Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Review (revisited) "You call this archaeology???!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I'd like to start this first post of 2023 to wish you all a Happy New Year and this post will be yet another revisitation (again I know!) of a previous one (which was a revisitation too!) and the subject of it will be the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So, it will be the usual expanding on bits of the previous review here and there and I will also add in my rating (which wasn't there before). 

So, with that said let's take a look at this action thriller 34 years on from its release...

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, the film begins in 1912 when Indy was just a teenager (played by the late River Phoenix).  Indy is on a boy scout trip with his class in Utah, where they break off into pairs look around the mountains.  Indy goes into one of the caves and finds some robbers who are digging for artifacts and they find a cross that belonged to Coronado, a historic Spanish explorer.  Indy, believing its an important artifact that belongs in a museum, nabs the cross while the robbers aren't looking, and he flees as the robbers chase him.

Indy during the chase, makes his way onto a circus train, and after a close quarters fight with the robbers, he manages to escape with the cross (courtesy of a magic trap door) and runs home.  Once Indy get's back home, the robbers call the local sheriff who comes around and forces him to give the cross back.  The leader of the robbers, who dresses similar to how Indy dresses in the future, is impressed with his grit, and gives him his fedora.

The film the cuts to 1938 where Indy is on a ship fighting to get back the Coronado cross from its acquired owner (the man whom it was given to back in 1912 credited only as "Panama Hat" in the film and played by Paul Maxwell).  In amid a fight, the ship is blown up and Indy escapes with the cross.  Indy makes it back to his college in America and gives Marcus (Denholm Elliot) the cross to place in his museum.

As Indy leaves the college he is approached by some men who take him to meet an antiques collector, Walter Donovan, who tells him that he is on a quest to find the holy grail, and that Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr (Sean Connery) who was helping them with their research, has gone missing.  Indy checks out his dad's home, but doesn't find him, but he remembers that he was sent a parcel, delivered to his office, which he opens and finds his dad's diary on the Holy Grail.

Indy then agrees to go to Venice with Marcus to meet up with Henry's Austrian colleague, Dr Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody).  They go to a library where Henry was last seen, and Indy discovers from the clues in his father's diary that the tomb of one of the knights of the holy crusade is buried underneath the library.

Indy and Elsa go underneath the library into the catacombs and eventually find the tomb that Indy spoke of, and inside there is the skeleton remains of the knight, who has a shield, which Indy uses his crayon paper rubbing of the shield (which is only half complete) to complete the shield image.  However as he does this, some men come down into the catacombs and set fire to the water (which is laced with petroleum).

Indy and Elsa managed to escape the catacombs to the surface and are given chase by the men on a speedboat, Indy eventually manages to fight one of them and forces him to answer why they are trying to kill him.  The man, Kazim, tells Indy that he is a member of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who are determined to keep the secret of the holy grail safe, Indy also asks if he knows where his father is being held, which the man eventually obliges, telling him that Henry is being held in a castle on the Austrian border.

Indy travels to the castle with Elsa, he manages to get inside and finds Henry (by crashing into his room using his whip to swing in through the windows!) who tells him that he sent his diary back to him so that it wouldn't fall into the Nazis hands, but he is appalled when he realises that Indy brought it with him.  However Indy is taken in by a ruse set by Elsa who appears to be held hostage by a German colonel, Ernst Vogel (Michael Byrne), but its revealed she is working with the Nazis as is Donovan, who are basically there to get the grail diary.

Indy and Henry are soon tied up and left in the castle, while Donovan and Elsa leave.  In an effort to escape the castle, Henry tries to use Indy's lighter to burn through the ropes, but he accidentally drops it, and it sets fire to the floor and soon the whole room.  Indy and Henry eventually escape the castle and are given chase by the Nazis on a motorbike, but they evade them, afterward Henry explains to Indy that they need to get the diary back as it has vital information to help them find the Grail.  Marcus meanwhile, who is hopelessly lost in Turkey, meets up with Sallah (John Ryhs Davies), and he has the grail map, which gives instructions to its location, but the Nazis soon capture Marcus.

Indy and Henry then go to Berlin to get the diary back, which Indy (dressed as a Nazi officer) takes them Elsa.  As they try to leave Germany in a zeppelin, but they are soon intercepted by the Nazis again, and  Indy and Henry escape in a small plane attached underneath the Zeppelin.  After a dogfight with Nazi planes, Indy and Henry managed to land the plane and thwart the other plane, by Henry shooing a lot of birds with his umbrella, who fly right into the path of plane, causing the pilot to crash it into a mountain.

Soon after Indy and Henry travel to Hatay and rejoin with Sallah, as they go after Marcus, who is being held captive by the Nazis.  Indy again soon gets involved in a fight in the desert with a Nazi convoy, as he takes on the Nazis in a tank (where Marcus is being held), and he rescues Marcus and Henry, and dives off the tank just before it goes over a cliff, killing Vogel.

The men eventually make their final journey to the canyon of the crescent moon, the location of the grail.  Indy, Henry, Marcus and Sallah enter the temple and find Donovan is using volunteers to try and get pass the traps set to reach the grail, but they are all killed.  Indy and the others are soon captured by Donovan's men, and Donovan forces Indy to get the grail, by shooting Henry in the chest.  Indy now must use his father's grail diary in order to traverse the traps ahead of him in order to reach the grail and try and save his dad's life....

THOUGHTS

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for me is easily the second best film in the Indiana Jones adventures (after Raiders) and after the breakneck pace and the gruesomeness of the Temple of Doom, the Last Crusade thankfully gets back to the tone of Raiders.  Its also great that we are reunited with Marcus and Sallah from Raiders as well, who both help to keep the tone from the original as well.

Last Crusade is also very funny and witty in various scenes, as the screenplay was written by Jeffrey Boam (who wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2 that same year) there plenty of amusing lines of dialogue throughout.  Its also a nice touch that we also get to see a bit of Indy's past, when we see him in the past as a young teenager, who makes the gutsy decision to steal the Coronado cross and try and escape from the group of robbers who dug it up in the caves. Boam a popular screenwriter himself sadly later died in 2000 from heart failure.

However one of the things that also helps make Last Crusade work so well is the relationship between Indy and his father, Henry, as Indy grew up, Henry was so embroiled his work over the Holy Grail, that he had little or no time for his son at all.  And there is a bitter tone from Indy, who clearly is not happy with the memories he had of his father in the past, and always refers to him in a negative light when he talks about him to Marcus, Elsa or anyone else in the film.  But at the same time when he meets up with his dad again, he does still stand to the attention of his dad, when Henry says something, Indy says "Yes, sir!".

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section will contain spoilers!)

Performance wise, the Last Crusade definitely has alot to offer and the cast are all on great form.

Starting with Harrison Ford, who is great once more as Indiana Jones and by this time he had grown so comfortably into the part, and he has share of highlights and good scenes in the film.

And to start off there is the scene where Indy along with Marcus, meets with Elsa in Venice and they go off to a library to find clues that would lead to the tomb of a knight from the Holy crusades in the quest to find the holy grail.  So, in the scene Indy works out that the tomb is actually somewhere within the library itself.

So, Indy says to Elsa "Dad wasn't looking for a book about the knight's tomb, he was looking for the tomb itself. Don't you get it? The tomb is somewhere in the library. You said yourself it used to be a church!".  So, Indy points out the Roman numerals on the glass windows "Three. Three. Seven. Seven. Ten. And ten...!" however Indy can't see the numeral for ten, so he says to Elsa and Marcus "Look around for the ten".  So, Indy looking around decides to go upstairs and he suddenly sees the Roman numeral for ten "X" and he says to Elsa and Marcus "Ten!  X marks the spot!" contradicting what he said to his students earlier about "X never marks the spot!". 

Another good scene is when Indy and Elsa start their romantic fling as Indy finds his room ransacked as well as Elsa's.  So, Elsa, looks shocked at her room and asks "What were they looking for?" and Indy produces the grail diary and says "This" and Elsa says "You had it?  You didn't trust me" and Indy says to her "I didn't know you".  Indy then says to Elsa "At least I let you tag along" and Elsa suddenly cross, says "Oh, yes!  Give them a flower and they'll follow you anywhere!" and Indy annoyed says "Knock it off!  You're not mad!" and Elsa spitefully says "No?!" and Indy says "No. You like the way I do things".  Elsa then angrily says "It's lucky I don't do things the same way.You'd still be standing at the Venice pier!".

Elsa then starts to walk out the room but Indy grabs her and says "Look, what do you think is going on here?! Since I met you, I've nearly been incinerated, drowned, shot at, and chopped into fish bait! We're caught in the middle of something sinister here. My guess is Dad found out more than he was looking for. And until I'm sure, I'm going to continue to do things the way I think they should be done!".  So, Indy then pulls Elsa roughly toward him and kisses her on the lips and Elsa, shocked says "How dare you kiss me!" and she kisses him back passionately.  Indy then says "Leave me alone.  I don't like fast women!" and then start kissing again and Elsa kisses Indy's ear and says "And I hate arrogant men!".  And as they lie down on a couch and begin making out, Indy looks, smiles and says "I love Venice!" and Elsa grabs his head, pulling him down and they start kissing again.

Then there is the silly but funny scene where Indy and Elsa arrive at the castle where his dad is being held and he pretends to be a Scottish Lord and Harrison Ford puts on the worst Scottish accent ever!  And in the scene, Indy bangs on the front door and a butler let's them in and Indy says to him in a Scottish accent "And not before time! Did you intend to leave us standing on the doorstep all day? We're drenched!" and he feigns a sneeze over the butler and he says "Now look, I've gone and caught a sniffle!".

The butler then asks Indy "Are you expected?" and Indy says "Do not take that tone with me, my good man. Now buttle off and tell Baron Brunwald that Lord Clarence MacDonald and his lovely assistant...are here to view the tapestries!".  Indy then turns to Elsa and says "Dear me, the man is dense. This is a castle, isn't it? There are tapestries?!". The butler then says to Indy "This is a castle, and we have many tapestries. But if you are a Scottish lord, then I am Mickey Mouse!". Indy turns to Elsa and says in an almost Russian sounding accent(!) "How dare he?!" and he suddenly spins round and knocks out the butler with one punch. 

Another good scene from Harrison is when Indy and his dad, Henry escape from the Nazis at the castle in a motorbike side-car and Henry tells Indy that they should go after the diary which is now in the possession of the Nazis.

So, as they are about to head off to get Marcus, Henry objects and says "No, you're going the wrong way. We have to get to Berlin!" but Indy points to the other direction and says "Broady's this way!" but Henry tells him "My diary's in Berlin!". Indy insists "We don't need the diary, Dad.  Marcus has the map!" but Henry then says "There is more in the diary than just the map" and Indy then switches off the bike and says "Alright, Dad. Tell me".

So, Henry tells Indy about his diary containing clues to dealing with the final challenge in locating the grail and they must face three deadly traps, however he can't remember what they are and he says he wrote them in his diary, so he didn't need to remember.  So, Indy angrily says to Henry "Half the German army's on our tail, and you want me to go to Berlin?! Into the lion's den?!" and Henry says "Yes!  The only thing that matters is the grail!".  Indy then asks "What about Marcus?" and Henry tells him "Marcus would agree with me!" and Indy says to himself "Two selfless martyrs!  Jesus Christ!" and this prompt Henry to suddenly slap Indy in the face and he warns his son "That's for blasphemy!". 
 
Another funny scene is when Indy and Henry board a zeppelin to escape the Nazis, however its not long before the SS officer, Colonel Vogel (Michael Byrne) and his men show up searching for Henry. And Vogel moving around the zeppelin keeps showing passengers a picture of Henry asking if they have seen him and he soon moves up toward Henry, who is hiding himself behind a large newspaper. So, Vogel uses his baton to pull down the paper and he grins and says to him "Guten tag...Herr Jones!" but Indy (who disguises himself as a ticket inspector) comes up behind Vogel and says "Tickets please!".  So, as Vogel turns around, he looks at Indy in surprise, who punches Vogel and throws him out the zeppelin and Vogel lands in a pile of luggage below and Indy afterward turns to the alarmed passenger and says "No ticket!" and they all suddenly panic and produce their tickets!

Another good scene is when the Nazis order the zeppelin to be turned back to Germany, prompting Indy and Henry to flee the zeppelin in a small biplane attached to the zeppelin and they take on two German fighters.  So as they take to the skies in the plane, Henry says to Indy "I didn't know you could fly a plane!" and Indy tells him "Fly, yes!  Land, no!".  And after they fly off, Indy spots the fighters and he shouts to Henry "Dad, you're gonna have to use the machine gun!  Get it ready!" and Indy notices the fighters and he yells to Henry "ELEVEN O'CLOCK!  DAD, ELEVEN O'CLOCK!!" and Henry looks at his watch and asks "What happens at Eleven O'Clock!" but Indy explains by yelling "DAD!  TWELVE, ELEVEN, TEN!! ELEVEN O'CLOCK!!! FIRE!!".

So, after Henry ineptly uses the machine gun and unwittingly shoots the biplane's tail, Indy is forced to make an emergency landing, so they crash land and get out and the German fighter planes continue to open fire at them and they take cover.  Henry then says "Those people are trying to kill us!" and Indy yells back "I KNOW DAD!!" but Henry surprised says "Its a new experience for me!" and then Indy says to him "It happens to me all the time!".

Sean Connery, as unlikely a choice as he could be for the part of Indy's father, Henry Jones, works brilliantly well in the role, despite the fact in reality Connery is only 12 years older than Harrison Ford!  But Connery plays Henry just right, with an almost dismissive sense of authority over Indy, and as a man who is so obssessed with his work, but despite all that they still share some nice moments together.

And Sean has his share of good scenes in the film also that include his first one, where Indy breaks into Henry's room where he is being help captive by the Nazis and Henry smashes a vase over Indy's head and suddenly moves into view for the first time and looks on at his son and says "Junior?!".  And Indy looks a little dazed after being hit and he says obediently "Yes, sir!" and Henry grins at him and says "It IS you, Junior!" and Indy says to him "Don't call me that please!".

Henry then picks up a piece of the broken vase and he goes over to a table light and examines it and says "Late 14th century. Ming dynasty.  Oh, it breaks the heart!" and Indy says to him "And the head! You hit me dad!".  Henry looks pained and says "I'll never forgive myself!" but Indy, who believes that Henry is talking about him, says reassuringly "Don't worry, I'm fine".  Henry looks at the vase again and then he smiles and says to Indy "Thank God!" and he crosses to him and they both smile together, as Indy is pleased that his dad appears to be concerned for him.  However, Henry then indicates the vase "Its a fake! See, you can tell by the cross-section!" and he throws the piece of the vase down.  

And this is followed by the funny moment where Henry reveals he posted his grail diary to Indy back home to get it as far away from the Nazis as he could only for them to be interrupted by Nazi officers. So, one of the officers asks "Dr Jones?" and both Indy and Henry says "Yes?" and the officer says "I will take the book now!" and they both ask at the same time "What book?" and the officer says "You have zee the diary in your pocket".  Henry however laughs and says "You dolt!  You think my son would be that stupid to bring my diary back here!" and Indy smiles nervously as Henry looks at him and he asks "You didn't did you?  You didn't bring it, did you?" but it quickly dawns on him "YOU did!".

So, Henry angrily says "I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers!" and Indy angrily says to him "Will you take it easy?!" and Henry spits back "Take it easy?! Why do you think I sent it home in the first place?! So, it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands!!". Indy then angrily says to Henry "I came here to save you!" and Henry shouts back "Oh yeah?!  And who's gonna come to save you, Junior?!!!".  Indy then shouts "I TOLD YOU...." and he suddenly grabs a machine gun from one of the officers and shoots the Nazis dad and he turns to his stunned father and says to him "...DON'T call me Junior!".  

WARNING: THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH REFERS TO A BIG SPOILER!!!

Another good scene is when after Indy has just discovered that Elsa is working with the Nazis, Indy and Henry are tied up with their hands behind their backs and taken into a room within the castle.  So, Indy says quietly to Henry re: Elsa "How did you know she was a Nazi?" and Henry asks "What?" and Indy leans in and quietly repeats "How did you know she was a Nazi?" and Henry tells him "She talks in her sleep" and Indy looks stunned and Henry gives an awkward smile.  Henry then says to Indy "I didn't trust her.  Why did you?" and we suddenly hear a voice say "Because he didn't take my advice..." and we suddenly see Walter Donovan get up from a chair as he is also in cahoots with the Nazis to find the grail.  And Henry says to Donovan "I misjudged you, Walter. I knew you would sell your mother for an Etruscan vase, but I didn't know you would sell your country and your soul to the slime of humanity!".

Then there is the scene where Indy and Henry finally share a quiet moment together on the zeppelin as they talk about how they have never seen each other and that Henry was never really there for Indy growing up.  And Indy tells Henry that they had a lonely time growing up together without his mother (as she passed away) to which Henry replies "Actually, I was a wonderful father".  Indy laughs and asks "When?" and Henry, taken aback says to him "Did I ever tell you to eat up? Go to bed? Wash your ears? Do your homework? No. I respected your privacy, and I taught you self-reliance!". Indy however becomes angry and tells Henry how he felt he was less important to him then people who were dead for hundreds of years and how they have barely spoken in 20 years. So, Henry puts his diary aside and says "Oh well, I'm here now!  What do you want to talk about?" and Indy looks at him for a moment, speechless and he laughs and says "I can't think of anything!" and Henry says "Then what are you complaining about???!".  

Then we have the scene where Henry attempts to rescue Marcus from the Nazis, who is being held captive inside a German tank. So, Henry tells Marcus "Its a rescue, old boy.  Come one!" and before they can leave, Vogel appears with his men.  And Vogel takes off his clothes and slaps Henry with them as he asks him "What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?!" and Henry suddenly grabs hold of Vogel's hand firmly and he angrily tells him "It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of BURNING THEM!!". 

WARNING: SPOILERS ARE IN THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH!

And last of all is Sean's final scene where Indy, Henry, Marcus and Sallah are set to head off on horses into the sunset. And after they leave the temple where the Holy Grail resides and having lost it when the temple collapses (and Elsa and Donovan have both been killed) Indy sadly looks toward the temple remains.  And Henry says to him "Elsa never really believed in the Grail. She thought she found a prize" and Indy turns to him and asks "What did you find, dad?" and Henry smiles and says "Me?  Illumination".  And as they mount their horses, Henry asks Indy "What did you find, Junior?" and Indy looks annoyed but Sallah asks "What does this mean?  This junior?!" and Henry tells him "That's his name" he points to himself "Henry Jones..." and points to Indy "Junior!".  Indy however, annoyed says "I like Indiana!" and Henry tells him "We named the dog Indiana!" and Sallah laughs out saying "You were named after the dog?! Ha ha ha!!".  Henry then finally says to Indy "After you, Junior" and Indy says "Yes, sir!" and he gallops off on his horse.

Up next is Julian Glover who puts in a fine performance as the devious collector, Walter Donovan, who is driven by his greed to find the Grail and he uses Indy and Henry in the process.

And Glover his some good moments too such as the one where after (SPOILER!!!!) Donovan has revealed his true colours as he is in cahoots with the Nazis just after Indy and Henry have both been captured.  So, in the scene, Henry says to Indy re: Elsa "I didn't trust her.  Why did you?" and then we hear a voice say "Because he didn't take my advice!" and then we see Donovan rise from a chair and Indy looks on angrily and says "Donovan!" and Donovan says to him "Didn't I warn you not to trust anyone, Dr Jones?".  

Another good scene from Glover is when just after Indy and Henry have been left in the castle tied up together, Donovan gets into a car outside and he is handed a couple of telegram from a Nazi officer.  So, Donovan reads the first one and says to Vogel "Well we have Marcus Broady and more importantly we have the map!".  The officer then comes back with another telegram, which Donovan reads ""By the personal command of the Fuhrer. "Secrecy essential to success. Eliminate the American conspirators.".  Donovan then turns to Vogel, who stands grinning by the car door, he says to him "Germany has declared war on the Jones boys!" and Vogel laughs and closes Donovan's door just before his car is driven away.

And last of all is the scene where Donovan and Elsa finally reach the temple where the Holy Grail is located but they are forcing to use Arab guards as volunteers to try and navigate past the deadly traps that lie in the way of the grail itself.

So, when Indy and the others are captured and taken to Donovan, Elsa surprised to see Indy still alive says "I never expected to see you again" and Indy grins and says "I'm like bad penny. I always turn up!".  And Donovan says to Elsa "Back up, Dr Schneider.  Give Dr Jones some room.  He's going to recover the grail for us" and he says to Indy "What do you say, Jones?  Ready to go down in history?" and Indy says "As what? A Nazi stooge like you?!".  Donovan however has other ideas and says "
Is that the limit of your vision? The Nazis want to write themselves into the Grail legend... take on the world. Well, they're welcome. But I want the Grail itself. The cup that gives everlasting life. Hitler can have the world, but he can't take it with him. I'm going to be drinking my own health when he's gone the way of the dodo".

Donovan then pulls a gun on Indy and he says to him "The grail is mine and you're going to get it for me" and Indy trying to contain his anger says "Shooting me won't get you anywhere" and Donovan says "You know, Dr Jones?  You're absolutely right!" and he instead turns and shoots Henry in the chest, who falls back on the ground.  Elsa, distressed moves forward saying "No!" but Donovan shouts at her "GET BACK!" and Indy tends to Henry for a moment before he get's up and makes to move on Donovan.  Donovan however keeps Indy at gunpoint and shouts to him "You can't save him when you're dead! The healing power of the Grail is the only thing that can save your father now. It's time to ask yourself what you believe!".

Alison Doody is very good in her role as femme fatale character, Elsa Schneider, who at first appears to be on Indy's side but its not long before we find out where her real loyalties lie.  Alison Doody herself was actually only 21 years old at the time of filming, which is surprising when you look at her as she does look that bit more mature (and pretty hot!). 

And Alison has some good moments here aswell such as her first scene where Indy and Marcus just arrive in Venice and come off a pier. And as they do, Marcus asks Indy "How will we recognise this Dr Schneider?" and Indy says "I don't know. Maybe he'll recognise us" and we suddenly hear a female voice "Dr Jones?" and Indy turns around to see a beautiful woman with blonde hair, which turns out to be Elsa.  So, Elsa says to Indy with a smile "I knew it was you. You have your father's eyes" and Indy moves forward to her and turns on his charm and says "And my mother's ears but the rest belongs to you".  Elsa then smiles and says "It looks like the best parts have already been spoken for" and Indy smiles and Elsa looks to Marcus and asks "Marcus Brody?" and Marcus replies "Yes" and she introduces herself "Dr Elsa Schneider". 

There is also the scene where Indy and Elsa have their one-night stand together but I have already mentioned that in Harrison Ford's section of the performances, so I won't mention it again here just to save time!  However it is a very nicely played scene by both of them. 

Another good scene is when Indy turns up to rescue Henry and after killing a few Nazi guards and taking a machine gun he enters another room to find Elsa being held at gunpoint by Vogel, who threatens to kill her.  However, Henry tells Indy that Elsa is really a Nazi and they are bluffing him but Indy gives in and puts down his gun and Vogel let's go of Elsa, pushing her into Indy.  Elsa looks at him and says softly "I'm sorry" and Indy says "No, don't be" but then she takes the grail diary from his pocket and steps back and with a wry smile says "But...you should have listened to your father!".

Then there is the scene where Indy and Henry have been tied up together, sitting on chairs with their backs away from each other and Elsa looks to Indy, who glares at her angrily. So, Elsa says to him "Don't look at me like that. We both wanted the Grail. I would have done anything to get it. You would have done the same" but Indy says to her "I'm sorry you think so" leaving Elsa a little stung.  However, Elsa brushes it off and moves in close to Indy and says to him softly "I can't forget how wonderful it was" and Henry says "Thank you, it was rather wonderful!" and Indy turns his head to look at Henry in disbelief but Elsa grabs his face and gives him one last kiss and she says to Indy "That's how Austrians say goodbye!" and she leaves.

And last of all is the scene where Indy and Henry head to Berlin to retrieve the diary from Elsa and Indy disguises himself as a Nazi officer at a book burning rally, Elsa however looks on, quite upset as she witnesses many German members of the public, throw piles of books onto fires. And as Elsa walks off sadly, Indy suddenly comes up from behind and says "Fraulien, Doctor?!" and Elsa looks stunned and asks "How did you get here?!".  Indy then roughly starts to search her pockets and says "Where is it?!  I want it!" and he takes out the diary from her jacket pocket and Elsa asks "You came back for the book?! Why???" and Indy walks away and says "My father didn't want it incinerated!".  Elsa taken aback, says "Is that what you think of me? I believe in the Grail, not the swastika!".  Indy angrily then says "But you stood up to be counted with the enemy of everything that the Grail stands for! Who gives a DAMN what you think?!!!" and Elsa shouts back "You do!!".  Indy then grabs Elsa by the throat and threatens her "All I have to do is squeeze..." and she says tearfully "All I have to do is scream..." and Indy after a second, let's her go. 

Denholm Elliott is also really good once again as he returns to his role as Marcus Brody, except this time rather than coming across as an intelligent capable scholar, he is more made out to be a bumbling fool.  Or rather its more just that Marcus is simply out of his depth in the situation as he is not a field man like Indy is, and Indy also recalls how Marcus one time got lost in his own museum!

And Elliott has some good moments too in the film that include the scene where Indy and Marcus head over to Henry's house and find it ransacked. And Marcus says to Indy as they enter "Dear God! The old fool! What has he gotten himself into now?" and Indy suddenly realises the package he received in the post is Henry's grail diary, which he opens up.  Indy then looks around and at a picture of on the wall of a knight and he asks Marcus "Do you believe, Marcus?  Do you believe the grail actually exists?".  Marcus then replies "The search for the Cup of Christ is the search for the divine in all of us. But if you want facts, Indy, I've none to give you. At my age, I'm prepared to take a few things on faith".  Indy then looks grave and says quietly to Marcus "Call Donovan, Marcus and tell him I'll take that ticket to Venice now" and he walks off and Marcus says to himself "I'll tell we'll take two". 

Then there is the scene where after Indy narrowly avoids death at the hands of the brothers of the crucible sword, regroups with Marcus back at Marcus' hotel room and they look at the rubbing of the inscription from the knight's shield in the catacombs of the library.  So, as Indy tries to piece together where exactly the grail would be located, Marcus says "Your father would know. Your father did know!" and he takes the grail diary and opens it "Look. He made a map. He must have pieced it together from clues scattered through the whole history of the Grail quest. A map with no names. Now, he knew there was a city with an oasis due east, here. He knew the course turned south through the desert to a river, and the river led into the mountains, here. Straight to the canyon".  Marcus then shuts the book and says excitedly "He knew everything except where to begin! The name of the city!" and Indy says "And now we know".

And lastly there is the funny scene where we find out that Elsa and Donovan are working with the Nazis to find the grail and they capture Indy and Henry together and they intend to find the missing pages of the diary, which Indy gave to Marcus.  So, Donovan says re: Marcus "He sticks out like a sore thumb!  We'll find him" and Indy says "The hell you will!" and that Marcus has friends in every town and knows all the local customs and languages and can blend in and disappear and with any luck "he's got the grail already".  However we then cut to a bewildered looking Marcus, who is in Iskanderun and he shouts to the locals that surround him "Does anyone here speak English? Or even ancient Greek?" and people keep offering him things.  Marcus is then offered food by a local and he says "No, thank you, madam. I'm a vegetarian" and he says to himself "Does anyone understand a word I'm saying here?!".

John Ryhs-Davies also makes a welcome return in his role as Sallah, who appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark alongside Denholm Elliott and here he slips effortlessly back into the part as if he had not been away.

And I will mention for time only one of his scenes and its the one where Sallah turns up at Iskenderun to meet a bewildered and lost Marcus.  So, Sallah greets him warmly and says "Mr Brody!" and Marcus says "Oh, Sallah!  What a relief!" and Sallah says "Marcus Brody, sir! But where is Indy?" and Marcus tells him "Oh, he's in Austria on a slight detour.  But don't panic, everything's under control".  However they are then met by two German officials (really Nazi officers in disguise) and one of them warmly greets Marcus and says "The director of the Museum of Antiquities has sent a car for you" and Marcus smiles and says "You're servant, sir" and Sallah says "And I'm his". And as they start to follow the two Germans, Marcus pleased says to Sallah "My reputation proceeds me" but Sallah warns him "There is no museum in Iskenderun". 

A then one of the Germans spins round and asks them for their papers suddenly.  So, Sallah nervously bluffs them and he says "Papers?  Of course" and he says quietly to Marcus "Run" but Marcus doesn't catch on.  So, Sallah produces a newspaper and says "Papers. Got it here. Just finished reading it myself" and again he says to Marcus "Run" but Marcus still doesn't quite understand Sallah and says "Yes?".  Sallah then shows the Germans the paper ""Egyptian Mail," morning edition!" and he once says to Marcus "Run(!)".  Marcus finally catches on and says "Did you say...." and Sallah suddenly puts his paper up to one of the Germans' faces and punches him and shouts "RUN!" and he pushes the Germans over a stall and he desperately tries to lead Marcus away from them.  Sallah the sees a truck nearby, which has a ramp down and he grabs Marcus and shouts "Quick!  Find the back door!  Find the back door!".  So, Marcus goes up inside the back of the truck only for some locals to then close up the ramp and shut the truck's door and the truck drives off, leaving Sallah despondent. 

And last of all is Michael Byrne, who is very good in his role as the ruthless SS Officer, Colonel Vogel, who leads the Nazi quest to find the Grail. Byrne most likely because of his looks often has played German/Nazi soldier roles in the past and he even appeared in another film with Harrison Ford, "Force 10 from Navarone" back in 1978. 

And I will quickly mention two of Byrne's scenes with the first one being where Indy and Henry are left tied up in the castle and Elsa says her goodbye to Indy by giving him a passionate kiss and she says to Indy "That's how Austrians say goodbye" and she leaves.  However, Vogel then walks to Indy and says to him "And this is how we say goodbye in Germany, Dr Jones!" and he hits Indy on the head with his baton, which causes Indy's head to hit Henry's head aswell and Vogel walks out, leaving the Jones's reeling.

And lastly there is the scene where Henry tries to rescue Marcus from the Nazis as he is being held captive in a German tank, however they are both caught by Vogel's officer. So, Vogel orders his men to search Henry and he says to him as he takes off his gloves "Search him. What is in this book? That miserable little diary of yours. We have the map. The book is useless. And yet you come all the way back to Berlin to get it!".  Vogel then slaps Henry with his gloves "Why?!" What are you hiding? he slaps him again and then he asks "What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?!" and Henry tells him that Nazis should read books instead of burning them.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

As for the direction, well its another sterling effort by Steven Spielberg, who does an excellent job here and he keeps the pace of the film moving along nicely and he does a great job at producing fine performances from the cast and does well at building the relationship between Indy and Henry.  At times perhaps the tone of the film is a bit overtly comical, but I think Spielberg helps keep it just about right enough to keep the overall tone in tune with the original film. 

As for the music score, John Williams once again provides an excellent one, which features the familiar and memorable Indy theme but also it adds plenty of new tracks that have plenty of atmosphere, excitement and even a bit of emotion here and there.  Its not quite in the same league as Williams magnificent score for Raiders but its still a very fine effort and let's face it, John Williams lesser scores often tend to be better than some composers very best works (no offense to other composers!). 

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for the flaws...well yeah OK, The Last Crusade has a few worth mentioning.

For starters I think one of the problems I had with the film was to do with the idea of Henry sending his Grail diary to Indy and its not so much that he sent it in the first place but its more a case of why didn't he include a written note with it to warn him what has happened to him?!  I mean that would have made a lot more sense!  But of course it is done this way to build up the mystery and suspense of Henry's disappearance but even so I can't help but think, Henry could have written a quick note saying "I sent this book back so the Nazis don't get it. I've been captured so watch out!".  Would that have been so difficult?!

Further to this point, given that Henry was captured by the Nazis, how did he manage to even send the diary back in the first place?!  I can only imagine that he did it before he was captured and he sussed out what was going on but if that was the case again why didn't he include a written note to warn Indy what happened?!  Achh anyway, it all worked itself out in the end I guess!  

Another thing that bugged me is the scene where Indy completes the inscription on the shield by using a penciled rubbing that Indy's dad had kept from Sir Richard's tomb. However in the next scene, the brotherhood that chase Indy, set fire to the oil in the underground area, forcing Indy and Elsa to dive underwater for cover from the flames. However, by doing that surely the rubbing would be ruined and totally soaked through since Indy is underwater but in the next scene after Indy escapes back to his hotel room, we see the rubbing is completely dry! So, yeah that is one scene that never really sat right with me unless the rubbing itself is totally waterproof but I doubt it!  

I also felt that the section where Indy tries to save Marcus from Vogel and the other Nazis in the tank, was also a bit long and drawn out as it takes a bit too much time for Indy to eventually get him out of there.  It also leads into the really daft bit where Indy has his fight with Vogel ontop of the tank, Henry is knocked off his feet and nearly ends up being crushed under the tank's rails but Indy uses his whip to grab hold of him, so he doesn't but meanwhile he does this, Vogel is beating up Indy and Sallah soon arrives in the nick of time to save Henry!  I mean convenient or what?! 

Another strange moment in the film is when Indy and Henry are on the zeppelin, it suddenly turns around to take them back to Germany on order of the Nazis.  However as Indy and Henry make their escape, Indy says "I thought it would have taken them a lot longer to figure out the radio was dead". Right, what does he mean by that? Does that mean Indy somehow managed to get to the radio on the zeppelin and sabotage it?!  And even if he did, that means there would be no way for the pilots of the zeppelin to contact the Nazis to alert them about the Jones being onboard!  So, I don't quite get the reference and how the zeppelin would receive orders to be turned about unless the radio WAS working!  Not unless of course they repaired it, which yeah OK, is a possibility. 

And lastly I found it a bit daft how in that scene near the end where Elsa makes the mistake of trying to take the grail out of the temple, only for it to cause the temple to being collapsing around them and Elsa ends up falling to her death as her greed to reach for the grail overtakes her and Indy loses his grip on her.  And as Indy nearly befalls the same fate, dangling over a chasm, he tries to reach for the grail, which lies on a bit of rock nearby him and Henry holds onto him.  However as the violent quaking carries on, it suddenly softens and stops when Henry calls Indy "Indiana" for the first time in the film and he says to him re: the grail "Let it go" and Indy let's himself be pulled up by Henry and they escape the temple.  

Again its a rather strangely convenient moment that was worked into the film as if the temple is allowing for Henry to reach to his son and convince him to let go of his desire for the grail, just long enough for Henry to pull him up!  Yeah OK, that sounds a bit daft in itself maybe but if you watch the scene, you might get what I mean.

Anyway, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a very enjoyable and solid entry in the franchise and it was a pity that it would be followed up by the mediocre "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" almost 20 years later.  The casting of Sean Connery is a great choice and he and Harrison Ford share a great father/son chemistry onscreen together even though there are only 12 years between them in real life! 

The film is also ably backed up by a solid cast with Julian Glover and Alison Doody both being standouts here and its also great to see the return of Denholm Elliot and John Rhys-Davies in their roles as Marcus and Sallah.  And Spielberg's direction is once again great and he confidently handles the film's action aswell as the humour and John Williams again provides an excellent score here.

And despite any of its niggling issues to do with its plot, they are still don't detract from what is a  highly entertaining movie, which easily remains the second best in the Indy quadrilogy. And after the major letdown of the fourth film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, let's hope the upcoming sequel (and most likely the final film!) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny puts things right even though Harrison Ford stars in it, he is now 80 years old, so not sure how well he'll hold up in it physically! ;-)

And with that I will rate The Last Crusade:

9 out of 10 

So, that's it for this one and I will return sometime soon with another post.

Until then bye for now!

Lethal Weapon Review (Revisited Part 2) "I haven't even started!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, so as we are close to Christmas day, I figured I would get one more post in before it comes around and I thought I would take a look a film that is somewhat seasonal, which is the original Lethal Weapon, which is set around Christmas time. 

So, with that said let's take a look at this action classic after 35 years from its release...

And as usual the warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!! 

STORY  

So, the film is set in 1987 in Los Angeles at around Christmas time and it starts with LAPD police officer, Sergeant Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) who has just turned 50.  Roger is called in to investigate the suicide of a prostitute, who turns out to be the daughter of an old friend of his, Michael Hunsaker (Tom Atkins) who he fought alongside in the Vietnam war.

Meanwhile another LAPD police officer, Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is in the middle of a drugs bust, however he nearly kills one of the disarmed suspects as he goes into a blind rage.  Riggs as it turns out is suffering from depression as the result of his wife's death, Victoria which has left him suicidal. Riggs then that night, goes home and nearly kills himself as he puts a gun in his mouth but at the last minute he relents and cries to himself and looks at the picture of his wife and says "I'll see you much later!".

The next day Riggs is reassigned to homicide and partnered up with Murtaugh, who is very reluctant to take on Riggs.  The two of them go to see Michael Hunsaker, and Roger reveals to Hunsaker that his daughter, Amanda, was in fact murdered as the pills she had taken were doctored and laced with window cleaner, so she would have died within minutes had she not jumped.  Hunsaker tells Roger that she was also involved in making pornographic video tapes and drugs and he wants Roger to find out who was responsible and kill them.

Murtaugh however finds out first hand what a loose canon Riggs is, when Riggs goes up to try and talk down a man, McCleary (Michael Shaner) who is threatening to jump off a building, and instead handcuffs him and they jump off together onto a large inflatable catch.  Murtaugh is furious with Riggs and taunts him to shoot himself with his gun, but stops short when he realises Riggs might actually do it.

Afterwards, the two men start to put aside their differences then they go to question a pimp in connection to Amanada at a mansion, which turns out to be a drug lab, however the pimp open fires on them and Riggs ends up having to kill the pimp in self defence and he saves Murtaugh in the process, which leads Murtaugh to slowly gain respect for his new partner.  The two of them later go and have dinner at Murtaugh's house, where Riggs meets Rog's wife and family (and finds out Roger's eldest daughter has a crush on Riggs!) and they also speculate on what was behind the case.

The next day they go to question the hooker that Roger spoke to earlier, Dixie (Lycia Naff) in connection with Amanda, however as Dixie's house is blown up as they arrive.  Riggs finds a piece of a mercury switch, which woud only be used by professionals, and as they question a young boy who witnessed a man lurking about the house, he spotted that he had the same tattoo as Riggs, which is a US Army special forces tattoo, with whom Riggs served with during Vietnam.

Murtaugh and Riggs then go and question Hunsaker, who admits to being involved in a drug operation run by mercenaries, who were all involved in special ops and that he was trying to get out the operation and that his daughter's death was ordered by the head of the operation, General McAllister (Ryan Mitchell).  However before Hunsaker can reveal anymore on the operation to Roger, McAllister's chief enforcer, Mr Joshua (Gary Busey) shows up in a helicopter and shoots Hunsaker dead, and McAllister decides to turn up the heat on the two cops and kidnaps Roger's eldest daughter, Rianne (Traci Wolfe).

Riggs and Murtaugh are given a meeting place with McAllister, Joshua and their men, however they are ambushed by Riggs, who provides cover far away with a sniper rifle, but he is eventually captured as is Murtaugh and Rianne, who attempts to escape by car.  As a result Murtaugh and Riggs are both tortured in order for the mercs to find out what they know, with Joshua administering electric shock treatment to Riggs, and McAllister having Murtaugh beaten.

Riggs however manages to escape and he enters and kills McAllisters men and releases Muratugh and Rianne and they flee out onto the streets, where Riggs gives chase to Joshua and Murtaugh exacts his revenge on McAllister by killing him, but Joshua get's away.  And its far from over as Riggs and Murtaugh have to try and hunt down Joshua in order to keep Roger's family safe....

THOUGHTS 
 

Well, if I had to pick my favourite of the Lethal weapon films I would say that this one is still the best.  As the series went on, there was a larger emphasis on the comedic tone, but here the film keeps a good balance of comedy and drama and the film has a pretty intense feel throughout.  And both the lead characters have a fair bit of emotional weight over their heads, with Murtaugh feeling his age having turned 50, being a family man realising he has more to lose as he get's older, and Riggs, who's has been driven half crazy with rage and sorrow over the loss of his wife, leaving him a near suicidal, emotional wreck, which we see in that scene near the start in Riggs's trailer (and no I don't mean the scene where he get's out of his bed, naked, and we see his ass!).

However where Lethal Weapon succeeds is that it takes the cop buddy buddy formula and puts two very unlikely cops together and they end up being dependent on one another, with Murtaugh becoming something of a saviour for Riggs who is so burnt out and close to the edge.  That's not to say that Lethal Weapon isn't funny as it still has plenty of humourous moments and Shane Black's witty script provides some funny lines, which I will get to soon.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers and strong language!) 

And that brings me onto the performances section of the review and they are excellent, particularly the two leading actors, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, who have a natural onscreen chemistry with one another.

Starting with Mel Gibson who is great as Riggs, the near pyschotic cop who is on the ragged edge who is thrown into a reluctant partnership with Murtaugh, but they soon end up becoming friends.

Gibson has quite a few highlights in the film such as in his first scene where he is involved in an undercover drugs bust and he convinces the dealers that he is interested in buying the drugs and they ask for "a hundred" and he starts to count out 100 dollars.  And one of the dealers angrily tries to stop him and Riggs says "Shut up, man.  I'm losing count" and as the dealer tells him he wants a hundred thousand dollards, Riggs says "Tell you what, why don't I take the whole stash off your hands for free and you assholes can go to jail!".

And as they cal him crazy, he pulls out his gun and says "Now that is a real badge, I'm a real cop and this is a real fucking gun!".  Then one of the dealers suddenly grabs Riggs from behind and points a gun at him and as a number of police officers show up and point guns at the dealer, Riggs shouts out to the other officers "Hey shoot him!  Shoot him!  Will somebody shoot this prick??!".  And as the dealer becomes more angry and agitated, Riggs crazily keeps taunting the dealer and shouts in his "Shoot me!  Shoot me!  Shoot me!  Shoot me!".  However, Riggs then manages to disarm the dealer and he turns the tables and points the gun under the dealer's chain and with an insane look says to him through gritted teeth "You wanna see crazy???!!".  The dealer is then arrested and taken away, leaving Riggs gasping for breath as he is riled from the encounter.

Then there is the scene where Riggs tries to talk down the would-be jumper off the roof of a building and as he handcuffs the jumper, the jumper defiantly tells him he will jump and Riggs grabs him and says "Do you wanna jump?!  Do you wanna??!  Because that is just fine with me, asshole!  Let's do it!" and they do just that much to Roger's chagrin.

Gibson also has some chilling moments in the film such as where Murtaugh taunts Riggs to put his gun under his chin and pull the trigger and he nearly does it, but Murtaugh stops him at the last second.  And in the scene as Roger yells at Riggs "Do you want to kill yourself?  YES OR NO, DO YOU WANNA DIE?!" Riggs tells Roger "What do you wanna hear, man?! You wanna about sometimes I think about eatin a bullet?!".  So, Riggs continues "Well, I do!  Make sure it blows the back of my goddamned head out and do the job right! Every single day I wake up and I think of a reason not to do it! Every single day! You know why I don't do it? This is gonna make you laugh! You know why I don't do it? The job! Doin' the job! Now that's the reason!". 

Then as Roger dares Riggs into pulling the trigger on Rog's gun, Riggs with the gun pointed under his chin, starts to pull the trigger but Roger stops him.  Roger, then looks at Riggs in shock and says "You're not trying to draw a psycho pension!  You really ARE crazy!" and Riggs glares at him and says "I'm hungry.  I'm gonna go and get something to eat!" and he walks off leaving Roger in a panic.

Another good scene is where Riggs and Murtaugh go to the firing range and discuss the case whole doing some target practice, however what they come up with sounds a bit thin.  So, Roger says to Riggs of their assessment "That's pretty fuckin thin!" and Riggs says "With your wife's cooking, I'm not surprised!" and he fires a few shots off (as Roger's wife is a terrible cook).  And Roger offended shouts "WHAT?!" and Riggs says "Nothing!" and Rog then says "Remarks like that will not get you invited to Christmas dinner!" and Riggs grins and says "My luck is changing for the better every day!".

Murtaugh shows off his skill as he fires a perfect shot at a paper target right in the centre and he boasts to Riggs "Hey, look at that!  Not bad for an old man!".  And Riggs says "Step aside old man!" and fires six shots at the target from a distance and brings it closer to see that the bullet holes he's made are a smiley face and Riggs says "Have a nice day!".

Then there is the scene where Riggs is shot on the streets by Joshua, who does a drive-by shooting, however Riggs survives it as he was wearing his bullet proof vest.  And in the scene Roger rushes over Riggs, who lies flat on the his back having crashed through a shop window but Rog opens Riggs shirt to see him wear a vest.  Then, Riggs springs to life and he painfully sits and says "I'm pissed now, Roger!  I'm pissed!" and as Rog helps him he says "If he was two inches higher he would have got your head!" and Riggs says "If it was two inches lower I would be a falsetto for life, come on let's fuck off!".  And after Riggs get's up on his feet he says to Roger "The guy that shot me!  It was the same Albino jackrabbit, son of a bitch that did Hunsaker!" and Roger asks him "Are you sure?!" and Riggs says "I'm sure.  I never forget an asshole!".

Then there is the scene where Riggs escapes the clutches of the torturer, Endo in the basement of the club they use as a front for their business and breaks in and kills McAllister's men.  And Riggs after looks at Roger, who grins and says "Pretty thin, huh?" and Riggs says "Anorexic!" then he frees Roger and Rianne and says "Let's do what one shepherd said to the other shepherd" and Roger says "What's that?" and Riggs says "Let's get the flock out of here!".

And last of all is the final scene (SPOILERS!) where Riggs and Murtaugh having survived their ordeal with Joshua, Murtaugh invites Riggs in for Christmas dinner and Riggs gives his bullet that intended to kill himself with to Rianne before Murtaugh comes out. 

 

So, in the scene Riggs says to Rianne "I want you to give your dad this, tell I won't be needing it anymore" and Rianne looks at the bullet and says "Its a bullet" and Riggs smiles and says "Yeah, but he'll understand". Rianne then invites Riggs in but he declines and Rianne goes back in only for Rog to come out a few seconds later. So, Roger says to Riggs "Hey Riggs! After all we've been through, if you think I'm gonna eat the lousiest Christmas turkey all by myself: you're crazy!". Riggs then says "I'll let you into a little secret, I'm not crazy" and Roger smiles and says "I know" and Riggs says "Oh, good! Let's eat! You mind if I bring a friend?" and Roger says "Of course you can bring a friend" and Riggs whistles and his dog, Sam, joins them. Roger says "I don't think Burbank the cat is gonna like this" and Riggs says "I'll put five on the mutt!" as they go in and we hear the dog cause chaos and the cat miaowing loudly.   

Danny Glover is also great in his role as Roger Martaugh, the middle aged cop who is starting to feel old and wary of his job and Glover provides a nice world weary cynicism yet deceny to Murtaugh's character.

Glover also has his share of good scenes and some funny dialogue as well throughout, such an example is in a scene near the beginning where he speaks to the hooker, Dixie.  And in the scene Roger tells Dixie to go home and Dixie says "Thanks.  I'm beat, you know how it is" and Roger says "Yeah!  All dressed up and no one to blow!" and Dixie, offended turns around and says "You're hilarious!" and walks off angrily.

And of course Glover delivers the film's most famous well recognised line when Roger first clocks Riggs in the office, dressed in jeans and a jacket and wearing a cap, take out his gun.  And Roger shouts "GUN!!" thinking that Riggs might be a perp, so Rog runs right at Riggs, who grabs him and throws him to the floor and puts his foot on his chest.  And as Roger is introduced to Riggs as his new partner, Roger groans and says "Oh, I'm too old for shit!".

Then in the next scene the two men walk toward Roger's police car and Roger talks about Riggs's police file and his background in Special Forces.  And Roger says to Riggs as they walk to the car "File also said you're heavy into martial arts. Tai chi and all that killer stuff. I suppose we have to register you as a lethal weapon!".  And Riggs says to Roger "Hey, look friend, let's just cut the shit. Now we both know why I was transferred. Everybody thinks I'm suicidal, in which case, I'm fucked and nobody wants to work with me; or they think I'm faking to draw a psycho pension, in which case, I'm fucked and nobody wants to work with me. Basically, I'm fucked!".  And Roger tells Riggs "Guess, what?" and Riggs asks "What?" and Roger says "I don't want to work with you!" and Riggs says "Hey, dont!" and Roger says "Got no choice. Looks like we both got fucked!".  The two men then get in the car and before Roger starts the ignition he tells Riggs "God hates me, that what it is!" and Riggs says "Hate him back, it works for me!".

Another good scene and a rather intense one is just after Riggs jumps off the roof with the suicidal jumper, McCleary and they both land in an inflatable airbag and after Roger angrily takes Riggs into a nearby store that is being painted.  And Roger yells at Riggs and says "OK, clown!  No bullshit!  You wanna kill yourself?!" and Riggs says "Oh, for Christ's sake..." and Roger yells "SHUT UP!! YES OR NO!! DO YOU WANNA DIE??!!".  Riggs then yells back "I GOT THE JOB DONE!  WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT??!" and Roger shouts back at him "JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!!" and Riggs tell how he thinks about it and he even has a bullet for the occassion.  So, after Roger taunts Riggs to shoot himself with Roger's gun, Riggs nearly does but Roger stops him and says "You're not trying to draw a psycho pension!  You really ARE crazy!!". 

Then there is the scene where Roger and Riggs go to question a drug dealer at a mansion only for the dealer to shoot at them and Roger shoots the dealer in the leg and as Roger is about to read his rights he lectures Riggs on arresting a suspect.  So, Rog says to Riggs "See how easy that was? Boom, still alive. Now we question him. You know why we question him? Because I got him in the leg. I didn't shoot him full of holes or try to jump off a building with him!".  And Riggs says "That's not fair, the building guy lived!" and Roger says "The point being, no killing!" and Rigg says "No, killing right" but as Riggs is about to read the dealer his rights, the dealer suddenly produces another gun, so Riggs has no choice but to shoot him.  The dealer then falls into a pool and drowns as he caught up in a pool net and as Roger and Riggs resurface, Roger asks Riggs "Have you ever met anybody you DIDN'T kill???" and Riggs says "Well, I haven't kill you yet!" and Roger says "Well, don't do me no favours!" and Riggs get's out the pool and says "Don't you worry!". 

Glover also has some good dramatic moments as well especially the scene where Roger goes to question Hunsaker over his involvement with the mercaneries.  And Roger says to Hunsaker "Your daughter wasn't killed for something she was into. She was killed for something you're into. Stop me if I'm wrong".  And Hunsaker, puts his hand towards the inside of his jacket and says "Roger, I don't know what you're talking about!" and Roger says "Hey, Mike.  Keep your hand away from your pockets, OK?".  Hunsaker then produces some pills from his pocket and says "Take it easy, man!" and Roger then angrily shouts "Fuck easy!".

Roger then continues to ask Hunsaker "You called me the other day to blow the whistle, right?" and Hunsaker wearily asks "Blow the whistle on what?".  Roger then says "You were going to spill your guts, so they killed your daughter. Tell me if I'm wrong. Talk to me! They killed your daughter. They paid off a hooker to poison your little girl!  Talk to me!".

So, as Hunsaker tells Roger about the mercs heroin shipments, Hunsake warns him "This is big business, Roger" and Roger turns to him and says "Not anymore.  I'm gonna burn it down!".  Then as Roger insists that Hunsaker tell all the info he has on the mercs operation, Joshua suddenly shows up in a chopper and shoots Hunsaker dead.  Roger then checks Hunsaker's dead body and says to him "Heroin...you got off easy, you son of a bitch!".

Another good moment from Danny is when Roger and Riggs escape from McAllister and Joshua and they run out onto the streets and Roger, exhausted yells out to Riggs "Hey, Riggs!  He's going for the freeway!".  Riggs looks back and shouts "You OK?" and Roger exhausted says "Yeah!" and Riggs runs off and Roger calls out to him "Cut over the 3rd street bridge!  You'll be able to get ahead of him!".  Then Roger, who has sit down by a street lamp, slowly get's himself up and says "General McAllister....time for you to die!".

And last of all is the film's last scene where Riggs turns up to give Roger the bullet Riggs was going to use to kill himself, which he gives to Rianne at the door but as he is about to leave, Roger comes out.  And Roger says to Riggs "After all we've been through...if you think I'm gonna eat the world's worst turkey by myself...you're crazy!".  Riggs then smiles and says to Roger "I'll tell you a little secret....I'm not crazy" and Roger smiles and says "I know!" and Riggs says "Oh, good.  Let's eat!".  And as Roger allows Riggs to invite in his dog, we hear the commotion of the dog barking at Roger's household cat, Burbank and Roger at the front door says to himself the film's last line "I'm too old for this!".

 

Gary Busey in his role as the primary villain, Mr Joshua, is also excellent and he plays the creepy albino killer in quite an understated way (which is unusual for Busey!) and he makes for an effective villain.  Busey has some good scenes such as his intro where Joshua displays his ability to deal with pain as McAllister uses a lighter to burn underneath Joshua's arm, which he takes with ease.

And later on in the scene where he questions Riggs, prior to him being tortured by electric shock treatment and he refers to the Asian torturer, Endo (Al Leong) and says "You know Endo, has forgotten more about dispensing pain than you and I will ever know".  And he says to Riggs "See, we have a problem. Since we have Murtaugh...we don't need you. I believe in being thorough" and Riggs says to him "Yeah, I've heard that about you".  So, Joshua continues "Our problem, and yours too...is we have a shipment of merchandise to deliver" and Riggs says "Why don't you guys just call it heroin?!".  Joshua smiles and says "It's rather large, this shipment. It would be unfortunate...if we showed up to deliver our heroin..and were surrounded by 50 cops!" and Riggs says "That would be too bad".

Joshua then says "So, its essential for us to find out all the cops now" and Riggs says they don't know anything as he killed Hunsaker before he could tell them anything.  However, Joshua doesn't buy it and shouts "No!  No! I wish I could believe you but unfortunately I don't!  Now if you would kindly tell me everything you know then I promise I will kill you real quick!". And as Riggs says "I told you everything I know!" Joshua turns to Endo to start torturing Riggs and Endo holds two pairs of what looks like jump cables with sponges attached to them.  And Riggs nervously asks "What the fuck is that thing?!" and Joshua tells him "I'll tell what it is...its electric shock treatment!".   

And later when he turns up at Roger's house to kill his family he enters the house and shoots the TV and yells "Goddamn Christmas!  I'll give you a home to come back to!".  And as Joshua finds a note from Riggs saying "Dear bad guys.  No one here but us cops. The good guys" Joshua says "Crazy son of a bitch!" but then Roger's police car comes crashing through the living room and Joshua fills it with holes from his gun only to find it empty and a knife jammed in the accelerator.  So, Riggs then springs up on him and takes his gun and says to Joshua "What do you say, Jack?  Would you like a shot at the title?" and Joshua grins and says "Don't mind if I do!" and two of them engage in their climactic fight scene.  

Ryan Mitchell is also very good in his role as General McAllister, the leader of the mercaneries who captures the cops and later is forced to flee from them.

Mitchell has two main scenes, the first where he is introduced and he uses Mr Joshua to a prospective drug buyer, Mendez and he threatens him by showing Joshua's ability to withstand pain.  And McAllister asks the dealer "Do you smoke?" and the dealer says "What's that go to do with anything?" and McAllister snaps "Do you smoke??!".   And Mendez nervously says "Yeah" and McAllister asks "Give my your lighter" and Mendez asks "My...my lighter?" and McAllister yells "YOU'RE LIGHTER!!".  So Mendez takes out his lighter and all of a sudden, McAllister's men grab Mendez's arm and McAllister holds Mendez's hand with the lighter and as Mendez protests, McAllister yells "SHUT YOUR MOUTH!! SHUT UP!!".

So, McAllister looks to Joshua and says "Mr Joshua, your left arm, please" so Joshua rolls his sleeve and McAllister flicks on the lighter right under Joshua's bare arm as the flame burns into Joshua's arm, who just takes the pain in his stride, leaving Mendez terrified.  So, after the demonstration, McAllister tells and shaken Mendez "The bulk of the heroin will be here Friday night, we'll make delivery at that time. Have the money ready, and no tricks. If you try anything... you'll have to talk to Mr. Joshua. Merry Christmas!".

And later as he has Roger tortrured he walks over to Rianne, who is tied up and in her underwear and he says "That is one real good looking young woman you have there, Mr Murtaugh!".  And Roger tells McAllister "I've told you everything!" and McAllister looks at Rianne and says to Roger "We'll soon now, won't we?" and Roger angrily says of Rianne "I'm warning you....don't!".  McAllister then says "Spare me, son, its over.  There are no more heroes left in the world!". 

The rest of the supporting cast are also fine in their roles.

 

Starting with Darlene Love as Trish, Roger's wife who is has a rather small role here but she sets up her character nicely for the future films.  And Darlene has a couple of good moments such as the one where Roger first invites Riggs are to meet his family and he checks the oven to see what's for dinner.  So, Roger says as he looks in the oven "We'll see what's for dinner.  Its a brown sticky...." and Trish smacks his bottom and she says to him "Its roast!".  So, Roger sarcastically says to Riggs "How about a brown roast-like substance?" and Trish tells him "Roger, you're being an asshole".

And lastly there is the scene where Roger and Riggs learn that Rianne has been kidnapped as they receive a call from Joshua at Roger's house.  At this point, Trish appears at the top of the stairs, looking worried she asks "What is it?" and Roger says "Nothing!" and Trish shouts "What is it???!" and Roger tries to play it down and says "Nothing!" louder.  Trish then turns to her other children, Nick and Carrie "Get back in your room!  Back in your room!" and Trish then slides down on the stairs in tears.    

Steven Kahan is also pretty good as Captain Murphy, Rog and Riggs cynical superior officer and he shows little concern for Riggs's mental state and he says to the police psychiatrist, Stephanie Woods (Mary Ellen Trainor) "Look!  Riggs just wants the cash.  I've seen it a dozen times before!  He's a tough bastard, alright?!".  However Woods insists "He's on the edge.  I'm telling you he may be psychotic!" and Murphy says "That's a bunch of psych bullshit!".  Woods then says to Murphy "You're making a mistake keeping the man in the field.  The man is suicidal!".  So, Murphy cynically asks her "You're sure of that diagnosis?!" and Woods says "No, there are no absolutes in life!" and Murphy says to her "End of discussion.  We're going to wait and if he offs himself, we'll know I was wrong!".  And as Woods tries to continue their discussion, Murphy stops her as he is about to enter the men's room and he says to her "Excuse me, huh?!" and he goes in, leaving Woods annoyed and she says to herself "Asshole!".

Traci Wolfe is also pretty good (and very pretty!) in her role as Rianne, Roger's eldest daughter, who is later kidnapped by McAllister and Joshua and also has a crush on Riggs when they first meet.

And I will only mention one of Traci's scenes and its the one where Rianne asks if her date can take her to a club much to Roger's disaproval.  So, Rianne asks Roger in the scene "Didn't mean to interrupt one of those intellectual conversations...Mark asked me to a club tomorrow night".  Roger then asks "Which one is Mark?" and Rianne says "The blonde one" and Roger says "The one with pits in his face?" and Rianne annoyed, says "Those are dimples!" and Roger says "Those are pits.  When he smiles I can see through his head.  The answer is no!".  So, Rianne complains "Why can I have a beer and I can't smoke a joint? It's not coke, you know!" and Roger tells her "Because now, at this moment...beer is legal, grass ain't. Right or wrong?" and Rianne says "Wrong" but Riggs says "Right" and she smiles at him and says "Right" back.  So, Rianne gives in and walks off and says to herself "They sit there drinking six-packs and I get grounded!".

And lastly Tom Atkins is also very good as Michael Hansaker, Roger's Vietnam buddy who once saved his life during the war and turns to him for help as he tries to get out of the drug operation run by the mercs.

And Atkins primarily has only two main scenes in the film, which are both very good and shows Atkins is capable actor.   The first scene is when Roger meets with Hunsaker to tell him that his daughter was murdered and she didn't kill herself.  So, Hunsaker becomes emotional and says to Roger "You owe, Roger.  You remember?" and Roger quietly says "Yeah, I remember".  Hunsaker then continues and says "I want you to find whoever's responsible for this...however many of them there are. I know you can do it. Just find them and kill them".  Roger, then quietly tries to reason with Hunsaker and says "Mike, I'm a police officer..." but then Hunsaker angrily says "I don't give a shit that you're a police officer! I know you're a fucking police officer!  KILL THEM! JUST KILL THEM!".  Roger then just walks off annoyed but Hunsaker catches up to and says "Wait. Wait, Rog. Come on. You find them and you kill them. You can do that. You owe me!".

And lastly there is the scene where Hunsaker tells Roger about the mercs operation to run shipments of heroin.  So, Hunsaker tells Roger "I was with a special unit called "Shadow Company." Trained killers. When Charlie brought in heroin to finance the VC government...Shadow Company burned the whole thing down. We killed everybody".  And Hunsaker continues "A few years ago, Shadow Company got together again. The war was over. But we still had our sources in Asia. We've been bringing it in ever since".  Roger then asks "Bringing in what?" and Hunsaker tells him "Heroin.  Two major shipments a year" and Roger asks "If you got cold feet, why did they kill Amanda?  Why not you?!".  Hunsaker then says "They can't kill me, they need me!" and Roger asks angrily "Why?!" and Hunsaker says "My bank! My company is a perfect front.  Makes everything look great on the tax reports" and he says "This is big business, Roger" and Roger then says "Not anymore.  I'm gonna burn it down!".

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 
 
Finally getting onto the film's director, Richard Donner, who does a great job here and he carried on to direct the sequels and it would be hard to imagine another director carry the style, pace, action and humour that Donner brings to the series.  So overall, the original Lethal Weapon is one of Donner's best directorial efforts and he would continue to provide solid direction for the sequels (well maybe not so much for Lethal Weapon 4!).

The film is also notable for its stunts and action which are of course great and it also features a former stuntman, Dar Robinson, who died shortly after the film was completed, in 1986 having died during a motorcycle stunt aged just 39. Robinson himself pulled off one of the film's most difficult stunts as Riggs shoots a baddie who is up in a gantry and falls off and catches his leg in a chain, leaving the dead man dangling upside down.

As for the film's music score, its excellent which and was composed by Michael Kamen and it also features some good guitar work from Eric Clapton and also the distinctive saxophone from David Sanbourne, who plays part of Murtaugh's theme.  Although it has to be said the film does feature a truly awful and cringeworthy theme song, by the Canadian rock band, Honeymoon Suite , which is played over the end credits (who curiously went uncredited and I wonder why?!). 

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!) 

As for the flaws of the film????  Well Lethal Weapon isn't perfect but it hasn't got too many glaring problems.

However perhaps one of its flaws is that the story itself is pretty flimsy an unimaginitive with two cops who become buddies and fight against drug dealers, which is nothing new in itself.  Also the baddies, despite the good performances from Busey and Mitchell, are a bit bland and one dimensional and while both actors play their parts with a decent amount of menace, their characters aren't that interesting, so when they cop it (no pun intended) who cares really.

Some of the characters in the film are also a bit underused such as Captain Murphy, who would later be utilised better in the sequels, and Kahan himself is Donner's cousin, so perhaps he had a word with him about it! I also felt that Murphy was depicted as being somewhat heartless in the film as he is not concerned about Riggs's mental state when he talks to the psychiatrist who warns him that Riggs might be suicidal but Murphy simply says "He's after the cash, I've seen a hundred times! But if he offs himself then we'll know I was wrong!". Yeah what a nice guy eh?! However they did at least improve Murphy's character in the sequels and made him more likeable.

I also felt the film at times had an uncomfortable mix of strong violence in which what we see onscreen is OK for the most part (I guess!) but Shane Black, who wrote the screenplay seems to have some weird fetish for putting torture into his scripts.  So, the scenes where Riggs is brutally tortured with electric shock treatment was the start of a rather disturbing fetish that would permeate in Black's other works (such as Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang).  Black also when he wrote the original outline for Lethal Weapon 2 also wanted Riggs to be tortured again and die at the hands of the South Africans but his idea was dismissed and he then decided to pull out of the production.

Another thing I found very peculiar was to do with the start of the film where Hunsaker's daughter, Amanda, dives off the rooftop of her apartment and lands heavily ontop of a car below and in the next moment and she lies there dead, we see the shadows of two people walk by!!!  I mean I take we are meant to believe that's how people are in LA that they are so desensitized to violence and death that they are willing to turn a blind eye to it!  But that one scene seemed pretty ridiculous to me I have to say.  Not unless of course they were the killers, who "doctored" the pills for Amanda are the ones who were walking by, however I still don't buy that myself.

I also have a criticism about the theatrical version of the film in the scene Riggs and Murtaugh walk through the police undergournd car park and Murtaugh says to Riggs he heard about his stunt the other day, which he thought was heroic, which would leave us to believe he means how Riggs busted the drug dealers. However, Murtaugh most likely was actually referring to the scene that appears in the director's cut of the film where Riggs shoots a crazed gunman at a school holding kids hostage and not the drug dealers. So, when you see the school scene it makes more sense for Murtaugh to says Riggs was heoric there rather than the drug bust but in the theatrical version without that scene it makes much less sense. 

Lastly there is the whole idea of Riggs being in the Vietnam war....look at Mel Gibson, he was 30 or 31 when he made Lethal Weapon (he was born in 1956), so if he was in the Vietnam war then he would have been merely 17 years old by the time the war had finished!  Basically, if Riggs was a Vietnam vet just like Murtaugh then it doesn't make any sense that he would be played a younger actor such as Mel Gibson at that time.  Surely Riggs should have just been another middle aged guy in this respect rather than a 30 something younger guy, who clearly couldn't have been old enough to participate in the Vietnam war in the first place!

Further to this point there is a piece of dialogue where McAllister captures Riggs and Riggs says to him "It'll be a shame when I nail you.  I ran into you shadow company pussies back in 69".  Again, Mel Gibson was 13 in 1969, Riggs must have been at least 19 or 20 in 1969, so again its blatant case of the actor being too young to play the part of a Vietnam vet.  So, basically I think in relation to Mel's age, they should have just left the Vietnam vet thing for Riggs out of the equation.  But hey that's just my interpretation but for me it still remains one of the film's flaws.    

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up the original Lethal Weapon is still the best one in my opinion although the first two films could arguably be said to the best of the four (with three the 3rd best and 4th the worst!).  However where the original stands apart here is that it is grounded a bit more in reality and the darker tone of the Shane Black's script helps give it a more gritty and realistic feel than the other films had in comparison, which got more farcical as they went on. 

So, throw onto all this a witty, funny script, two excellent lead performances and some very solid direction and an excellent music score then you've still got one of the great modern action classics of its day and to this day, Lethal Weapon is still definitely worth a look after 35 years and one of the best action films of its time.

And with that I will rate Lethal Weapon..

9 out of 10 

So, that's it for this one and I will wish you all a Merry Christmas and hopefully I will be back soon with another couple of posts before the new year.

Until then hope you all have a good one!  

Reservoir Dogs Revisited Part 2 "You wanna throw bad looks somewhere, throw em at a mirror!"

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I've covered Pulp Fiction in my last post, so I thought why not do a revisitation of my post of Reservoir Dogs, which is of course Quentin Tarantino's debut. Plus the film is now 30 years old, so why not also use that to take another look at this modern crime classic. 

And with that said, the usual warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY
 
So, the story begins with eight men sitting in a diner having a discussion, the men in questioning are going to perform a heist at a jewelry store.  Six of the men are given alises of Mr Brown (Tarantino), Mr Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr White (Harvey Keitel), Mr Blue (Edward Bunker), Mr Orange (Tim Roth) and Mr Pink (Steve Buscemi) for the purposes of the robbery and the organiser and mob boss, Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) doesn't want them to use their christian names.  Cabot also organises the heist with his son and underboss, "Nice Guy" Eddie (Chris Penn) and together they discuss a lot of trivial things and then leave.

The next scene cuts to Mr White driving a car with Mr Orange in the back, who has been shot in the stomach and is bleeding badly.  White drives them to an abandoned warehouse, the agreed meeting point for the thieves and takes Orange in and tries to reassure him he will be okay.  Not long after Pink arrives, who is convinced that they were set up by the cops, given the fact that they showed up so fast at the scene of the crime.

White tells Pink that Mr Brown as killed at the scene of the heist as well and they both discuss how Mr Blonde killed several civilians during the robbery when the alarm was sounded, and White is angered at how Joe would employ a psychopath like Blonde.  Afterward White and Pink argue with one another over whether or not they should take Orange to a hospital, which becomes heated as they pull guns on one another, but it is soon diffused by the arrival of Mr Blonde.

White berates Blonde for his actions at the jewelry store, but Blonde quickly dismisses the criticism and tells them he has spoken to Nice Guy Eddie who has told them to stay put.  Blonde then takes White and Pink out to his car and opens the boot to reveal he has taken a police officer hostage, Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz) and the three of them beat up to try and force him into revealing any information of an informant.

Later on Eddie arrives at the warehouse and confronts the men over the bungled heist and the possibility of a setup, which he refuses to accept and tells White and Pink to come with him to ditch the stolen cars and retrieve the stashed diamonds (which Pink has secured) leaving Blonde alone with Nash and Orange, who is unconscious.

Blonde then decides to torture Nash for his own amusement and while listening to a show on the radio named "K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s" he tortures Nash by slashing his face and cutting his right ear off with a straight razor.  Blonde then goes outside and comes back in with some gasoline which he douses Nash with and prepares to set him alight, but at this point Orange regains consciousness and shoots Blonde dead.  Blonde tells Nash that he is an undercover cop and that the police are waiting in force to storm the warehouse once Cabot shows up there.

And from here we get Orange's back story, which leads into the events prior to the heist and then it cuts back to the aftermath of the heist, which leads into the film's dramatic climax....

THOUGHTS

It has to be said that Reservoir Dogs remains one of the most impressive film debuts over the last 30 years from any film maker and it remains ones of Tarantinto best films, as it is still a compelling, intense and entertaining film.  Tarantino, was a former video store worker, who had an indepth knowledge of films and his passion for film is clear in his works not only in Reservoir Dogs but his other films as well.  Tarantino also loosely based the plot of the film around Stanley Kubrick's film, The Killing, and it also pays homage to The Taking of Pelham, one two three, where they used similar aliases as Mr White, Mr Pink, etc, as well as the film's final stand-off resembling a climactic sequences from the Chinese action film, City on Fire.

Tarantino initially planned to make the film for only $30,000 using 16mm film but his screenplay soon gained the attention of Harvey Keitel, who helped raised funds to get it made into a proper film feature, with the film's final budget being 1.5 million dollars.  The film on its release was a critical and commercial success although it also received some controversy over its violence, but this of course is something that would feature heavily in Tarantino's other films.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and strong language!).

Getting onto the performances, this is where Reservoir Dogs really excels as they are all top notch and Tarantino has assembled a great cast.

Starting with Harvey Keitel, who is superb in his role as Mr White and one of the more compassionate thieves who helps the dying Mr Orange, after he has been shot.

Keitel has plenty of highlights in the film, such as in the opening scene where he gets fed up with Joe Cabot reading from an old diary, and he grabs it off him.  And in the scene Keitel as White says "For the past 15 minutes, you have been droning on about names.  Toby??  Toby Wong.  Toby Wong??  Charlie fuckin Chan!  I've got Madonna's big dick coming out of my right ear and Toby the jap out of my left!".

Keitel also has some good moments with Tim Roth, especially in the scene just after the credits when Orange is writhing in pain after being shot in the stomach by a female driver, who's car they steal. So, in the scene Orange in agony says "I can't believe she killed me, Larry! Who'd have fuckin thought that!" and White says "Cancel that shit right now! You're hurt, you're hurt real fuckin bad but you ain't dying!". Orange continues to panic and says "All this blood is scaring the shit out of me, Larry! I'm gonna die I know it!" and White retorts back "Excuse me, I didn't realise you had a degree in medicine! What we're gonna do is get Joe to call you a doctor, the doctor's gonna fix up and you're gonna be OK!". Orange however continues to fight with the pain and White tries to encourage Orange and shouts at him "You're gonna be OK! Say the goddamn words "You're gonna be ok!" but Orange continues to writhe in pain. So, White shouts "SAY THE GODDAMN FUCKIN WORDS! SAY IT!" and Orange finally calms down a little and says "OK, Larry" and White with a little relief says "Correct!".

Then just after they arrive at the warehouse and White tries to reassure again that Orange will be OK and says to him "You're not gonna fuckin die, kid, alright?  Along with the kneecap, the gut is the most painful area a guy can get shot in.  But it takes a long time to die from it.  We're talking days, and time is on your side". 

Then there is the scene where White and Pink argue over how White had told Orange his first name and where he was from.  So, Pink angrily asks White "What was telling him your name when you weren't supposed to?!" and White angrily replies "He asked! He had just got shot! It was my fault he got shot! He's a fucking bloody mess! He was screaming and I thought he was gonna die right then and there! So, I kept telling how everything was going to be alright and that I'm gonna take care of him! I mean the man was dying in my arms...WHAT THE FUCK WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO??!! Tell him "Sorry! I can't give out that fuckin information! Its against the rules! I don't trust you enough! Or maybe should but I couldn't!".

 And as Pink is about to reply White yells "FUCK YOU AND FUCK JOE!!" and Pink mockingly says "I'm sure it was a beautiful scene between you two" and White furiously says "Don't fucking patronise me!". Pink then asks White if they have police sheet on him where he is from and White says "Yeah!" and Pink warns him now that Orange knows his name, where he is from and his specialty. Pink then asks "You didn't give him anything else to narrow down the selection?!" and White on his last nerve with Pink warns him "If I to tell you to back off again you and me are gonna go round and round!". 

Another scene is where White confronts Blonde at the warehouse over his killing spree at the store and White says to Blonde "You better start talkin, asshole!  Cos we've got alot of shit to talk about!  We're already freaked out, and we need you acting freaky like we need a fuckin bag on our hip!".  And as White is about to leave Blonde tells him not to take a step further, White pulls out his gun and points it at Blonde and yells "FUCK YOU MANIAC!  Its your fuckin' fault we're in this trouble!" and Blonde asks him what's his problem and White yells back "What's my problem? !Yeah I've got a BIG FUCKIN' PROBLEM!!  With any trigger happy madman, who almost gets me shot!".  And this is followed by "You almost KILLED ME!!  ASSHOLE!  If I knew what kind of guy you were I never would have agreed to work with you!".  So, as Blonde smoothly threatens White by saying "Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie or are you gonna bite?" White trying to restrain his anger asks Blonde "I'm sorry I didn't catch that. Could you repeat it???". 

And later on in the film where in the flashback scene, White tells Orange on how to handle a tricky customer at the jewelry store and he tells him what to do if the manager gives him hassle.  And White says "Now managers usually know better than to fuck around, but if you get one who's giving you some static, cut off one of his fingers, the little one and then tell him his thumb's next.  After that he'll tell if he wears ladies underwear!".

WARNING: SPOILER COMING UP IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!

And last there is the final scene where Joe finally shows up at the warehouse and identifies Orange as the rat and working as a cop to the others but White refuses to believe and when Joe pulls a gun on Orange, White pulls his gun on Joe and Eddie in turn pulls his gun on White.

So, in the scene White says to Joe of Orange being the rat "Joe, I know you're hot and super fuckin pissed! We're all real emotional but I know this man and he wouldn't do that!".White then asks Joe "How do you know all this?" and Joe tells him "He was the only one I wasn't 100% on and I should have my fucking head examined going ahead when I wasn't 100%".  White however is not convinced and shouts "THAT'S YOUR PROOF?!" and Joe tells him "You don't need proof when you have instinct! I ignored it before but no more!". So as Joe pulls his gun on Orange, White does the same to Joe "Joe, you're making a terrible mistake I'm not gonna let you make" and Eddie tries to reason with White while pointing his gun at him. White however tells Joe "Joe, you kill that man you die next. Repeat, you kill that man you die next!". And as Eddie warns White not to point his gun at Joe, White says to Joe "Goddamn you, Joe! Don't make me do this!". 

Tim Roth is also excellent in his role as Mr Orange, the undercover cop who infiltrates the gang and takes part in the robbery, which goes awry and later suffers a gunshot wound to the stomach and spends most of the film lying in his own blood in the warehouse.

Roth also shares some excellent scenes with Keitel, especially in the scene where White takes Orange to the warehouse and Orange pleads with White to drop him off at the hospital and he says to White "Look in my eyes, man.  Look in my eyes.  I swear to fucking God!  I won't tell them anything!  You'll be safe, man".

And later on when Blonde regains consciousness and shoots Blonde just before he burns the cop, Nash, he quietly asks Nash his name and tells him that the police are waiting just a block away.  And when Nash petulantly yells at Blonde about his sliced off ear and slashed face, Blonde musters all he can and shouts back "FUCK YOU!  FUCK YOU!!! I'M FUCKING DYING HERE!  I'M FUCKIN DYING!!". Nash then calms down and Blonde says to him "We're gonna sit here and bleed and wait for Joe Cabot to show up, so don't pussy out on me now, Marvin".

And later on in the film during Orange's backstory, Orange talks to his fellow cop, Holdaway (Randy Brooks) about the group of thieves.  And at the start of the scene, Orange walks into the diner and up to Holdaway and tells him "Say hello to a motherfucker who's on the inside. Cabot's pulling a job and take a big fat guess who's on the team?" and Holdaway says "This better not be some Freddie joke" and Orange tells him "Its no joke. I'm there I'm up his ass!" and the two men hug. Orange then talks about how he met with Eddie and that he was a good thief "Eddie, said I was a good thief. I didn't rattle".

So as Holdaway asks what does Cabot look like, Orange says "Do you remember the Fantastic four??" and Holdaway "Oh yeah, that invisible bitch and flame on guy" and Orange dramatically holds out his hands and says  "The Thing!  The motherfucker looks just like the Thing!".

And lastly there is the climax scene where White, Pink and Eddie return to the warehouse to find Blonde dead and a shocked Eddie asks "What the fuck happened?!" and White tells him "He slashed the cop's face, cut off his ear and was gonna burn him alive". Eddie asks again as he approaches Nash and Blonde repeats himself "I said Blonde went crazy, slashed the cop's face, cut off his ear and was gonna burn him alive". Eddie then pulls out his gun and says to Orange "This cop?" and proceeds to shoot Nash dead and Eddie asks "He went crazy? Something like that? Worse or better?". Orange however insists "Eddie, he was pulling a burn, man. He was gonna wait for you to return, blow you to hell and leave with the diamonds. However Eddie refuses to believe Orange and goes over what he said again and asks Orange if that is what he was saying and Orange says "I swear on my mother's eternal soul is what happened".

Steve Buscemi is terrific in his role as the highly strung Mr Pink, who is the most sussed out of the group and realises quickly that they were set up.

Buscemi has plenty of great moments in the film such as in the opening scene where Pink disagrees with tipping waitresses much to the dismay of the other members of the group.  And Buscemi gets some good lines in this scene where he rubs his fingers together saying "You know what this is?  Its the world's smallest violin playing just for the waitresses!". However as White tries to reason with Pink about how waitresses deserve their tips as its the only jobs non-graduates can get and live on, Pink dismissively says "Fuck all that!" and the others laugh in disbelief. Pink then continues "I'm sorry but it appears that the waitresses are one of the groups that the government continues to fuck in the ass on a regular basis, that's not my fault! If we put it to a vote, I'll vote but what I won't do is play ball. And this non-college degree bullshit you're throwing me, I've got two words for you "learn to fucking type". However Joe soon comes back to the table and confronts him over it and Pink relents after Joe calls him a cheap bastard and says how he paid for his breakfast, so Pink says "Alright, since you paid for the breakfast I'll throw in but I don't normally do this".

Then there is the scene where Pink chastises himself for getting involved the job in the first place and that he sensed something was off. So, he says to White "What the fuck am I doin' here, man? I felt funny about this job right off. As soon as I felt it I should have said, "No, thank you," but I never fucking listen. Every time I ever got fucked buying weed, the same thing. I didn't trust the guy, but I wanted to believe him. If he's not lying and it really is Thai stick, then it's great. But it never is, and I always said that if I felt that about a job, I'd fuckin' walk. And I didn't! I DIDN'T BECAUSE OF THE FUCKIN' MONEY!".

And another great highlight in the film is Buscemi's scene with Keitel where White and Pink face off against each other in the warehouse and pull their guns on each other.  And Pink yells "You wanna fuck with me??!! I'll show you who you're fuckin with?!" and White shouts back "You wanna shoot, you little piece of shit?! Go ahead, take a shot!!" and Pink shouts "Fuck you, White!  I didn't create this situation I'm dealing with it!  You're acting like a first year fucking thief.  I'm acting like a professional!  You lookin at me like its my fault?  I didn't tell them my name or where I'm from!  Shit, 15 minutes you almost told me YOUR name! You and your buddy are stuck in a situation you created, so if you wanna throw bad looks somewhere, throw them at a mirror!".

And in the next scene where Pink diffuses a potential barny between White and Blonde and gets in between them shouts "You two assholes calm the fuck down! Hey come on! Am I the only professional here?! Fucking guys are acting like a bunch of fucking niggers! You ever work with niggers huh?! Like you two, always trying to kill each other!". White then says to Pink of Blonde "You said yourself you thought of taking him out!" and Blonde a bit annoyed asks "You fucking said that?!" and Pink tries to back pedal and says "I did! But that was then! Right now this is the only guy I completely trust! He's too fucking homicidal to work with the cops!". 

White then angrily asks Pink "You taking his side?!" Pink yells "Fuck sides man what we need here is a little solidarity!  If someone is sticking a red hot poker up our asses I wanna know who's name is on the handle!". Pink calms down and then says to White and Orange "Look, I know I'm no piece of shit" and he looks to White "And I'm pretty sure you're OK" and he looks to Blonde and says to Blonde "And I'm fucking positive you're on the level. So, let's try and figure out who is the bad guy here, alright?". 

And later on Buscemi also has a fun moment where he complains about being named Mr Pink for the heist, and Pink says to Cabot "Mr Pink sounds like Mr Pussy!" and White says to him who cares about the name and Pink says "Its easy for you to say, you've got a cool sounding name.  So if you don't mind being Mr Pink, do you wanna trade?"  And as Cabot grows tired of Pink's complaining, Pink says "Jesus Christ, Joe, let's forget about it.  Its beneath me.  I'm Mr Pink.  Let's move on".

Michael Madsen provides a memorable and rather chilling performance as the cool headed sociopath, Mr Blonde, who engages in a killing spree during the heist and later tortures the cop, Nash in the warehouse (the heist itself however is never seen).

Madsen in his role gets some good glib dialogue as Blonde, and his flashback story provides a nice introduction to his role, where Blonde (or Vic Vega as his real name is) meets up with Joe and Eddie.  And Blonde has some playful rapport with Eddie the scene where the two of them wrestle on the floor and Eddie comically accuses Blonde of trying to fuck him, and Blonde says "If I were a butt cowboy, I wouldn't even throw you to the posse!" followed by "Eddie if you keep talking like a bitch, I'm gonna slap you like a bitch!".

And after Eddie tells Blonde that he could get him a job as a dock worker to get his parole officer off his back, Blonde asks them "Look, I appreciate what you guys are doing for me but I want when I can come back and...you know...do some real work?". So, after some hesitation, Eddie suggests to Joe that they use Blonde in an upcoming heist job. So, Joe asks Blonde "Well, Vic, how would you feel about pulling off a job with about five other guys?" and Blonde smiles and says "I'd feel great about it".

Another amusing moment Madsen has is in the scene where Nice Guy Eddie turns up at the warehouse and White complains again about Blonde's behaviour at the jewelry heist. So, Blonde warily complains to Eddie and says "You see what I've been putting up with here, Eddie? I fucking walked in here and Mr White is sticking a gun in my face, calling me a motherfucking, saying he's gonna blow me away and blah, blah, blah!". So, White says to Eddie as he poins his finger "He was like this... BAM!  BAM! BAM!".  And Blonde wearily says "Yeah bam, bam bam!  I told them not to touch the fuckin alarm and they did!  If they haven't done what I told them not to do, then they would still be alive!" followed by sarcastic applause by White who says "My fucking hero!" and Blonde takes a little bow smiling and says "Thanks!". So, White asks Blonde "So, that's your excuse for going on a kill-crazy rampage?" and Blonde tells him "I don't like alarms, Mr White". 

And later on in the scene where Blonde is left alone with Orange and Nash, he walks up to Nash, who is tied to a chair and says to him "Guess what?  I think I'm parked in the red zone!".  And in the same scene Madsen delivers that immortal chilling line where he says to Nash "Look, kid.  I'm not gonna bullshit you.  I don't really give a good fuck what you know or don't know, but I'm gonna torture you anyway! Not to get information, it amuses me to torture a cop. You can say what you want as I've heard it all before. All you can do is pray for a quick death, which you ain't gonna get!". So, Blonde pulls out his gun and points it at Nash, who writhes around in panic but Blonde just laughs and puts his gun down and goes over pulls out a razor from his boot and he asks Nash "Have you heard K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70's?" and he goes over and switches on the radio and says "Its my personal favourite!".   

Chris Penn is also great in his role as Joe Cabot's son, Nice Guy Eddie, the underboss who co-organises the heist.  Penn also has some really good moments such as his first scene at the diner where Pink refuses to thrown in a tip for the waitress and Blue says to Pink "Hey this girl was nice" and Pink says "She was OK, she was nothing special" and Blue asks him "What's special? Take you in the back and suck your dick?" and the men all laugh and Eddie says "I'd go over 12% for that!".

And then there is the great scene where Eddie arrives at the warehouse to find White, Pink and Blonde beating up the cop and he asks what is going on. So, Pink tells Eddie "We were set up, the cops were waiting for us!" but Eddie angrily says "What?! Nobody fuckin set anybody up!" but Pink angrily says "Hey fuck you, man! You weren't there! The cops were staked out and waiting for us!". So, Eddie angrily asks Pink "OK, Mr Fucking Detective, how did it?" and Pink shouts "What the hell do you think we've been asking each other?!" and Eddie furiously asks "And what did you come up with? Do you think I did it?! DID YOU THINK I FUCKING SET YOU UP?!" and Pink says "I dunno but somebody did!".

Eddie with disgust at the situation says "Nobody did! You fuckin assholes turn a jewelry store into a wild west show and you wonder why the fuckin cops show up?!" and he asks why they are beating up the cop.  And Eddie says "If you fucking beat this prick long enough, he's gonna tell you who started the goddamn fuckin Chicago fire!  But that don't necessarily make it FUCKIN SO!  Come on, man, THINK!".  So, at the end of the scene, Eddie tells White and Pink to come with him and get rid of the cars outside and as Eddie tells them that they should never have let the cop out of Blonde's car boot in the first place, Pink says "We were trying to find out what he knew about the setup!". And Eddie and yells "THERE IS NO FUCKIN SET UP! Blonde you stay here and babysit these two! White and Pink come with because if Joe comes here and sees all these cars outside, I swear he's gonna be just as mad as me as he is at you!".

And later on Penn has a funny scene where he tells the story of "Lady E" a woman who's abusive partner lead her to play a practical joke on him.  And Eddie says in the scene "She buys this wacko glue and glues his dick to his belly!  The paramedics had to cut the prick loose!" and White asks if he was pissed off and Eddie laughs and says "How would you feel if every time you had to take a piss you had to do a handstand!".

And later Penn has one of his best moments when he confronts Orange over what happened to Blonde when Orange killed him and he refuses to believe Orange's excuse.  "You're telling me this man who did five years for us, and we're making good on our commitment to him, he's GONNA DECIDE OUT OF THE FUCKIN BLUE TO RIP US OFF???!!  Why don't you tell me what REALLY happened?!".

WARNING! SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!

Last of all is the Mexican stand-off scene where Joe is about to shoot Orange after he tells the others that Orange was the one that set them up and Joe pulls out his gun to shoot Orange, only for White to pulls his gun on Joe. So, in turn Eddie pulls out his gun and points it at White and asks him "Have you lost your fucking mind???" and White says to Joe "Joe, you're about to make a terrible mistake I'm not gonna let you make". Eddie then tries to reason with White "Look, we've done a lot of jobs, done a lot of time but there's no need for this man". White then warns Joe "Joe, you kill that man you die next, repeat: you kill that man you die next". Eddie then warns White "Larry, we have been friends and I respect you but I will put bullets through your fucking heart if you don't put that gun down NOW!". White then gives Joe a final warning "Goddamn you, Joe. Don't make me do this!" and Eddie give his final warning and yells at White "LARRY STOP POINTING THAT FUCKING GUN AT MY DAD!!!".  

Lawrence Tierney also is very good in his role as the gruff aged mob boss, Joe Cabot, who masterminds the jewel heist.

And Tierney's best scene comes when he tells the men their names "Here are you're name, Mr Blonde, Mr White, Mr Blue, Mr Brown and Mr Pink" and when Pink asks "Why am I Mr Pink?" Joe sharply says "Cos you're a faggot alright?!!!".  And when Pink asks why can't they chose their own colours, Joe says "No, no way.  Tried it once, it doesn't work.  You got four guys all fighting over who wants to be Mr Black, but they don't know each other so nobody wants to back down!  No way.  I pick!  You're Mr Pink!  Be thankful you're not Mr Yellow!".  And at the of the scene Joe says to the men "I'm so goddamn mad hollering at you guys I can hardly talk!  Let's go to work!".

And last of all is the last scene where Joe finally shows up at the warehouse just as Eddie angrily confronts Orange over what happened with Blonde's death. So, as Eddie furiously asks Orange "Why don't you tell me what REALLY happened?!" Joe arrives and says "What the hell for?! It would just be more bullshit!" and Eddie says to Joe "Dad, I'm sorry but I don't know what the hell is happened". Joe then says to Eddie "Its alright, Eddie, I do" and he points to Orange says "This man set us up" and White shocked ask "What do you mean?" and Joe tells him "That lump of shit is working with the LAPD!".  And as White refuses to believe it, Joe says "You don't know what's goin on! I do! Mr Orange tipped off the cops and had Mr Brown and Mr Blue killed!" and Pink asks "Blue's dead?" and Joe delivers the great line "Dead as Dilinger!".

White then asks Joe "How do you know all this?" and Joe tells him "He was the only one I wasn't 100% on. I should have my fucking head examined going ahead when I wasn't 100%".  White however is not convinced and shouts "THAT'S YOUR PROOF?!" and Joe tells him "You don't need proof when you have instinct! I ignored it before but no more!".

Kirk Baltz is also very good in his role as Marvin Nash, the cop who is taken hostage, beaten and then tortured by Blonde, and I still find it hard to look at the open wound of his severed ear in the film 30 years on from the film's initial release!

Baltz also does very well in the film's most unsettling and difficult scene where Nash begs with Blonde to spare him just as Blonde douses the cop in gasoline and prepares to burn him. So, in the scene a terrified Nash shouts to Blonde "STOP! STOP! Look I've got my own kid now, please! I don't know anything about any fucking guys! I'm not gonna say anything!".

And after Orange kills Blonde, he asks Nash his name "What's your name?" and Nash tells him "Marvin. Marvin Nash" and Blonde says "Listen, Marvin Nash, I'm a cop" and Nash says "Yeah, I know". Blonde a little surprised asks Nash "You do?" and Nash says "Yeah, your name is Freddie something" and Orange says "Newendyke, Freddie Newendyke". Nash then tells Orange "Frankie Ferchetti introduced about 5 months ago" and Orange says "Shit, I don't remember that at all". Nash then asks Orange "Freddie...how do I look?" and Orange smiles sympathetically and says "I dunno what to tell you Marvin". 

So, Nash almost sobs and shouts re: Blonde "That fuck! That sick twisted fuck!" Orange tells Nash "I need you to hold on, Marvin. There are cops just waiting a block awat". So, Nash shouts  he says "What the fuck are they waiting for?!  I mean this guy slices my face and cuts my fucking ear off!  I'm fucking deformed!" and Blonde yells at him that he is dying and not to pussy out and wait for Joe to show up.

Randy Brooks is very good also in his role as the undercover cop, Holdaway, who helps out Orange and tells him to use a "commode" story to tell to Joe's men to amuse them to back his cover story as a drug dealer.

So, in Brooks scenes with Roth, Orange meets with Holdaway in a diner and they discuss he is undercover work and how he has infiltrated Joe's team. So, as Orange tells Holdaway about White, Holdaway says "I bet you from a diddle-eyed Joe to a damned-if-know, this motherfucker's from Wisconsin" and Orange says "bing!" and Holdaway says "So, what I want you to do is look at all the mug shots from, Wisconsin and identify this Mr White motherfucker's ass". Orange then discusses how his referral from another cop, "Long Beach" Mike helped him to get inside. So, Orange says to Holdaway "So, do right by him, he's a good guy" but Holdaway shakes his head and says "No, no, no, no, no. "Long Beach" Mike isn't your fucking amigo,  "Long Beach" is a fucking scumbag. He is selling out his amigos, that's what kind of nice fucking guy he is. So, you keep low-life scumbag outta mind". So, after a pause, Holdaway asks Orange "You use the "commode" story?". 

So, in the following scene up on a rooftop building somewhere, Holdaway explains the "commode" story and presents a four page script to Orange to rehearse. So, Holdaway says of the script "This is something funny that happens to you while on a fucking job. You remember what you need and make the rest your own, alright?".  Holdaway then tells Orange "To do this job you need to be a great fuckin actor, you need to be Brando. A bad actor is bullshit on this job!". Holdaway then insists Orange remembers the specific details about the commode itself and he tells Orange "You gotta remember if it stinks, if some nasty low-life motherfucker, man, sprays diahorrea all over the bowl! You gotta remember EVERY detail about this commode! Its all about you and how you perceived the events that went down. And the only way to do that is to keep saying it, saying it, saying it and saying it!". 

Edward Bunker also does well in his very brief role as Mr Blue. Bunker interestingly enough himself in reality had a criminal background as he was once a convicted felon, who served prison sentences for crimes such as armed robbery, drug dealing and extortion before he finally went straight in 1975. Bunker later died in 2005, aged 71. 

And Bunker's only comes in the opening diner scene where Blue says to Pink about the waitress that served them "Hey this girl was nice" and Pink say "She was OK, she was nothing special" and Blue asks him "What's special? Take you in the back and suck your dick?!" and as the men all laugh, Eddie ponders and says "I'd go over 12% for that!".

And last of all Quentin Tarantinto provides his own tuppence in the film as Mr Brown who delivers an admittedly silly and annoying monologue about the real meaning of the Madonna song "Like a virgin" and he refers to the woman in the song "Its all about this cooz who is a regular fuck machine, I'm talkin morning, noon, day and night! Dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick!"  And Blue then asks "How many dicks it that?" and White dryly says "A lot!".  And Brown continues by saying "You see the pain reminds a fuck machine what it was once like to be a virgin.  Hence like a virgin!".

And later on when Brown is given his alias of Mr Brown by Joe at the heist meeting, Tarantino delivers his best line when complains and says "Mr Brown it a little too close to Mr Shit!".

DIRECTOR

So finally getting onto the director, Quentin Tarantino does an excellent job and given that it is his debut its also a fairly impressive technical film, with Tarantino using a string of long takes to give the actors good distance from one another and it goes without saying his writing is of a very high quality as his script is witty, immensely profane, and above all very clever.  Tarantino also paces the film to perfection as it clocks in at just 99 minutes so there is not a minute's flab in there (well in movie length weight terms that is!).

MUSIC 

As for the music in the film, Tarantino here rather than go with an original score has chosen a number of classic pop/rock tracks from the 1970's and has created his own fictional radio channel "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the 70's" that is voiced by stand-up comedian, Steve Wright. The soundtrack itself is a pretty good mix of tracks such as "Little Green Bag" by The George Baker Selection, "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex, "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede and of course "Stuck in the middle with you" by Stealers Wheel. The soundtrack of course also has helped a lot of these songs to become iconic and anthems of their own for the film.     

FLAWS 

As for flaws does Reservoir Dogs have any glaring ones??? Yeah it does have some.

And to start off, I think the film's violence could be a real turn-off for some audiences specifically regarding the torture scene with Blonde cutting off the cop's ear even though you don't see the action itself.  The film was also even delayed its initial video release by the British film censors due to the timing of its impending video release with the Jamie Bulger murder, which occurred roundabout that time and as a result the film wasn't subsequently released until 1995 although I have to say I don't think for a second this film influenced that killing itself.

The film also has some rather uncomfortable racist and misogynistic tones to it especially in the language of the thieves which comes over in the scene where White, Pink and Eddie talk about how black men treat women.  And in this scene for example Pink says to the others "What a white bitch would put up with a black bitch wouldn't put up with for a second" and White says "If this is such as truism, how is it every nigger I know treats their woman like a piece of shit?".  And another scene is where Pink yells at White and Blonde in the warehouse and he says "Fuckin guys are acting like a bunch of fuckin niggers, man!  You ever worked with niggers?  Just like you two!  Always trying to kill each other!".

And in Reservoir Dogs it is a predominantly male orientated universe and women play very much second fiddle to them, where the only women we see in the film is the one who is dragged out of her car window by Pink or the other one who Orange shoots dead in retaliation for her shooting him in the abdomen. However, Tarantino would of course go on to have more female leads in his films, most notably Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction as well as Pam Grier in Jackie Brown. 

I also felt Tarantino's small performance is very much superfluous to the film itself and his whole monologue on Brown's analysis of "Like a Virgin" is pretty annoying where the smug criminal tells the men his pointless and silly theory on the meaning of the song.   But at the same time you get that Tarantino wanted to announce himself on and off the screen as well so people could quickly put a name to the face but its still the most annoying scene in the film that to this day still makes me cringe to watch. 

I also thought it was a bit unusual that Mr Pink isn't given a backstory given that he is quite prominent in the film too and we do get at least get a short backstory from Mr White but nothing for Mr Pink. So, I think that is something that Tarantino could have added into the script but then again maybe he just felt that we learn enough about Pink and his attitude from the scenes he wrote.

And last of all, I found the whole idea of Mr Orange's cover story a bit daft in that he has to rehearse a four page script of a time he was in a men's room and his fellow cop, Holdaway wants Orange to memorise all the details about the commode, i.e. what paper towels they used, condition of the stalls, if it had hand driers etc.  Now, OK I'm willing to buy that Orange would be able to learn the details of the story from a dealer stand point but I find it a bit ridiculous that he would be expected to remember all the details of the condition of the commode itself. I mean the story was set back in 1986, so by the film's production it was 1991, so basically he is supposed to remember the condition of the toilets from 5 years ago! So, I just think Holdaway's expectations are a bit daft.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Reservoir Dogs after 30 years is still a modern classic crime film and also remains one of Tarantino's best films, which is very well written and tightly paced. The film's cast are also all top notch particularly the performances by Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi. The film also has a very memorable soundtrack with the songs chosen having become very iconic themselves as a result. And if you are still watch QT's debut then it is certainly worth checking out.

And so I will give Reservoir Dogs...

9 out of 10 

So, that's it for this post and I will be back hopefully with another either before or just after Christmas.

Until then bye for now!