As Larry Mudd points out, slo-mo has become a form of emphasis. It’s the cinematic equivalent of boldface type. If something is shown in slo-mo, we the audience are being told it’s important. If Mr. A walks in slo-mo and Mr. B doesn’t, well then it’s clear Mr. A is cooler and/or more important than Mr. B.
The interesting thing is that over the years slo-mo has gradually shifted from being a way of capturing a character’s heightened experience–once only very exciting or very memorable things were shown in slo-mo*–to this strictly formal convention used for emphasis.
There’s no reason why the characters at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs would think of walking down the street at that particular moment as a heightened experience: the slo-mo is there purely to tell the audience, “these are the main characters, and they are bad-asses.”
*One excellent earlier use of slo-mo outside the ultraviolence context is the great James Stewart/Grace Kelly kiss in Rear Window.
Slo-mo has other uses as well. Seen Not another teen movie, with the slo-mo entrance of the little-girl-turned-pretty girl? Larry may be on to the general principle here.
FTR, I didn’t see it myself, I’ve heard of it, from a friend, that’s it, and not a real good friend but more a person you meet on the subway. I didn’t really make this post, either.
Monster’s Inc was not the first to parody the “slow-motion walk of coolness” from The Right Stuff. Check out the super-hero spoof movie Mystery Men and you’ll see that they spoof it as well and just as funny (I’m biased, I loved that movie).
Slow motion and telephoto. Let’s not forget the zoom lens.
[Slightly off topic] Futurama, I think, mentioned a Baywatch movie that was groundbreaking in that it was the first movie filmed entirely in slow motion. <giggles> [/Slightly off topic]
I’ve been referring to this technique as the “Bruckheimer slow walk”. Not that he invented it of course, but he uses it in every damn movie of his. There’s got to be a drinking game in that.
Dang man, the slo mo strut was a big thing in real life with the muscle bound set in the 70’s. i didn’t realize you were talking about a movie here at first. That’s how all those guys in high school used to walk back then
Yes, the $MDM just jogged in slow motion. Sure, he had asymetric eyebrows and a stern expression ( :dubious: ), but bad ass? If it wasn’t for the slo-mo, he’d look like he was trying to catch the school bus.
My grandmother was more scary.
He did have the greatest sound effects and theme music, though. If only the soundtrack to my life could compare. Instead, there are far too many bathroom noises, and I’m sure my theme music features slide whistles or mouth harps.
Could it also be that slow motion in real life is associated with the surge of adreneline from the fight-or-flight response therefore indicating that this charecter is one bad mofo who is not to be messed with?
