- I was a teenager when I first watched Reservoir Dogs. I had never seen Dillinger or The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and surely had no idea who Pam Grier and Lee Marvin were. I probably hadn't encountered a strongly nonlinear movie before, and my knowledge of 70's rock would have been limited at best. And yet, I remember being incredibly impressed with this, Quentin Tarantino's debut feature-length film. In retrospect, I'm sure I was attracted to the film's conspicuous coolness, profanity-fueled conversations, and occasional eruptions of graphic violence, all of which may have been engineered specifically to connect with the mind of a teenage boy. Strange that you can appreciate a work of art as an adult in a very different way than you did when you were young.
- These days, I find myself focusing most on the narrative structure of Reservoir Dogs, the only heist film I've seen with the audacity to forgo showing the heist itself. Instead, the film gradually unveils the disasterous details of a diamond robbery gone wrong through its characters' many heated discussions. This is in addition to the film's expert deployment of flashbacks, all of which are skillfully arranged to give the audience more information about a character just when we crave it the most. The film even features the rare and often dreaded double-flashback (with an added dramatization of a fictional anecdote, no less), but it somehow all hangs together in a way that never feels gimmicky.
- Unfortunately, the dialogue in Reservoir Dogs hasn't aged quite as well as the rest of the film. As revolutionary as edgy discussions of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" may have seemed twenty-five years ago, pop culture name-dropping has become such a saturated market that only obscure references to Get Christie Love! earn a smile these days. Worse still is the film's frequent use of racial and ethnic slurs that have long since stopped being "provocative." That said, Reservoir Dogs' various gun-wielding shouting matches remain just as effective as they ever were, helped largely by the film's exceedingly talented cast.
- About the characters and cast: the man running the show is Joe Cabot, played by imposing fictional gangster and real-life dangerous man Lawrence Tierney. Cabot and son (Chris Penn) have undertaken the challenging task of wrangling six thieves, referred to by their color-coded nicknames. Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) seems pretty decent, as far as crooks go. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) always looks out for number one and can't stop yapping about it. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) may not have emerged from his recent prison stint completely rehabilitated. Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) is a very dedicated cop with the misfortune to have been shot in the stomach. Mr. Brown (Tarantino) shows up for some short-lived comic relief, and the elusive Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker) is presumably a casting in-joke.
- Despite throwing out references to everything from blaxploitation cinema to French heist pictures, Reservoir Dogs paradoxically looks nothing like any film that came before it. In this film's strange world, a set of slender-tied characters saunter out of a diner in slow-motion after arguing loudly and profanely about the ethics of tipping. A gritty warehouse serves as a nostalgiac dance hall-turned-torture chamber. The film, like its deep-cut 70's soundtrack, can't help but radiate style, even if you might wonder later whether it all was as good as you remember. Although I acknowledge that this is the minority opinion, I don't think Tarantino ever managed to top his first feature. I say this after 25 years' experience enjoying it.
- I have heard it claimed that the title of this film is a misunderstanding of Au Revoir Les Enfants, which is a pretty different film.
