Why did Mr. White leave Mr. Orange with the psycho?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Reservoir Dogs
Mya_Stone — 9 years ago(December 24, 2016 10:20 PM)
Eddie told Mr. White and Mr. Pink to come with him, and they did without much arguing, leaving Mr. Orange and the cop with Mr. Blonde.
Mr. White cared a lot about Mr. Orange. He also saw what a psycho Mr. Blonde was, killing innocent people, simply because someone set the alarm. As far as he knew, Mr. Blonde was capable of killing Mr. Orange simply because he could. Why didn't he object more fiercely to leave Mr. Orange with that psycho? He barely argued with Eddie. -
generallolo-1 — 9 years ago(December 25, 2016 12:34 AM)
And he did object, albeit, very briefly. White- ''We can't leave them here w/ him''. Eddie- ''Why not?'' White- ''Because he's a psycho''. Or something along those lines. Once White had gotten most of his pent up frustration out, he seemed calmer and more willing to go pick up the diamonds w/ Eddie and Pink.
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stevekaczynski — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 08:24 AM)
I agree, it does not fit in with his character as revealed elsewhere, and he objects just enough to show that he realises leaving Blonde with a captive cop and a wounded Mr Orange may have repercussions, which it does.
The first time I saw the film, at the point where Blonde crouches over the unconscious Orange, perhaps while holding the razor, he gives an evil smirk in the direction of the cop who is watching, and I though he might be about to kill or mutilate Orange. He does not, but he might have done and his smirk indicates he could care less about Orange's health and happiness.
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw." -
generallolo-1 — 9 years ago(December 28, 2016 02:18 AM)
I wouldn't say he's inconsistent per se. We all act differently according to the situation/circumstances at hand. White's unwavering loyalty to Orange is unquestionable. Of course he had objections to leaving Orange w/ Blonde. However, the situation then was one of Eddie yelling at them to get moving, and a less than happy Joe. Of course they were already aware of Blonde's erratic nature. Nevertheless, there was no way they could know that he would go on to do what he did. Even Pink says of Blonde ''he went crazy in the store but he seems ok now''. Blonde came across as more blase than psycho. With Joe the situation was completely different. He was about to shoot Orange, so of course White felt the need to intervene.
As for when Blonde was bending over Orange, I always thought that he was thinking ''he shot one of us''. As far as he knew, Orange was one of them who had been shot by a cop. Given his hatred for the police, I'd imagine he was merely looking forward to what he was about to do. -
stevekaczynski — 9 years ago(December 29, 2016 11:29 PM)
The duality of Blonde. To Eddie and Joe, he is this reliable soldier who did four years for them and never made a deal (contrast this with Ordell in
Jackie Brown
, whose associates are almost all willing to either cut deals with the authorities or rip him off). He is laid-back at breakfast, with no sign of instability or even nerves, then we later learn from Pink and White that he went nuts in the jewellery store. We do not see this, though and back at the warehouse Blonde is, yes, quite blas. Then when they are "alone at last" the psycho emerges.
I thought his demeanour around Orange was indicative of callousness. If he was feeling vengeful about his apparently being shot by a cop, I think he would have said so. Instead he looks at Orange and his pool of blood with a sort of detached curiosity and then casts that chilling smirk at the cop.
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw." -
generallolo-1 — 9 years ago(December 30, 2016 01:10 PM)
Exactly. Blonde probably didn't really care about anybody but himself. What I meant was that Blonde would probably think in terms of simple binaries, ie. cops vs. us, and use any excuse to torture and kill Marvin. To him, Orange's unfortunate situation was simply an unfortunate incident. Nothing more, nothing less.
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stevekaczynski — 9 years ago(December 30, 2016 11:39 PM)
When he is torturing the cop or preparing to, his only emotion other than a sort of sadistic amusement is annoyance when the cop refers to his "boss". Blonde retorts that he does not have a boss. This suggests that his loyalty even to Eddie and Joe is superficial, even though he did four years in jail rather than implicate them, which on the surface would indicate considerable loyalty. Perhaps Blonde was more loyal to a sort of robber's ethic that you do not "rat" no matter what, than loyal to other people per se. (In a film magazine interview about the film, Michael Madsen made a casual reference to how appalling it is to be a "rat" which suggested that he held some attitudes in common with Blonde, the character he was portraying.)
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw."