Usually I am not for gritty, violent, or bloody movies, as you may become acquainted with as I continue this blog. Reservoir Dogs, then, is certainly an exception to this rule. The imagery of a man having his ear cut off and being dowsed in gasoline is certainly one that still haunts me and keeps me up at night. While I would more often than not be sickened and turned off by this scene, I have come to expect such "quirks", if you will, from Tarantino movies.
Reservoir Dogs is the first of Tarantino's movies, and certainly one that I still regard amongst his best. Since his debut Tarantino has brought some of the most powerful and provocative movies, certainly some of my favorites, such as: Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill (volumes 1 and 2), and most recently Django Unchained. It seems everyone is acquainted with Tarantino's work and if you are not I highly urge you to visit you local video store, or Netflix, and do some serious movie watching.
The plot of Reservoir Dogs is quite simple, a group of miscellaneous characters get together to pull of a robbery. Each character is assigned a pseudonym, in the form of colors, to preserve their anonymity. Unfortunately the group is infiltrated and it turns out that one of them is actually an undercover cop. The movies is told through flashbacks to the characters' pasts and how they came about being involved in the heist. Only a few characters pasts are shown: Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, and Mr. Orange.
The movies opens in a diner, not unlike Pulp Fiction, where characters have a simple conversation concerning tipping, which to this day I believe to be a very comical and quote worthy scene. The camera pans around the table and we get a tiny taste of what the characters are like, but we have no idea what the movie is about, the next scene is Mr. Orange profusely bleeding in the back of a car while Mr. White tries desperately to calm him down. It is like Tarantino gave you a nice symphony that suddenly broke into screamo.
The rest of the movie takes place in the gang's meet up place where they try to figure out who could possibly be the snitch. All hell breaks loose here as Mr. Orange lies on the ground dying, Mr. Pink accuses everyone, Mr. White tries to keep the order, and Mr. Blonde goes bat shit crazy. We see flashbacks and slowly get closer to finding out who the snitch is. The use of flashbacks is my favorite thing in this movie. The plot, the writing, the story are all so basic (with the exception of Mr. White, and this is not bad) but the editing make it unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The present isn't what makes the story, the past is the story. We don't see the robbery which is the entire cause for the situation but we see the gathering of people and what part they are meant to play.
The ending was also shocking. While you may think twist endings are cheap story writing, this ending was one for the books. Throughout this entire movie I never expected anything like it. I would love to comment on the use of transition in the way that we do not truly see how the ending happens precisely but I do not want to ruin it for anyone who may not have seen it, which you should immediately, stop reading this and go watch it.
The acting should also be commemorated. The cast is one that I personally regard amongst movies' finest, and most of them also appear again in later Tarantino films. Harvey Keitel (White), Steve Buscemi (Pink), and Tim Roth (Orange) all appear in Pulp Fiction where Mr. Blonde's character is one of the Vega brothers. Michael Madsen (Blonde) also appears in Kill Bill. Tarantino also makes a cameo as Mr. Brown and in some of his later films.
Overall, Reservoir Dogs is one of my all time favorite movies, which is not a title I give out gracefully. I am a huge fan of Mr. Tarantino and if he sees this, which he won't, I'd love to interview you sir! But I digress, Reservoir Dogs is phenomenal in every way, the screenplay and directing could not be better and it is a huge accomplishment that someone could create this masterpiece as their first full length film and I could only one day hope to be as close to this amazing (I won't be). If you do happen to see Reservoir Dogs I recommend checking out all other works by Tarantino and trying to piece together his amazing Tarantino universe (a challenge even though I have seen all his movies). The man is a master of his art.
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