Tarantino’s debut is still one of his best films. The opening sequence has been often imitated and referenced, but it does showcase Tarantino’s use of banter, natural dialogue and pop culture to bring his characters to life. Here it works well, immediately giving the audience a sense of all the important personalities within the film and the relationships between them. By dropping us into the aftermath of the heist, the film’s strength is in the use of flashback to build intrigue over what happened, but equally important is the hook that there might be an insider. This allows Tarantino to gradually develop his characters in the flashbacks beyond simply focusing on how the dilemma they find themselves in will be solved. Buscemi and Keitel in particular stand out and whilst Madsen has repeated himself ad nauseam in other films, he is still effective here. The soundtrack and costume design all serve to emphasise how hip and cool the characters are, but this is punctuated with the violence that remind us they are brutal too. Its this juxtaposition of coolness and violence that marked the film out as something different, no more so than in the still shocking scene of Madsen torturing someone. Some of the flashback scenes do occasionally outstay their welcome, though there is a lot of humour drawn out from them and the authenticity in his dialogue that Tarantino appears to strive for is sometimes stretched as characters vie to show who is top dog. But these minor quibbles don’t stop this from being a tightly edited and well paced crime thriller.

What Tarantino was able to accomplish here with such an obvious low budget is incredible. The story is so simple, most of the time is spent in one location, and yet this film is so captivating. Six criminals are hired by crime boss to pull off a heist. We do not know any details of the heist other than that the criminals are looking to steal valuable diamonds. Now if this story was told chronologically, it would be rather boring. However, the way that Tarantino plays with time makes for a rather suspensful movie.

When we are first introduced to the criminals there is not much that differentiates them. They all wear similar clothing and are eating a meal together at a diner. Slowly we are able to gather pieces of information about the characters based off this ten minute opening scene. For example, we learn that Mr. Pink is sort of a smart-ass as he refuses to pay a $1 tip. We see more of this from him later in the "Mr. Pink" scene. With the exception of Mr. Orange, the guys seem to be offly relaxed, so we can gather that they are confident the heist they are about to pull off is going to go as planned. Fast-forward to after the credits and we see this is not the case.


Through flashbacks we slowly learn about the four main criminals. Through these flashbacks coupled with the scenes in the warehouse we are slowly able to put together the pieces of the story.

Fantastic movie!

The Five Faces of **_RESERVOIR DOGS_**

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:heart_eyes:

The opening scene introduces our characters, and even though we hardly learn anything about them we already feel like members of their little group. Hearing them discuss **Madonna's** music and tipping culture feels very down-to-earth.

Most scenes are long and contained, so the film feels almost theatrical in its presentation. Amazing performances and great dialogue move the film forward.

The overall story is like a farce or a Shakespearean tragedy, down to the ridiculousness of the plot and the lunatic characters.

A special nod to **Steve Buscemi** (_Fargo_, 1998) in probably one of his most intense parts. He absolutely shines as Mr. Pink and puts in a career-defining performance.

**Harvey Keitel** (_Thelma & Louise_, 1991) and **Tim Roth** (_Rob Roy_, 1995) put in the best performances; they're hilarious, furious and tragic all at the same time.

The furious and energetic fighting between the characters is absolutely a joy to watch and forms the basis of the movie's plot.

**Quentin Tarantino's** (_Pulp Fiction_, 1994) feature film debut contains many details that will later become his trademarks: sharp and quotable dialogue, distinct characters, lots of blood, pop culture references and sudden bursts of action.

:smiley:

Reservoir Dogs contains several moments of brilliance, such as Keitel and Buscemi screaming at each other, Mr. Orange's little story to his partners or Mr. White (**Michael Madsen**; _The Hateful Eight_, 2015) dancing around a cop while torturing him.

Interesting choice of story progression, in true Tarantino fashion. We begin with the aftermath and the mystery and end with everything leading up to it. It's the type of non-linear storytelling Tarantino is famous for.

The ending is bizarre, over-the-top and incredibly theatrical. It's not the most creative Tarantino ending but is definitely memorable.

:neutral_face:

The film is extremely slow, as the dialogue and performances move the plot forward. Many scenes drag out for so long, that you forget their significance to the plot.

The scenes set in the past with Joe are meant to bring some exposition, but aren't as interesting as the scenes where team members interact with each other.

The simple story is stretched out to an extent, with the script staying on the same subject matter for quite some while before moving on.

Half of the gang barely appear in the film, which is a pity, since it would have been interesting to get to know Tarantino's interesting characters a little better.

The overall plot is a bit of a disappointment. No big twist or surprise, very little to chew on or contemplate afterwards. There's little reason to revisit this film.

:frowning2:

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:face_vomiting:

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**The Final Face: :smiley: // Good**

This unique take on the heist-film-gone-wrong was excellent--stylish and intelligently made, yet very funny and inexpensive. Tarantino's accolades from giving American cinema the resuscitation it needed mirrors what has happened, at least since the 70's, with Martin Scorsese's 'Mean Streets', both in terms of entertaining violence and usage of music in the scoring of films. I greatly thank Harvey Keitel for taking a chance on Tarantino back then--It paid off in spades.

The cuss-oriented squabbles of lowlife crooks for 99 minutes (and no women)

RELEASED IN 1992 and written/directed by Quentin Tarantino, "Reservoir Dogs” is a crime drama/thriller about a diamond heist gone disastrously wrong in Los Angeles wherein the surviving thugs bicker back-and-forth in a warehouse about which of their members is a police informant. The main thieves are played by Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen and Chris Penn while Lawrence Tierney appears as the old salt mastermind.

This was Tarantino’s first feature film, costing only $1,200,000, and it has quirky glimmerings of future greatness, as seen in “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Jackie Brown” (1997), “Kill Bill” (2003/2004), “Inglourious Basterds” (2009) and “Django Unchained” (2012), but “Reservoir” didn’t work for me. It’s hampered by a low-budget vibe, which I can handle, but not the uninteresting lowlife characters, their self-made conundrum, their interminably dull dialogue and the one-dimensional setting where about 80% of the story takes place in an old warehouse, not to mention no females in the main cast.

Still, it’s interesting to observe Tarantino’s first serious stab at filmmaking and it has its moments of genuine entertainment. It’s a lesson on humble beginnings, which shows potential while not being up to snuff.

THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 39 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles & Burbank.

GRADE: C-