, Louis (1996) Understanding Movies Prentice-Hall:London

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2358
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies

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