Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Writers:

Quentin Tarantino (written by)
Roger Avary (background radio dialog) ...

Release Date:

23 October 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Seven Total Strangers Team Up For The Perfect Crime. They Don't Know Each Other's Name. But They've Got Each Other's Color

Plot:

After a simple jewelery heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.

Plot Keywords:

Immaturity | Jerk | Homage | Film With Ambiguous Title | Gore

Awards:

8 wins & 5 nominations

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Harvey Keitel	...	Mr. White - Larry Dimmick
Tim Roth	...	Mr. Orange - Freddy Newandyke
Michael Madsen	...	Mr. Blonde - Vic Vega
Chris Penn	...	Nice Guy Eddie Cabot
Steve Buscemi	...	Mr. Pink
Lawrence Tierney	...	Joe Cabot
Randy Brooks	...	Holdaway
Kirk Baltz	...	Ofcr. Marvin Nash
Edward Bunker	...	Mr. Blue (as Eddie Bunker)
Quentin Tarantino	...	Mr. Brown
Steven Wright	...	K-Billy DJ (voice)
Rich Turner	...	Sheriff #1
David Steen	...	Sheriff #2
Tony Cosmo	...	Sheriff #3
Stevo Polyi	...	Sheriff #4

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and language.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Singapore:M18 (cut) | Philippines:R-18 | Hungary:18 | Australia:MA (TV rating) | Finland:K-18 | Finland:K-16 (cut) | Brazil:18 | Australia:R | Belgium:KNT | Canada:18+ (Québec) | Canada:R | Denmark:15 (DVD rating) | France:-16 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:III | Iceland:16 | Ireland:18 | Israel:18 | Italy:VM18 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:(Banned) (original rating) | South Korea:18 (re-rating) | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Johnie's Coffee Shop - 6101 Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Live Entertainment

Trivia:

Quentin Tarantino wrote the first draft in three and a half weeks.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the beginning diner scene, after Mr. Pink finally puts a dollar in for the tip, they all get up and start to walk away from the table. Nice Guy Eddie leaves his "brick" cell phone on the table.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mr. Brown: Let me tell you what 'Like a Virgin' is about. It's all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song. It's a metaphor for big dicks.
Mr. Blonde: No, no. It's about a girl who is very vulnerable. She's been fucked over a few times. Then she meets some guy who's really sensitive...
Mr. Brown: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... Time out Greenbay. Tell that fucking bullshit to the tourists.
Joe: Toby... Who the fuck is Toby? Toby...
Mr. Brown: 'Like a Virgin' is not about this nice girl who meets a nice fella. That's what "True Blue" is about, now, granted, no argument about that.
Mr. Orange: Which one is 'True Blue'?
Nice Guy Eddie: 'True Blue' was a big ass hit for Madonna. I don't even follow this Tops In Pops shit, and I've at least heard of "True Blue".
Mr. Orange: Look, asshole, I didn't say I ain't heard of it. All I asked was how does it go? Excuse me for not being the world's biggest Madonna fan.
Mr. Orange: Personally, I can do without her.
Mr. Blue: I like her early stuff. You know, 'Lucky Star', 'Borderline' - but once she got into her 'Papa Don't Preach' phase, I don't know, I tuned out.
Mr. Brown: Hey, you guys are making me lose my... train of thought here. I was saying something, what was it?
Joe: Oh, Toby was this Chinese girl, what was her last name?
Mr. White: What's that?
Joe: I found this old address book in a jacket I ain't worn in a coon's age. What was that name?
Mr. Brown: What the fuck was I talking about?
Mr. Pink: You said 'True Blue' was about a nice girl, a sensitive girl who meets a nice guy, and that 'Like a Virgin' was a metaphor for big dicks.
Mr. Brown: Lemme tell you what 'Like a Virgin' is about. It's all about this cooze who's a regular fuck machine, I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.
Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that?
Mr. White: A lot.
Mr. Brown: Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker and it's like, whoa baby, I mean this cat is like Charles Bronson in the 'Great Escape', he's digging tunnels. Now, she's gettin' the serious dick action and she's feeling something she ain't felt since forever. Pain. Pain.
Joe: Chew? Toby Chew?
Mr. Brown: It hurts her. It shouldn't hurt her, you know, her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when this cat fucks her it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it once was like to be a virgin. Hence, 'Like a Virgin'.
Joe: Wong?

Movie Connections:

References "Baretta" (1975)

Soundtrack:

MAGIC CARPET RIDE

Simply brilliant; short, tight and taut

Crime boss Joe Cabot brings together a group of criminals to perform a big one-off job. To protect each other, they all use colour coded names. However on the day of the job, the police ambush the gang and each makes their own getaway. As the gang comes together at their warehouse meeting point they realise that someone within the gang must have tipped the police or be an undercover. The accusations and suspicions escalate into violence in the confines of the warehouse.

When this film came out in the UK it caused an absolute firestorm of controversy over it's violence, even to the point that it was banned in the UK for a while. I still find this absurd and am very glad we have moved to a more tolerant society where generally the BBFC protect vulnerable groups but let adults decide for themselves. Looking at the media's adoring welcome for the ultra violent Kill Bill one can't help but marvel at how things have changed. Looking at Reservoir Dogs now (or even then!) it simply isn't THAT violent. However what it is is very sudden and all the more powerful for it.

Tarantino directs the film and writes the film in such a way that it was impossible to ignore him even if the film was only a cult hit. The dialogue is both witty at points but, more importantly, very tough and loaded with testosterone. It is the writing that makes us like these coffee shop jokers at the start before shocking us by suddenly throwing us into a backseat bloodbath. The entire job happens off camera, and only occasionally do we actually see the immediate effect of violence - usually we get the aftermath. It is incredibly tight and very tense throughout, I was about 16 when my father took me to see this film - it has stayed with me since and I still considered it to be one of the best `job gone wrong' films of my generation. It may not be original (there's a thin line between a homage and a rip off) but it is certainly effectively done.

The cast are excellent and turn the hardboiled dialogue into convincing scenes. Keitel is wonderful. His character is a father figure of sorts and he is wildly out of control at times and balanced at others. Likewise Buscemi is wide-eyed and freaking out for much of the film, but he does it well. Roth is more balanced but is still good for it; it is his job to carry the emotional weight of the film and he does it well, despite a wandering American accent at times. Madsen is great, maybe not the best character but wildly out of control. Tierney was a great piece of casting, as was Bunker. Penn is good but not the best of the cast.

Tarantino mercifully has little acting to do, but it is his film as writer and director. The flashbacks during the film was a brave way to do it but it really works well - mixing stories with flashbacks and so on. No matter what the time of the scene, it all keeps moving tensely towards the climax. It may be a homage and not as original as some films but so what - it is tight and tense, macho, violent, funny and very enjoyable.