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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Reservoir Dogs

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Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American heist film and the debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, though not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast with 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 and aesthetics that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, memorable dialogue, profuse profanity, and a nonlinear storyline.
The film has become a classic of independent film and a cult hit.[2] 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 Pulp Fiction. It is often criticized for its high degree of violence and profanity, and audience members reportedly walked out during the film's now notorious torture scene.
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 video game was released which was banned in some jurisdictions for its violence.

Plot

Opening sequence of the film, an iconic slow-motion scene playing "Little Green Bag" by the George Baker Selection.
The film opens to eight men eating breakfast at a diner. Six of them wear matching suits and 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). Among them is Los Angeles gangster Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney), and his son, "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot (Chris Penn). Mr. Brown discusses his comparative analysis on Madonna's "Like a Virgin", Joe's senior moments involving his address book rankle Mr. White, and Mr. Pink defends his anti-tipping policy until Joe forces him to leave a tip for the waitresses.
The action cuts to the interior of a speeding car. Mr. White, driving with one hand, is trying to comfort Mr. Orange, who has been shot in the abdomen and is bleeding while screaming in delirium. They arrive at an abandoned warehouse, the robbers' rendezvous point. Mr. White leaves Mr. Orange on the floor when Mr. Pink appears, angrily suggesting that their robbery of a jeweler, orchestrated by Joe Cabot, was a police setup, indicated by the rapid response of the police to the alarm. White agrees, and they wearily get their stories straight with each other. The scene cuts to Mr. Pink escaping with the diamonds. Mr. White reveals to Mr. Pink that Mr. Brown has been shot and killed by the police, and the whereabouts of Mr. Blonde and Mr. Blue are unknown to both. The film then cuts back to a scene indicating Mr. White's long-time friendship with Joe Cabot.
After taking care of an unconscious Mr. Orange, the two men discuss the actions of the psychopathic Mr. Blonde, who murdered several civilians after the alarm had been triggered. Mr. White is angered about Joe's decision to employ such a psychopath and agrees about the possibility of a setup, while Mr. Pink confesses to having hidden the diamonds in a secure location. However, they violently argue about whether or not to take the unconscious Mr. Orange to a hospital when Mr. White reveals that he had told the former his true first name. Mr. Blonde, who has been watching them from the shadows, steps forward and ends the dispute. White angrily criticizes Blonde for his antics, while Blonde calmly defends himself. He tells them not to leave the rendezvous as Nice Guy Eddie is on his way. Mr. Blonde walks to his car and opens the trunk to reveal a captured police officer named Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz). The scene cuts back to reveal that Mr. Blonde became involved in the heist because of his friendship with Nice Guy Eddie.
The three men beat the policeman and demand that he tell them who the informant is. He protests that he does not know. This continues until a furious Eddie arrives at the warehouse. After berating the men over the carnage and incompetence displayed at the heist, he orders Mr. Pink and Mr. White to assist him in retrieving the stolen diamonds and disposing of the hijacked vehicles. He orders Mr. Blonde to stay with Marvin and Mr. Orange, who is dying. Nash states that he has been a police officer for eight months and is ignorant as to a possible setup. He then pleads with Mr. Blonde to release him without further incident. However, after the others leave, Mr. Blonde confesses to enjoying torture, and is uninterested in what the cop does and does not know. Blonde turns on the radio and dances to "Stuck in the Middle With You" before severing Marvin's ear with a straight razor, dousing him in gasoline and making a small trail of the remaining gasoline in front of the policeman. Just as he is about to drop a lighter on the trail of gasoline leading to the policeman, Mr. Orange shoots Mr. Blonde several times and saves Marvin from being burned to death, leaving the two alone in the warehouse. Mr. Orange reveals he is a police detective named Freddy Newandyke, and Marvin says he is aware of this because he briefly met him a few months earlier. Mr. Orange reassures Marvin that a massive police force is in position several blocks downtown but are waiting to move in when Joe arrives.
A series of character development scenes detail Mr. Orange's involvement in an undercover police operation to capture Joe, and his developing friendship with Mr. White. The action cuts to Mr. Brown as he is shot in the head and dies while trying to escape with Orange and White; Mr. Orange being shot in the stomach by a female driver of the car he stole along with Mr. White; and Mr. Orange shooting and killing the woman after she shoots him.
The remainder of the heist group returns to the warehouse to find Mr. Blonde dead. Mr. Orange claims that Mr. Blonde was going to kill Marvin, Mr. Orange and the rest of the gang so that he could take the diamonds for himself. Boiling over with rage, Eddie reveals Blonde's back story and that he was a close friend of his and a loyal soldier of his father's. Orange struggles to defend himself, which makes Eddie even angrier and he fatally shoots Marvin three times. Joe arrives and, after informing the group that Mr. Blue was killed, confidently accuses Mr. Orange of being an informant, forcing Mr. White to defend his friend. A Mexican standoff ensues, leaving Joe and Eddie dead, Mr. White severely wounded, and Mr. Orange shot again. Mr. Pink, who hid to avoid the shootout, takes the cache of diamonds and flees the warehouse.
As police sirens are heard outside, Mr. White cradles Mr. Orange in his arms and Mr. Orange reveals that he is in fact a detective. This devastates Mr. White, who begins sobbing in frustration and points his gun at Mr. Orange's head as police can be heard outside capturing and arresting Mr. Pink. The police then enter the warehouse (with the camera in a close-up of Mr. White's face), demanding Mr. White drop his gun; he refuses and shoots Mr. Orange, resulting in the police opening fire on Mr. White just before the film ends.

[edit]Cast

[edit]Production

Tarantino had been working as a video store clerk in Redondo Beach and was originally going to shoot the film with his friends on a budget of $30,000 on 16 mm[4] format with producer Lawrence Bender playing Nice Guy Eddie. However, when actor Harvey Keitel became involved he agreed to act in the film and co-produce.[5] 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.[6]
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".[6] The film's plot was suggested by the 1952 movie Kansas City Confidential.[7] Additionally, Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Combo inspired the scene where a cop is tortured in a chair.[7] Tarantino has denied that he plagiarized with Reservoir Dogs instead claiming that he does homages.[8] 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.
One unique feature of the film is that the actual heist is never shown. Tarantino has said that the reason for not showing the heist 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".[6] 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".[9]

[edit]Reception

Reservoir Dogs opened in 19 theaters with a first week total of $147,839 in the United States.[10] The film was never released to more than 61 theaters in the US and totaled $2,832,029 at the box office there.[10] The film gained most of its success after the popularity of Pulp Fiction. However, in Britain, the film was a success immediately and gained recognition.[citation needed] After its success in Britain, it was put into theSundance Film Festival. Empire Magazine named it the "Greatest Independent Film ever made".[11] The movie has since come to be seen as an important and highly-influential milestone of independent filmmaking.[12] Reservoir Dogs carries a 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes,[13] whileMetacritic carries an average rating of 78/100, based on 23 critic reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.[14]
Reservoir Dogs has inspired many other independent films and is considered key in the development of independent cinema.[15] TheBollywood film Kaante from Sanjay Gupta is an unauthorized remake of Reservoir Dogs featuring a similar plot and dialogue style.[16]
The film was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.[17] It won the Critic's Award at the 4th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1993 which Tarantino attended.[18]

[edit]Critical reaction

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.[15] Vincent Canby of theNew 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.[19] Kenneth Turan of the LA 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."[20]
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".[21]
Reservoir Dogs has received substantial criticism for its strong violence and language. One particular scene that viewers found unnerving wasMichael Madsen's ear-cutting scene, and Madsen himself reportedly had a great deal of difficulty finishing the scene especially after Kirk Baltz ad-libbed the desperate plea "I've got a little kid at home".[22] Many people have left theaters during the film and Tarantino commented 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.[6]
During a screening of the movie at a Film Festival in Barcelona, fifteen people walked out, including renowned Horror film Director Wes Cravenand Special Effects artist Rick Baker.[23] Baker later told Tarantino to take the walk out as a "compliment" and explained that he found the violence unnerving because of its heightened sense of realism.[23]
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.[6] After this film, Tarantino was also compared to Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah, John Singleton, Gus Van Sant, and Abel Ferrara.[8] For its nonlinear storyline, Reservoir Dogs has also often been compared toRashomon.[8] Critic James Berardinelli was of a similar opinion; he complimented both the cast and Tarantino's dialogue writing abilities.[24]Hal Hinson of The Washington Post was similarly enthusiastic about the cast, complimenting the film on its "deadpan sense of humor".[25]Todd McCarthy called the film "undeniably impressive" and was of the opinion that it was influenced by Mean Streets, Goodfellas and The Killing.[26]

[edit]Critical analysis

Reservoir Dogs has often been seen as a prominent film in terms of on-screen violence.[12][27][28] J.P. Telotte compared Reservoir Dogs to classic caper noir films and points out the irony in its ending scenes.[29] Mark Irwin also made the connection between Reservoir Dogs and classic American noir.[30]
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.[9] Caroline Jewers called Reservoir Dogs a "feudal epic" and compared it toPulp Fiction. She paralleled the color pseudonyms to color names of medieval knights.[31]
A frequently cited comparison has been to Tarantino's second and more successful film Pulp Fiction[9][30][32] 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,[9] and more concretely, the style of dialogue and narrative style that Tarantino incorporates into both of his movies.[33]Also, the prominent 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'sMean 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.[33]

[edit]Home releases

Region 1 DVDs of Reservoir Dogs have been released multiple times. The first release was a single two-sided disc from Artisan Entertainment, released in June 1997 and featuring both pan-and-scan and letterbox versions of the film.[34] 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-full of bonus features such as interviews with the cast and crew.[35]
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.[36] In particular, interviews with the cast and crew were dropped, and a new 48-minute-long feature called "Tributes and Dedications" was included.[36] 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.

[edit]Soundtrack

Reservoir Dogs
Soundtrack by Various Artists
ReleasedOctober 13, 1992
GenreRock
Length30:50
LabelMCA
Professional reviews
Quentin Tarantino film soundtracks chronology
Reservoir Dogs
(1992)		Pulp Fiction
(1994)
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.[37] This includes the use of snippets of dialogue from the film. The soundtrack has selections of songs from the 70s. The radio station "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies" played a prominent role in the film.[38]The DJ for the radio was chosen to be Steven Wright, a comedian known for his deadpan delivery of jokes.[3]
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.[39] He also stated that he wished for the film to have a '50s feel while using '70s music.[39] A prominent instance of this is the torture scene to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle With You".[40]
Track listing



  1. "And Now Little Green Bag..." (Dialogue extract performed by Steven Wright) – 0:15
  2. "Little Green Bag" by The George Baker Selection – 3:15
  3. "Rock Flock of Five" (Dialogue extract performed by Steven Wright) – 0:11
  4. "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede – 2:53
  5. "Bohemiath" (Dialogue extract performed by Steven Wright) – 0:34
  6. "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex – 2:27
  7. "Magic Carpet Ride" by Bedlam – 5:10
  8. "Madonna Speech" (Dialogue extract performed by Quentin Tarantino, Edward Bunker,Lawrence Tierney, Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel) – 0:59
  9. "Fool for Love" by Sandy Rogers – 3:25
  10. "Super Sounds" (Dialogue extract performed by Steven Wright) – 0:19
  11. "Stuck in the Middle" by Stealers Wheel – 3:23
  12. "Harvest Moon" by Bedlam – 2:38
  13. "Let's Get a Taco" (Dialogue extract performed by Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth) – 1:02
  14. "Keep on Truckin'" (Dialogue extract performed by Steven Wright) – 0:16
  15. "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson – 3:50
  16. "Home of Rock" (Dialogue extract performed by Steven Wright) – 0:05

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