Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Do the names hold significance?
I am a huge fan of the TV show Breaking Bad. In that show the colors are extremely important. Each character represents a color and their personalities match it. They have the main character whose name is Walter White. They also have the other main character Jessie Pinkman. These colors are important for the story, but my question is do the colors mean a lot for Reservoir Dogs?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I love this question. Sure, Walt's last name is white, but his color is green. It represents the greed that has ultimately got him to the point he is at. Pinkman's color is red, right? I always assumed the red was for his anger. He was a kid angry at the world, his parents, life, etc. Marie is Purple, I assume because she thinks she is royalty. Other characters? I haven't seen it since the last live episode aired so I have forgotten a bit. I plan to rewatch it before the final second half of the season.
ReplyDeleteAs for colors in Reservoir Dogs, even though Joe says they don't mean anything, I would bet Tarantino had meaning for them. As we talked about last night, Mr. White was the most virtuous. White would express that well. Maybe Orange was that color because orange rhymes with nothing. It is an outsider? Pink is a feminine color and we all heard what Joe called him. Brown because his acting is shit. Blond....is that even a color? Maybe the non-color shows how different he is from the rest. He is an actual psychopath. We never really see blue, so maybe he is blue because he is sad he got no screen time. Those are my thoughts.
Id say Orange for Hank... I cant remember off the top of my head, but i remember him wearing orange a lot. Walt's wife wears blue which im sure means something too.
DeleteSkyler is definitely blue. I'm not sure about Hank, but it sure could be orange. Do they actually all have the same colors are Reservoir Dogs? That would be a very interesting theory! If Walt is white and Jesse is Pink....who's blonde and brown? Gus is blonde as the outlier? Cool on the outside but insane on the inside?
DeleteI like Orange and its unrhymable aspect as the key to his outsider status.
DeleteI thought about the colors and their significance also. Yes, it was used as a way to conceal their identities and according to Joe, it doesn't mean anything though they couldn't trade names. But I think there may be a significance. Here's what I think they could mean...
ReplyDeleteMr. White, white being purity or as mentioned virtuous. Mr. White stood up for Orange and was against the killing of those innocent people Blonde killed.
Mr. Blonde, his color is yellow really. Yellow for happiness. We see his "happiness" in torturing the cop.
Mr. Pink, pink for the feminine. Mr. Pink is seen as not manly, one could argue his cowardice and running off in the end could count as that.
Mr. Orange, for danger. Orange isn't dangerous in the sense that he should be feared. He is dangerous because he is lying about who he truly is, an undercover cop. He is the rat and causes the chaos.
Blue and Brown aren't significant in the film..
Concealing their identity played a huge part in this film, hence the color coded nicknames. What I found fascinating is that come the end of the film the nicknames are useless and half of their names are disclosed.3 of the 6; Mr. Orange, Mr.. White and Mr. Blonde all let us know at least their first name by the end of the film. They are also three key characters of the film surprisingly enough. Mr. Pink stressed the emphasis of keeping their true identities secrete and Mr. Blue/Brown are minor roles in the film. It's interesting that the main men are ultimately divulged.
DeleteI thought the use of colors for names was interesting. Maybe the use was to be different for each of us in some way. There are the stereotypical universal meanings of color and then each of us may have our own different meaning or feeling about color. We may have been meant to associate a color with a perception only to have it challenged or changed.
ReplyDelete