Happy Wednesday BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! Kept you waiting, huh? Sorry, sorry, I have been playing MGS V pretty much non-stop since Monday night and the references are just slipping out. I promise I’ll lock it down from here on out. Anyways, this is Pop Culture Wednesday; the place where I write about an event or aspect of western pop culture. Today’s aspect is (drum roll), dialogue in films.

You know who’s movies I love? Quentin Tarantino’s. I love pretty much everything about them. The compelling anti-hero characters, they humor, the crass language, and especially the exaggerated, nearly anime level, violence. I’ve been in college for about five days now, and I’ve managed to watch Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs twice with different groups of friends. I seriously love that shit.

During my binge I realized that there is another reason I love Tarantino movies. He’s works always have expertly written dialogue. Seriously, go watch Django or Pulp Fiction again and you will notice that nearly every exchange between two people either moves the plot foreword or is a joke. From a film making perspective making a film dialogue heavy is useful for many reasons. It is far cheaper to have characters describe outrageous events than actually film those scenes, it allows actors to better demonstrate their ability and talent, and dialogue heavy movies are typically better received by critics and the councils that determine who wins film awards.

I think the most well known of all independent, dialogue heavy movies is Kevin Smith’s film Clerks.

This movie was made with virtually no budget, was filmed in the mini mart that Smith actually worked in, and consists of about five or six characters just complaining about there lives and talking about Star Wars. I know that on paper it sounds like it would be awful, but a lot of people actually REALLY like this movie. Nerds love it because at the time there really weren’t any films that featured characters blatantly talking about dorky stuff like Star Wars.Film critics loved it partly because it was filmed in black and white and they tend to lose it over stuff like that, and because it was a scripted film that felt like it was capturing the lives of real people.

Ultimately, I believe that there are two reasons why dialogue heavy films are great.
The first is that they engage the viewer more. By talking about a massive shoot out rather than showing it, a viewer will constantly try to figure out what exactly happened based on exchanges between characters. Dialogue films are, by their nature, vague. This can be horribly if done poorly, but if done right, it creates a situation where a film goer is constantly engrossed in the movie and is eager to put the pieces together in their heads.

The other reason dialogue films are great is because they are so similar to real life. On a day to day level, events don’t push you to do things, conversations do. I didn’t take out the trash yesterday because the bin fell over and spilled everywhere, I did it because it started to stink and my roommate said that it was my turn to take it out. Dialogue films are great because they are so believable. You know that cold open in Reservoir Dogs? That scene is great because it perfectly captures what it would be like if any group of friends sat down together for lunch. Dialogue movies manage to take everyday situations and make them interesting and compelling. Which is pretty great because it gives people an appreciation for their own day to day lives and makes them realize that their ordinary life could be film worthy.

How do you guys feel about dialogue or Indy. movies? Let me know in the comments section below and while you’re there, why don’t you go ahead and give this post a like. If you want to subscribe to BaddaBing BaddaBlog, you can do so via email in the upper right side tab. Alternatively, you can like and follow the BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page. Also, if you wanted to be really cool, you could follow me on Twitter. My handle is @LucasDeRuyter. Remember, there will not be any post tomorrow, but be sure to come back on Friday for News for the Mighty, News of the Week.

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