| Reservoir Dogs | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Produced by | Lawrence Bender |
| Written by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Starring | Harvey Keitel Tim Roth Chris Penn Steve Buscemi Lawrence Tierney Michael Madsen |
| Cinematography | Andrzej Sekuła |
| Editing by | Sally Menke |
| Studio | LIVE America |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | October 23, 1992 |
| Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.2 million |
| Box office | $14,661,007 [1] |
Reservoir Dogs (1992) is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and Lawrence Tierney. Tarantino has a minor role, as does criminal-turned-author Eddie Bunker. It incorporates many themes that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profuse profanity, and a nonlinear storyline. The film contains key elements similar to those found in Ringo Lam's 1987 film City On Fire.[2]
The film has become a classic of independent film and a cult hit.[3] It was named "Greatest Independent Film of all Time" by Empire. Reservoir Dogs was generally well received, and the cast was praised by many critics. Although it was never given much promotion upon release, the film was a modest success by grossing $2,832,029, which made its $1.2 million budget back. However, it did become a major hit in the United Kingdom, grossing nearly £6.5 million, and it achieved higher popularity after the success of Tarantino's next directorial effort, Pulp Fiction.
A soundtrack titled Reservoir Dogs: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released featuring songs used in the film, mostly from the 1970s. In 2006, a Reservoir Dogs video game was released which was banned in some jurisdictions for its violence.
Contents |
The film begins with eight men eating breakfast at a Los Angeles diner. Six of them are using aliases: Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel). With them are gangster Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son, "Nice Guy" Eddie (Chris Penn).
After they leave the diner, the action abruptly cuts to a speeding car, in which Mr. White is comforting Mr. Orange, who has been shot in the abdomen and is bleeding badly. They arrive at an abandoned warehouse. Mr. Pink arrives next, and he angrily suggests that the group’s diamond heist, orchestrated by Joe Cabot, was a setup, due to the rapid police response. The men also discuss the actions of Mr. Blonde, who murdered several civilians in the jewelry store after the alarm had been triggered. Mr. White is angered that Joe Cabot, an old friend of his, employed such a psychopath and agrees about the possibility of a setup. Mr. Pink also reveals that he escaped with the diamonds and hid them in a secure location. They argue over whether to take Mr. Orange, who is now unconscious, to a hospital, and Mr. White reveals that he told Mr. Orange his true first name and where he was from.
Mr. Blonde, who has been watching them from a distance, steps forward and ends the dispute. Mr. White berates him for his deadly rampage, but Mr. Blonde calmly dismisses the criticism. He tells the others to stay as Nice Guy Eddie is on his way. Mr. Blonde has captured a police officer, Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz), and the three men beat Nash in an attempt to find out who the informant is. Eddie then arrives at the warehouse, and orders Mr. Pink and Mr. White to assist him in retrieving the stolen diamonds and disposing of the hijacked vehicles, while Mr. Blonde stays with Nash and the unconscious Mr. Orange.
Alone with Mr. Blonde, Nash denies any knowledge of a setup, but Mr. Blonde is uninterested and wishes to torture Marvin for his own amusement. As the radio plays the Stealers Wheel song, "Stuck in the Middle with You", Mr. Blonde does a menacing dance, slashing at Marvin's face with a straight razor and severing his right ear. He then douses Marvin in gasoline, but before he can ignite it, Mr. Orange shoots and kills Mr. Blonde. Mr. Orange tells Nash he is an undercover cop, and reassures Marvin that a massive police force is in position nearby but is waiting until Joe arrives before moving in.
Eddie, Mr. Pink, and Mr. White return to the warehouse to find Mr. Blonde dead. Mr. Orange claims that Mr. Blonde was going to kill all of them and take the diamonds for himself. After impulsively pulling out his gun and killing Nash, Eddie rejects Mr. Orange’s claims, telling him that Mr. Blonde was a close personal friend who had always remained loyal to him and his father. As Mr. Orange struggles to justify his actions, Joe arrives and confidently accuses Mr. Orange of being an informant, forcing Mr. White to defend his friend.
Joe is about to execute Mr. Orange when Mr. White pulls his gun on Joe, and Eddie in turn trains his gun on Mr. White. A Mexican standoff ensues. Suddenly Joe shoots Mr. Orange, wounding him again, Mr. White shoots and kills Joe in response, Eddie shoots Mr. White, severely wounding him, and Mr. White shoots and kills Eddie.
Mr. Pink, who hid under the stairs to avoid the shootout, takes the diamonds and flees the warehouse. Police sirens and shouting are heard outside, followed by several shots. As Mr. White cradles Mr. Orange in his arms, Mr. Orange reveals that he is in fact an undercover cop. This devastates Mr. White, who begins sobbing in frustration and points his gun at Mr. Orange's head. The police storm the warehouse, demanding that he drop his gun; Mr. White refuses and shoots Mr. Orange, and the police open fire on Mr. White as the film ends.
Tarantino had been working at Video Archives, a video store, in Manhattan Beach, California, and was originally going to shoot the film with his friends on a budget of $30,000 in a 16 mm[5] format with producer Lawrence Bender playing Nice Guy Eddie. When actor Harvey Keitel became involved he agreed to act in the film and co-produce.[6] Harvey Keitel was then cast as Mr. White. With Keitel's assistance, the filmmakers were able to raise $1.5 million to make the film.[7]
Reservoir Dogs was, according to Tarantino, his version of Stanley Kubrick's The Killing. Tarantino himself said that he "[...] didn't go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my Killing, my take on that kind of heist movie".[7] The film's plot was suggested by the 1952 movie Kansas City Confidential.[8] Additionally, Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Combo inspired the scene where a cop is tortured in a chair.[8] Tarantino has denied that he plagiarized with Reservoir Dogs instead claiming that he does homages.[9] Also, the main characters being named after colors (Mr. Pink, White, Brown, etc.) was first seen in the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
The actual heist is never shown. Tarantino has said that the reason was initially budgetary but that he always liked the idea of not showing it and stuck with that idea. He has said that the technique lets the viewer realize that the movie is "about other things".[7] He compared this to the work of a novelist and has said that he wanted the movie to be about something that is not seen and that he wanted it to "play with a real-time clock as opposed to a movie clock ticking".[10]
Reservoir Dogs opened in 19 theaters with a first week total of $147,839 in the United States.[11] The film was never released to more than 61 theaters there and totaled $2,832,029 at the box office.[11] The film gained most of its success due to the popularity of Pulp Fiction. After its success in Britain, it was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Empire Magazine named it the "Greatest Independent Film ever made".[12] The movie has since come to be seen as an important and highly-influential milestone of independent filmmaking.[13] Reservoir Dogs carries a 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes,[14] while Metacritic carries an average rating of 78/100, based on 23 critic reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.[15]
Reservoir Dogs has inspired many other independent films and is considered key in the development of independent cinema.[16] The Bollywood film Kaante (2002) from Sanjay Gupta is considered an unauthorized remake of Reservoir Dogs featuring a similar plot and dialogue style.[17] Reservoir Dogs is itself considered to have taken inspiration from Ringo Lam's Hong Kong action film City on Fire (1987), which features a similar final segment.[18]
The film was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.[19] It won the Critic's Award at the 4th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1993 which Tarantino attended.[20]
American Film Institute Lists
At the film's release at the Sundance Film Festival, film critic Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News compared the effect of Reservoir Dogs to that of the 1895 film L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat, whereby audiences putatively observed a moving train approaching the camera and scrambled. Bernard claimed that Reservoir Dogs had a similar effect and people were not ready for it.[16] Vincent Canby of the New York Times enjoyed the cast and the usage of non-linear storytelling. He similarly complimented Tarantino's directing and liked the fact that he did not often use close-ups in the film.[26] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times also enjoyed the film and the acting, particularly that of Buscemi, Tierney and Madsen, and said "Tarantino's palpable enthusiasm, his unapologetic passion for what he's created, reinvigorates this venerable plot and, mayhem aside, makes it involving for longer than you might suspect."[27]
Roger Ebert was less enthusiastic; he felt that the script could have been better and said that the movie "feels like it's going to be terrific", but Tarantino's script does not have much curiosity about the characters. He also stated that "[Tarantino] has an idea, and trusts the idea to drive the plot." Ebert gave the movie two and a half stars out of four also claiming that he enjoyed it, and that it was a very good film from a talented director, like other critics, he enjoyed the cast, but stated "I liked what I saw, but I wanted more."[28]
The film has received substantial criticism for its strong violence and language. One scene that viewers found particularly unnerving was the ear-cutting scene; Madsen himself reportedly had great difficulty finishing it, especially after Kirk Baltz ad-libbed the desperate plea "I've got a little kid at home."[29]
Many people walked out during the film and Tarantino commented about it at the time:
It happens at every single screening. For some people the violence, or the rudeness of the language, is a mountain they can't climb. That's OK. It's not their cup of tea. But I am affecting them. I wanted that scene to be disturbing.[7]
During a screening of the movie at a Film Festival in Barcelona, fifteen people walked out, including horror film director Wes Craven and special effects artist Rick Baker.[30] Baker later told Tarantino to take the walkout as a "compliment" and explained that he found the violence unnerving because of its heightened sense of realism.[30]
Critic John Hartl compared the ear-cutting scene to the shower murder scene in Psycho and Tarantino to David Lynch. He furthermore explored parallels between Reservoir Dogs and Glengarry Glen Ross.[7] After this film, Tarantino was also compared to Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah, John Singleton, Gus Van Sant, and Abel Ferrara.[9] For its nonlinear storyline, Reservoir Dogs has also often been compared to Rashomon.[9] Critic James Berardinelli was of a similar opinion; he complimented both the cast and Tarantino's dialogue writing abilities.[31] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post was also enthusiastic about the cast, complimenting the film on its "deadpan sense of humor".[32] Todd McCarthy called the film "undeniably impressive" and was of the opinion that it was influenced by Mean Streets, Goodfellas and The Killing.[33] Reservoir Dogs also ranks at number 97 in Empire magazines list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time..[34]
Reservoir Dogs has often been seen as a prominent film in terms of on-screen violence.[13][35][36] J.P. Telotte compared Reservoir Dogs to classic caper noir films and points out the irony in its ending scenes.[37] Mark Irwin also made the connection between Reservoir Dogs and classic American noir.[38]
A notable motif in Tarantino's films is the use of accidents to move the plot further. In Reservoir Dogs, the major plot event is also moved by an accidental occurrence; in this case the robbery going awry.[10] Caroline Jewers called Reservoir Dogs a "feudal epic" and compared it to Pulp Fiction. She paralleled the color pseudonyms to color names of medieval knights.[39]
A frequently cited comparison has been to Tarantino's second and more successful film Pulp Fiction,[10][38][40] especially since the majority of audiences saw Reservoir Dogs after the success of Pulp Fiction. Comparisons have been made regarding the black humor in both the films, the theme of accidents,[10] and more concretely, the style of dialogue and narrative style that Tarantino incorporates into both of his movies.[41] Also, the theme of racism plays a big part in the films, specifically the relationship between whites and blacks. Stanley Crouch of The New York Times compared the way the white criminals speak of blacks in Reservoir Dogs to the way they are spoken of in Scorsese's Mean Streets and Goodfellas. Crouch observed the way the blacks are looked down upon in Reservoir Dogs, but also the way that the criminals accuse each other of "verbally imitating" the blacks and the characters' apparent sexual attraction to black actress Pam Grier.[41]
Region 1 DVDs of Reservoir Dogs have been released multiple times. The first release was a single two-sided disc from LIVE Entertainment, released in June 1997 and featuring both pan-and-scan and letterbox versions of the film.[42] Five years later, Artisan did a two-disc 10th anniversary edition featuring multiple covers color-coded to match the nicknames of five of the characters (Pink, White, Orange, Blonde and Brown) and a disc of bonus features such as interviews with the cast and crew.[43]
For the 15th anniversary of the film, Lionsgate, which had purchased Artisan in the interim, produced a two-disc 15th anniversary edition with a remastered 16x9 transfer, a new supplement, but not all of the extra features from the 10th Anniversary edition.[44] In particular, interviews with the cast and crew were dropped, and a new 48-minute-long feature called "Tributes and Dedications" was included.[44] The packaging for the 15th anniversary edition is fancier: the discs are enclosed in a large matchbook, and the matchbook is in a thin aluminum case made to resemble a gas can.
| Reservoir Dogs | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | ||||
| Released | October 13, 1992 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 30:50 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
| Quentin Tarantino film soundtracks chronology | ||||
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The Reservoir Dogs: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was the first soundtrack for a Quentin Tarantino film and set the structure his later soundtracks would follow.[45] This includes the use of snippets of dialogue from the film. The soundtrack has selections of songs from the 1970s. The radio station "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies" played a prominent role in the film.[46] The DJ for the radio was chosen to be Steven Wright, a comedian known for his deadpan delivery of jokes.[4]
An unusual feature of the soundtrack was the choice of songs. The film uses music from the 1970s. Tarantino has said that he feels the music to be a counterpoint to the on-screen violence and action.[47] He also stated that he wished for the film to have a 1950s feel while using '70s music.[47] A prominent instance of this is the torture scene to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle with You".[48]
A video game based on the film was released in 2006 for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2. However, the game does not feature the likeness of any of the actors with the exception of Michael Madsen. GameSpot called it "an out and out failure".[49] It caused controversy for its amount of violence and was banned in Australia[50] and New Zealand.[51]
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