Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 7.5/10

Tarantino's first film is well-known and generally fairly well-acclaimed, so it doesn't really need my approval. However it is instructive (at least for me personally) to examine the reasons why it is regarded as a fairly good movie and especially instructive to examine its shortcomings.

Reservoir Dogs open with the camera circling a group of men seated at a dinner and having a conversation (which in the decade and a half since its making has come to be known as almost Tarantinoesque, which is not small praise for any director/screenwriter). The conversation is about many things but not about what is going to happen in the film. In a sense, it is there to fill in space. In other senses it is a lot more than that and works to not only set up the rest of the movie but on close observation it also helps to establish character. The classic Steve Buscemi induced tipping conversation has implications which will be picked up at the end of the movie. Dialogue is one of the strong points of this movie (as it is with any Tarantino movie - but now I am going to refrain from saying that, because I am trying to review this movie separately from Tarantino's work thereafter). However, in a way dialogue is also a shortcoming of this movie. Not in that it is necessarily used to no effect. Rather, that it is used for too much effect. After a while (say 2/3rds of the way in) one gets the feeling of watching talking heads, with not too much to recommend them. A series of flashbacks, which should serve as character development end up being more opportunities for said talking heads. And this is a pity because you have a wonderful cast who have assembled and it seems geed themselves up for a spirited performance. Unfortunately, their chaperone lets them down.

Consider for example, what happens to the character of Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), who lies bleeding for most of the time at the warehouse, but suddenly comes alive at some stage and speaks some nonsense (and I do not use the word lightly). Or consider Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) and Mr. Pink's (Steve Buscemi) first conversation at the warehouse, when a guy lies their bleeding. The thing that eventually gets to me is that Tarantino starts off so well, both with the opening dialogue and the moments immediately following (and this movie could have easily gone on to become a classic from there). The movie is rescued somewhat by Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen, in a career-making role, even if that is not always a good thing considering the rest of his career after RD) from time to time. But again the movie insists on too many flashbacks for the effect to be carried through and through to what it could have.

In the end, therefore, this movie becomes a classic could've-been and not a classic (and I am willing to argue with those who think otherwise - and by the way cult-classic phenomenon is questionable, since I have read recently that Chaos has attained cult status). Tighter editing would have helped, so would a couple of re-writes, less flashback and a control on the number of words spoken by a person at a time (see the initial realism created in the opening sequences is lost because people who are apparently in panic or injured speak volumes, and it is far from hysterical chattering, more like caffeine-induced monologues).

All this is not to say that the film is bad. Far from it, it is still recommended viewing for anyone but the weakest of stomachs (the gore/violence quotient though is less than typical Tarantino). It is great to watch the first effort of a director, who spent a lot of time and energy in getting the project to fruition in the first place. Most importantly it is great to see the lessons that the Tarantino learns from the short-comings of this movie. Despite what people may think, one thing that Tarantino has in all his other movies is restraint (though on the scale of Tarantino it differs greatly from what it means for you or me). For a guy who is way-out-there it means that he keeps it enough under control for it to be useful to his object and consitently interesting. Critics such as Ray Carney who think that a director like Tarantino has no place among good film-makers (but then he thinks that there is no place for Kubrick, Scorsese either) don't realize in a way what this kind of film-maker brings to the movies, he pushes boundaries (even if primarily stylistically and plot-development) and that is always of great benefit. Yes, it is a pity that he does not take up more serious subjects. But then again who is to say that a Pulp Fiction will not stand the test of time. What is that film about, well that is the subject of a completely different kind of piece. Suffice to say, that it is essential watching.

Reservoir Dogs also has great camera-work by Andrzej Sakula. The moving-camera Scorsese influence can be seen although it is not desperately obvious and the long (and often moving) shots are also great. Action sequences are filmed with urgency and somehow the wonderful shot of Mr. Pink running along the pavement, being roughly at the center of the frame throughout is reminiscent of the shots at the end of Truffaut's The 400 Blows with the character of Antoine running away from his reform school. I always wonder about how a shot like that was managed, more so for Truffaut's film which was made in 1959 than this one, and also if anyone else sees the similarity.

Michael Madsen is at the center of this movie with a glowing performance, although the rest of the cast is very good: Harvey Keitel as usual, Chris Penn shows us some of the darkness which will see him get cast in Altman's Short Cuts a year later, Steve Buscemi is hyper and anxious as ever and Tim Roth actually brings a couple of different sides to his character. The line of the movie for me is, "Are you gonna talk all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?" from Mr. Blonde. Madsen has one sequence in this movie which oozes with so much sheer coldbloodedness that nothing can be said about it except: watch it! It is a pity that in a way this role type-cast him and he really never got too many more roles that were of the same calibre (not even Tarantino could give him one in Kill Bill, though he tried).

The movie gets 7.5. It is rated R with good reason. It is reported that it uses fuck or a variant 269 times and ain't that a beauty.