A text in context Reservoir Dogs

Media Research Practice 

Med4 – a text in context Reservoir Dogs 

The article was written by Tina Dixon and was first published in the 15th edition of Media Magazine. 

The article contextualises Quentin Tarantino's film, Reservoir Dogs and compares it to other films within the gangster genre by highlighting contexts, key concepts and relevant theory. 

The article gives the film's background to introduce it: 

'Made in 1992 by first-time director Quentin Tarantino for a budget of $1.2 million.' 

One of the first conventions discussed is the use of mise-en-scene and how it conforms to the gangster genre. 

'Very naturalistic lighting, urban setting, suits and guns. The dialogue is realistic colloquial language.' 

The article then discusses the social and political context of the film by using the torture scene as a case study. At the time the film caused problems and the reason given was that:
' violence may not be a problem per se, but torture is.'

 This links with the gangster films of the 1930's which were much more restricted and didn’t even use profanitites. 



A section of the article focuses on the representation of women and how Reservoir Dogs, unlike other gangster films, does not have any credited female actresses. Dixon says 'it is a male bonding film with only two women in extremely marginal roles throughout the whole 99 minutes.'