Great Character: Mr. White (“Reservoir Dogs”)

The Great Character theme for the month: Tarantino characters. Today: Jason Cuthbert looks at Mr. White from the movie Reservoir Dogs.

It was back in 1992 when the heist thriller underwent a clever genre dissection with the application of a crime novel-style nonlinear narrative by screenwriter and director Quentin Tarantino with his debut feature film, Reservoir Dogs. Aside from his dynamic puzzle-pieced storytelling, other future Tarantino trademarks were also established with this crime caper: gritty violent scenes that are still talked about, snappy harsh dialogue, characters that kill for a living and beefy roles for movie stars of the 1970s. The soul sonic, disco dancing, karate kicking, mean street 70s cinema that Tarantino came-of-age in inspired his casting of Pam Grier in Jackie Brown, John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, David Carradine in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2 and Harvey Keitel as thief-for-hire Mr. White in Reservoir Dogs.

Reservoir Dogs IMDB:

After a simple jewelry heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.

From the very first breakfast scene at that diner, Mr. White stands out as the only diamond heist conspirator of the rented six that has some seniority. Mr. White immediately has the guts and mutual respect to be an assertive ball-breaker while chatting up Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) with the audacity that comes from being a trusted, long-time confidant. He not only snatches that repetitively reminiscing boss’s address book out of his scruffy palms, with the whole pack of hired hooligans watching on, but Mr. White also defends his unapologetic disposition against Joe Cabot’s hired guns that he is just getting to know.

MR. WHITE: You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.

What we quickly learn about this hard-living, veteran crook is that Mr. White doesn’t beg for friends, has next to no patience when you get on his last nerve, refuses to adapt to fools, has a conscience for the underdog and is by-the-book organized. It is not long before Mr. White finds himself being the getaway driver and substitute ambulance protector for Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) and his river of red pouring out of gushing gunshot wounds.

MR. WHITE: Say-the-goddamn-words: you’re gonna be okay!

While all seven of the “reservoir dogs” interact with Mr. White at various intervals of the story, it becomes Mr. White’s role as caregiver to the slowly dying Mr. Orange, a man he is just getting acquainted with within the context of the diamond heist that illuminates the varied traits of this complex criminal.

The intense opinions of Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) annoy Mr. White, the cold and bold gunplay of Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) infuriates Mr. White, Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker) and Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino) don’t survive long enough for them to grow on Mr. White either way, and Joe Cabot and his underboss son Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) are familiar associates that he tolerates. But Mr. Orange’s smooth sailing, wide-eyed apprentice attitude as well as near fatality that Mr. White blames himself for, puts Orange as White’s favorite color in this cast of anonymously named criminal crayons.

MR. WHITE: (to Mr. Orange) If you wanna know something and he won’t tell you, cut off one of his fingers. The little one. Then tell him his thumb’s next. After that he’ll tell you if he wears ladies underwear. I’m hungry. Let’s get a taco.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtkM2SPaSJ8

Mr. White’s dichotomy of professional and personal responsibilities to his “co-workers” stretches mucho mileage out of his character development. This man considers not taking the bleeding Mr. Orange to the hospital as a professional obligation to prevent them and their partners from potentially getting arrested. But on a personal level, Mr. White hovers over Mr. Orange like a guardian angel in a black suit, tie and sunglasses. He also “professionally” plays his part in the jewelry heist, but is personally sickened by Mr. Blonde’s slaughter of innocent bystanders.

Even with the ever-growing concern of an informant saboteur within the ranks of their crooked outfit, Mr. White never once is willing to believe that Mr. Orange could be the badge-carrying undercover cop that he ironically admits to being. White even breaks the rules of their flock and identifies himself with his real name, Larry Dimmick, making himself an easy target had Mr. Orange been a real criminal and gotten caught, interrogated and offered a plea bargain for a lesser sentence.

The evolution of Mr. White begins with a hardened hard-nosed hardcore heist master and ends with a surrogate father to Mr. Orange, a man White is willing to lay his own life into the dirt for. Mr. White is even willing to lay down the life of Joe Cabot, someone he has had a much longer relationship with, to preserve Mr. Orange.

MR. WHITE: (to Joe Cabot) If you shoot this man, you die next. Repeat. If you shoot this man, you die next.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzF_TbmDH5s

For his struggle to do right while on the wrong side of the law, Mr. White is quite the GREAT CHARACTER in the consortium of Quentin Tarantino concoctions.

It is impossible to overstate the impact this script had in Hollywood development circles. I remember reading it when Tarantino was just going into pre-production and everyone was buzzing about it, our first exposure to the writer-director’s unique post-modern take on cinematic storytelling. Every character in Reservoir Dogs is memorable and at the top of the heap: Mr. White.

Thank you, Jason, for this post. Please join us in comments to discuss Resevoir Dogs.

You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason.

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