Reservoir Dogs

And so another famous career begins. It is all here in Reservoir Dogs. The first scene in the movie is the blueprint for all of the famous Tarantino scenes that have followed, mainly people talking and definitely not talking to explain the plot. The rest of the movie is still classic 15 years later. The joy of watching the tension build till the bloody climax has not lessened now that many of the scenes have been talked about over and over and have been copied multiple times. Tarantino may have improved upon his design in subsequent films, but Reservoir Dogs does not suffer because of it.

With Reservoir Dogs, there are so many unforgettable scenes or lines or images that it will be difficult to not just list them as evidence enough. Still the point of a review is to defend your opinion with some level of detail, so I will struggle along. Seeing Tarantino characters have conversations about inane topics like the meanings behind songs or which actress was in what movie for the first time is very nostalgic. For me, those scenes are usually the best parts of his films and it’s that dialogue that I repeat over and over until it becomes apart of my daily vocabulary. If I had to play favorites it would probably be either “You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize” or anytime Mr. Orange is writhing in pain on the ground. The fact that Tim Roth spends the vast majority of the movement in a pool of blood moaning in pain is just outstanding. From his screaming “I’m dying here”, to shooting Mr. Blonde, to trying to talk his way out of being the mole, to his final admission to Mr. White he holds the whole movie together. And if isn’t the one to keep it together, keep it together, keep it together then Harvey Keitel was more than capable of picking up the slack. Although he may be a career criminal Mr. White seems like a reasonable guy, which makes him susceptible to Mr. Orange’s undercover cop. The conversation between Mr. White and Mr. Pink when they first get to the warehouse is perfect because the actors playing to their strengths, Buscemi playing paranoid and hyper while Keitel is trying to stay calm and figure out his next move. All of it leads to the final moments of the movie when, with both men dying, Orange tells White that he is the mole and you can just see how it crushes Keitel that he killed for the wrong man. The last actor that needs to be highlighted is of course Michael Madsen. In a career full of villainous roles, Mr. Blonde is the one that everyone associates with the man. And it all comes from one scene, one sick disturbing scene. It is not just the threatening, it is not just the dancing, it is not just the cutting, and it is not just the gasoline, it is the pure joy that Madsen is having while torturing the cop that makes this memorable. And since Reservoir Dogs is a heist movie where the heist went wrong, it was nice to have it all end up with a nice classic 4-man Mexican standoff. Which was made even better with Tim Roth on his back but still able to point his gun defiantly at Nice Guy Eddie. There is not much fault to be found here.

I am very thankful that by the time I became old enough to discern what is and is not a great movie Quentin Tarantino had entered the scene. Reservoir Dogs was just a nice breath of violent and profane air. And violent and profane air may just be my favorite kind of air. My only regret is that I didn’t see this in a theater to properly enjoy this new entrant into the movie game.

9 out of 10