Quentin Tarantino is one of the most revered contemporary directors, creator of such films as Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, and the Kill Bill films. Reservoir Dogs was his directorial debut. Though he’s made a number of great films since, it remains my favorite.
The Set-Up
A group of thieves are planning a diamond heist. None of them know each other, they’ve been brought together by gangster boss Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). Joe assigns each of them a code name. That way if anyone gets caught they can’t give any information on the others.
The movie does not unfold chronologically. Instead, it is split into three main chunks that tell the stories of Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) , and Mr. Orange (Tim Roth). Quickly, we learn that the heist went wrong and the thieves suspect it was a setup. Later, the audience finds out that one of the main characters is a cop. The tensions between the thieves continue to rise as they try to figure out who set them up.
Why It’s Great
Reservoir Dogs is my favorite Tarantino movie, but I’m not going to claim it’s his best. But in terms of sheer enjoyment from beginning to end, it’s no contest. There are no lulls in this movie.
So, I can’t really tell why it’s great, but I will tell you why I love it. I love what Tarantino did on a small budget. The majority of the movie takes place in one location and there are only a few other limited locations in the movie. The big heist gone wrong, you never actually see. But the movie never feels like a play transferred to the screen.
The shots are unique, even for Tarantino. There are a lot of long shots with limited cuts. It has an almost 70s feel to it as sometimes the characters are speaking far away from the audience. When the camera moves it is to set up a reveal.
This film is very dialogue heavy. But every conversation is interesting because it works on multiple levels. There are a lot of pop culture critique discussions, but those discussions still reveal character and advance plot. I think I have a lot of the back and forth in this movie memorized but I still enjoy it each time.
The actors are great in this movie and they have great chemistry together. It’s probably the best and scariest Michael Madsen performance of all time. Keitel’s gangster has more layers than you would expect. Steve Buscemi gives another fine weasely performance, but his character here also has an obsession with “being a professional”.
If you like films by Tarantino and his ilk, you’ll probably love this. In many way it is the blueprint for his subsequent work. If you’re interested in how big a movie can seem on a limited budget you should definitely check this movie out. If you don’t like violent movies, do not watch this. There is more than one shootout and one very disturbing scene.