OPENING
The film starts out in a restaurant with the guys talking about what Madonna’s song "Like A Virgin" means, and Joe keeps speaking names out loud out of his book until Mr. White takes his book because he can’t stand it any more. Joe tells someone to shoot this guy for not giving the book back. Then Mr. Pink then goes on to tell everyone that he doesn’t tip when Joe pays for breakfast, but asks everyone to chip in a buck a piece for tip. When Joe gets back he sees someone hasn’t tipped. Once he finds out it was Mr. Pink he demands he put in the buck since he paid for the breakfast. “Nevermind what you normally would do, just cough in your goddamn buck like everyone else” Joe says to Mr. Pink when he finally gives over the tip.
This opening scene can seem off the path. It’s a group of guys, the majority of which are wearing the same exact outfit, having breakfast and debating with great passion their views about pop-culture and tipping. What does this mean? Well, it makes more sense once you see the film, but I believe it’s important to understand that Tarantino’s use of dialogue isn’t simply to create a scene that will make you laugh (which it does brilliantly), his words reveal character. Though they are talking about everyday things, why they believe what they believe about them is what matters. Who the characters are is revealed not simply by what they say, but why they say it. We are able to understand the characters in a specific way. We see who is in control, who rebels or is a free-thinker against the majority, who’s in control and within a few minutes specific relationships are created and we feel like we have a sense of who we are going to be journeying with for the next 90 minutes. Tarantino has the unique ability to bring an audience along for a ride, enjoyably, with his words and in my opinion it’s important to not be overly analytical of this, but rather allow it to work on you. When you do the emotions that he wants you to experience will bubble up.
We next see Mr. Orange who’s been shot, lying in agony in the backseat of Mr. White’s car. Mr. White is able to get him into a warehouse, and puts a gun in hand. They are waiting for Joe to come, and Mr. White won’t take Mr. Orange to the hospital because they’ve committed a crime. Mr. Pink comes in claiming that it must have been a setup because the cops were just there waiting for them, there was not enough time for them to respond.
FIGURING OUT WHAT HAPPENED
Mr. White and Mr. Pink step away from Mr. Orange to figure out what happened during the robbery. We learn that the alarm gets tripped, Mr. Blonde starts shooting everyone and the cops show up. Once they peg this down, they begin to question each other as to how they got out and back to the warehouse. What’s key to pay attention to in the scene is that we as the audience are receiving exposition as to what previously happened. Tarantino is giving us bits of information in order for us to keep up with what’s happened, but he does it in a very particular way. The characters in the story need to figure out what happened, it’s a mystery to them as much as to us so, they recount what they remember and by doing so they are able to give us the information we need. This is a brilliant way to get exposition across without it being rote. Finally, at the end we begin to see that these two men are now questioning each other on there whereabouts because the other is potentially a rat, which propels us forward in the story. And, we learn that both Mr. White and Mr. Pink killed cops, no “real people.” Them asking each other if they killed cops is their way of playing detective to determine if they are a rat. Mr. Pink tells him that he has the diamonds stashed and that they shouldn’t wait for everyone to come to the warehouse which is the rallying point, but they stay. Mr. White says that he’s jinxed. Two jobs back there was an undercover cop in his crew, and he believes it’s the same scenario this time.
MR. WHITE
We see Mr. White talking to Joe long before the day of the crime as he’s setting out the details of the diamond robbery job. We are taken back to the warehouse where Mr. Orange has passed out, and Mr. White must decide if they will take him to a hospital as he won’t live through the night. Mr. Pink believes it’s the wrong choice, and when he learns that Mr. White told Mr. Orange his real first name and where he’s from they get into an argument that leads to Mr. White beating him until they both pull their guns on each other. The use of color coded names heightens the mystery about who each character is. We as the audience don’t know who these men are, but neither do they. It’s a device that keeps us, the viewer with nearly as much information as the characters in the story have.
Mr. Blonde is revealed in the warehouse drinking a soda while the men have their guns trained on each other. They want him to start talking. Mr. Brown is dead and they don’t know where Mr. Blue is. White and Pink believe they should leave but Mr. Blonde tells them they aren’t going anywhere. What fascinating about Mr. Blonde is that his character is, to this point, considered to be the most dangerous and a loose cannon, but while Mr. White screams and pulls a gun on him he stays completely cool, sipping his soda. By doing this we begin to feel even more uneasy that he is so calm with a gun in his face and a near dead man bleeding on the ground. We learn that Mr. Blonde shot the person who set off the alarm and went wild after that. Things intensify between White and Blonde and they are about to fight when Mr. Pink breaks them apart convincing them that they need to work together. Once they calm down, Mr. Blonde shows them that he has a cop tied up in his trunk, and he might be useful in figuring out who the rat is.
MR. BLONDE
We learn that Vic Vega is Mr. Blonde’s real name as he comes to meet with Joe before the heist. Vic has been in prison and Joe has sent him gifts during his time in jail. Nice Guy Eddie, Joe’s son, appears and Vic begins to tell him how he’s fucking up the business. We realize that he and Vic are close as they get into a wrestling match like brothers would. Again, Tarantino is able to reveal character through his words, and the actors infuse meaning into their background by what they choose to do physically. We also are able to see that, though they are busting each other’s balls that Vic is dangerously close to snapping as well. It’s a fine line that this character walks and we are able to see how easily he can go wild. Vic is there to work, and not a regular job. He wants back into the business. So, Eddie suggests using him for the robbery because Vic has always been a lucky charm in every job he’s been involved in.
We jump back into present day and see that Vic has told Eddie about what’s happened, and they are bringing the cop into the warehouse to torture him. Eddie enters the warehouse and tells everyone what to do. Mr. Blonde is supposed to stay with the cop and Mr. Orange who is still passed out, and Mr. White and Mr. Pink are to come with Eddie and move the cars out front so it doesn’t draw attention. Now that Mr. Blonde is alone with the cop he tells him he is going to torture him as he puts duct tape on his mouth. He doesn’t care about getting information from him, he enjoys torture. Mr. Blonde proceeds to cut off the cop’s right ear. When this torture scene is being set up, Tarantino places the camera to only include Mr. Blonde and the cop, and with his use of long takes it allows us as the audience to focus so much on what’s about to happen that we forget that Mr. Orange is laying on the ground. So, when Mr. Blonde moves to Mr. Orange it’s as if we realize where we are once again. To me, it’s an opportunity for us as the viewers to get our bearings before the actual torture. And, when Mr. Blonde cuts off the cop’s ear Tarantino pans away from the violence showing only the doorway in the corner of the room. What this shot does is allows the audience’s imagination to create the violence and not to see it on screen. It’s a way of exposing each individual to their own feelings about what is happening rather than trying to manipulate it. Mr. Blonde leaves the warehouse, giving us a break from the torture as he goes to his trunk. We get the feeling that the violence is over, until Blonde pulls a can of gasoline from his car and douses the cop and just before he is about to light him on fire, Mr. Orange wakes up and empties his clip on Mr. Blonde, killing him. Tarantino chose to show Mr. Orange firing his pistol rather than Mr. Blonde being shot as it gives the audience the opportunity to use their imagination again as to how he’s shot, and we don’t see Blonde until the camera swings around from in front of Orange to behind him, revealing Mr. Blonde dead by the entrance to the warehouse. Once Mr. Blonde is dead we learn that Mr. Orange is the undercover cop, as the tortured officer reveals that he knows him. They were introduced five months ago. Orange tells the cop to sit tight. That there are cops a block away, but they have to wait for Joe Cabot to come so they can take him down.
MR. ORANGE
We know see Mr. Orange or Freddy as he is known to his cop friends. He enters a diner and tells another undercover that he’s just got on Joe Cabot’s team. He’s on the inside now. He gives the details of everything he knows so far to the undercover sitting with him in the diner. We see that Mr. Orange is excited, like he’s playing a role in movie and it’s working. Tarantino then uses a cut to Holdaway (the undercover) and Freddy on a rooftop working on ‘The Commode Story,’ which is a funny story he created for Freddy to tell about a time he did a job. Holdaway teaches Freddy how to memorize the story, like he’s an actor, and the way he does it is a modern version of Hamlet telling the players how to play a scene. We then see Freddy practicing in his room, then performing it for Holdaway and finally for Joe, Fast Eddie and Mr. White. He’s got it nailed. Tarantino shoots this sequence from getting his story from Holdaway to practicing it by himself, to performing for Holdaway and then for Joe, White and Eddie as an actor preparing for a role. He’s able to capture Freddy’s preparation and performance and though we know the story is a lie, Tarantino is able to make us feel like it’s the truth as he leaves out specific details that he only reveals later such as the four cops with the german shepherd standing in the bathroom while he has a bag of weed or that there was an air hand dryer instead of paper towels to dry his hands. All of these details make us feel like we are actually there and experiencing a real story, which is exactly what Freddy wants Joe, White and Eddie to believe and by doing this we as the audience experience it from their point of view. As the receiver of the story rather than already knowing it. One shot in particular pans 360 degrees around Freddy as he tells the monologue to the four cops in the bathroom. He’s part in the bar, part in the story, but he’s taken ownership of it to such a degree that it comes off as all truth. This surrealistic feeling shot let’s us understand and feel this.
Freddy gets into a car with Fast Eddie, Mr. White and Mr. Pink. They all head to the warehouse where Joe tells them that they will not use their real names. They will all have an alias, and this is where Joe gives them their names by color, and what to do. After Mr. White and Mr. Orange go over what everyone’s responsibility is prior to the heist. We next see Mr. Brown wreck into a parked car with Mr. White and Mr. Brown in the backseat. They are being pursued by the cops until Mr. White shoots and kills them. We see that Mr. Brown has blood on his forehead and is alive before White blasts the cops, what’s unclear is if he is dead after White returns. We only see him with his head flipped back not moving. This creates a mini-mystery within the story. It’s an element that gets the audience more involved in the story. Making them detectives in what’s happening as they want to figure out if Mr. Orange killed Mr. Brown or not. White and Orange carjack a woman who shoots Orange in the belly. Orange returns a shot and kills the woman. We are now back to the opening scene of Mr. White driving Mr. Orange to the warehouse.
We jump back to the present time with Mr. Orange and the cop in the warehouse as Mr. White, Mr. Pink and Eddie return to find Mr. Blonde shot to death. Orange tells them he went crazy and was going to burn the cop alive. Eddie shoots and kills the cop as Mr. Blonde was his friend. Mr. Orange then tells Eddie that Mr. Blonde’s plan was to kill everyone when they got back and make off with the diamonds. Eddie doesn’t buy it because Mr. Blonde just did four years in prison and didn’t give up Eddie nor Joe. By showing Vic (Mr. Blonde) earlier meeting with Joe and Eddie we got to see the relationship that they had with each other. They cared for each other, there was loyalty between the three men. So, when Tarantino has Mr. Orange pin everything on Mr. Blonde to Eddie it won’t work. It’s the writer/director’s way of saying that the undercover cop isn’t going to make it out of this one so easily, if at all. Joe arrives and is ready to kill Orange when White pulls his gun on him leading to a “Mexican Standoff” between he, Joe and Eddie. Mr. White believes Orange to be a good kid and that he’s not a criminal. All three men shoot each other. Joe and Eddie die instantly as White drags himself up to hold Orange. Mr. Pink takes the diamonds and leaves. We then hear the sound of gunfire and police sirens in the distance. Orange admits to White that he’s a cop, and Mr. White puts a gun to his head. As the cops enter Tarantino pushes in close on Mr. White as he moans as if a father who’s been betrayed by his son. And as the cops scream for him to put the gun down we hear Mr. White pull the trigger, which feels like part vengeance and part pain, as several bullets fly into him from the cops. Tarantino stages this shot this without showing the actual violence, thus leaving the audiences imagination to do the work of violence for him.
