Right, well its time to revisit yet another previous post from this blog and this one goes a fair way back by 5 years on the blog and the subject of the post in question is Quentin Tarantino's debut film, Reservoir Dogs. So, I will do the usual rewrite stuff to expand on the sections and give the sections actual headings like I do now to make things a bit easier to read etc.
So, with that said let's take a look at this modern crime classic and see how it stacks up after almost 30 years (yep its been nearly that long!).
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So it all begins with eight men sitting in a diner have 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 in recent years of an any filmmaker, although for me it still remains one of my least favourite Tarantinto films, but its still a compelling, intense and entertaining film nonetheless. 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!".
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 get's 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 soons 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 Chigaco 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 organises 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 to this day! Yeeughhh!
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, Tarantino does an excellent job with Dogs 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 witty, immensely profane, and above all very clever. Tarantino also paces the film to perfection as it clocks in at just 95 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.
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 still remains a very impressive film debut by one of cinema's most talented and controversial directors and while it does have its flaws and isn't one of my favourite QT films, its still testament to his quality as a writer/director and Reservoir Dogs is still well worth a look 27 years on.
So, that's it for now and I will be back hopefully once more before the end of the month.
Till then its bye for now!
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