Review: Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Reservoir Dogs marked the directorial debut of Quentin Tarantino. Originally working as a video store clerk in California, Tarantino was advised by Hollywood producer Laurence Bender to write a screenplay, but he went one better: he wrote two. After selling the rights to his other screenplay, True Romance (1993), for $50, 000, Quentin used his earnings to finance Reservoir Dogs. Released as an independant film in 1992, Reservoir Dogs became a massive critical hit, and introduced the world to a different style of filmmaking. A style that involved a lot of swearing, a decent amount of violence, and an awful lot of fun.

A group of strangers, who go by colours as names, come together in the hopes of pulling off a major jewelery heist. Yet, despite careful preperations and a seemingly perfect plan, the heist goes horribly wrong. The remaining members of the team are then left wondering how the cops found out about the heist, and whether of not there is a rat within their group.

"Are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?"

As I previously stated, Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino's first feature film, and, not only did he direct and star in the picture, he also wrote the screenplay. I'll tell ya, the way that man writes dialogue is phenomenial. It's fast paced and extremely smart, especially during scenes in which his characters have long conversations about completely random topics. An example of this is the first scene of Reservoir Dogs, where the characters sit around a table in a restaurant and analyse Madonna's "Like a Virgin". Interesting stuff, genuinely.

I read somewhere that Reservoir Dogs contains 269 uses of the word "fuck". That mean that fuck, or a variation of it, is said almost 3 times every minute. Now, that sounds a bit extreme, and it is, really. I'm sure this film would have been just as good without all the bad language, but that's Tarantino's style. It's how his characters would talk if they were real, and he remains faithful to that.

"Somebody's shoved a red-hot poker up our ass, and I want to know whose name is on the handle!"

This film also contains an exteme amount of violence. There is a scene in the movie where a man has his ear cut off, and it is gruesome. Very hard to watch. This same man is then doused with petrol, before being shot several times. In fact, many people are shot several times throughout the course of Reservoir Dogs, and there's plenty of blood to prove it. If seeing blood upsets you in any way, then I would not recommend watching this film.

Reservoir Dogs is comprised of a superb cast, which includes Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, and Tarantino himself. In my opinion, no one member of cast stands out greater than another. They are all excellent in this film, and deliver Tarantino's dialogue brilliantly, which, I imagine, is no easy feat.

Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino's first film, and one of his finest. 9/10

Trivia: In the theatrical release of Reservoir Dogs, there were no female speaking parts. However, in the 10th anniverary special edition DVD, there are several (featured in scenes that were deleted from the original film).