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Dom Robinson reviews
Reservoir Dogs
Distributed by
Momentum Pictures
Producer:
Screenplay:
Music Supervisor:
Cast:
Mr. White: Harvey Keitel
Mr. Orange: Tim Roth
Nice Guy Eddie: Chris Penn
Mr. Pink: Steve Buscemi
Joe: Lawrence Tierney
Mr. Blonde: Michael Madsen
Mr. Brown: Quentin Tarantino
Mr. Blue: Eddie Bunker
"Like A Virgin" is all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick.
Those are the first words you hear, but isn't this supposed to be an
ultra-violent heist movie? Why are they chatting about what's in the charts
from years gone by? That's because Tarantino's script for this - and his
subsequent films, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, show that
even men with guns can talk about the less meaningful things in life. They
all have discussions about nothing just like us - it's just that previous
films have rarely, if ever, gone at great lengths to make their characters
seem more human and it's all the better for that.
Note though that this isn't a film for those who take offence to characters
using a constant stream of strong or racist language.
The film is a part rip-off, er.. I mean "homage", to John Woo's
City on Fire
which starred Chow Yun Fat, including the final four-way confrontation,
but here it takes place over a weekend on which the local radio station is
having a "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s weekend" - and all those
tracks make the soundtrack, including Stealer's Wheel's "Stuck in
the Middle with You" during the infamous torture scene, which was aped
in an episode of The Simpsons' "Itchy and Scratchy" cartoon "with guest
director Quentin Tarantino".
In another homage to another heist film, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,
all the characters have the names of colours to protect their own identity.
Told in flashback, six men are recruited to pull off a heist at a jeweller's
shop with a brilliant cast: the thoughtful Mr. White (Harvey Keitel),
the shit-scared Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), the fast-talking Mr. Pink
(Steve Buscemi) most-knowned for the fact that "I don't tip.",
the psychopath Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Madonna fan Mr. Brown
(Quentin Tarantino) and the man for whom we know little Mr. Blue
(Eddie Bunker).
Managing the job is Mr. White's friend Joe (Lawrence Tierney) and
there's back up from his son "Nice Guy" Eddie (Chris Penn).
What makes this different from other films is not only the flashback sequences
telling you what went on, since the post-opening-credits-sequence opens
with Mr. Orange bleeding over the back seat of a car and Mr. White panicking
like hell, but the links between this and others with which Quentin Tarantino
has been involved.
Mr. White also used to go out with Alabama, the girl played by Patricia
Arquette in
True Romance,
which was also written by Tarantino, as was Pulp Fiction and that
film's Vincent Vega (John Travolta) is the brother of this film's
Mr. Blonde, aka Vic Vega. Tarantino also wrote Natural Born Killers,
but its director Oliver Stone rewrote it and Tarantino had his name
taken off it.
Also, although not a Tarantino link, it's interesting to know that the woman
who put the bullet in Tim Roth's stomach was his dialogue coach. He gets to
fire back, but he wanted to have some way of getting back at the person who
forced him to perfect his American accent.
The film is presented in its original cinematic ratio of 2.35:1 and is
anamorphic. Tarantino uses the full width of the frame very well indeed
and it looks gorgeous throughout with no artifacts. It's set during the day
so there are no night-time scenes bar occasional flashbacks. The only slight
downside comes during chapter 7 when the dialogue goes very slightly out of
sync with the picture for about 3 minutes.
The average bitrate is 5.49Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound is Dolby Pro Logic as it was filmed - with English dialogue only -
and films the room with rich sound during the many songs featured, occasional
gunfire and plenty of background ambience.
Extras :
There's not much in the way of extras here, but I'm just glad to have this
on DVD anyway. We are given a near-two-minute Theatrical trailer in
non-anamorphic 16:9 and a 9-minute Introduction by Quentin Tarantino
which tells us how the film came together and how impressed he was when
Harvey Keitel told him how much he'd love to star in it.
The only subtitles come in English and Dutch and the main menu features
some subtle animation with a snippet of "Coconut" plaing in the background
on a short loop.
The Reservoir Dogs boxset (£29.99) contains:
the DVD, 10 full colour postcard prints
and the "Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies" book.
This a film I could watch a million times, but for the rest of you who are
new to it, after you've seen it for the first time and know who the rat in
the house is you can watch it again and see how the others reacted to the
rat at any particular point in the film.
And why is it called Reservoir Dogs? According to Tarantino, "Because
they're DOGS man.. and they're like, from the RESERVOIR, man!". Hmm...
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
The following is a list of all the Quentin Tarantino movies online to date
(region 2, except where specified) :
2004 Kill Bill Vol.2
2004 Kill Bill Vol.1
2004 Kill Bill Vol.1 (R1 DVD)
2004 Reservoir Dogs: Special Edition
2002 Jackie Brown: Collector's Edition (R1 DVD)
2002 Pulp Fiction: Classic Collection Box Set
2000 Reservoir Dogs
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
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