Reservoir Dogs

Director: Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino

Overview

In 1992, Reservoir Dogs transformed Quentin Tarantino practically overnight from an obscure, unproduced screenwriter and part-time actor to the most influential new filmmaker of the 1990s. The story looks at what happens before and after (but not during) a botched jewelry store robbery organized by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is a career criminal who takes a liking to newcomer Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) and enjoys showing him the ropes. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is a weaselly loner obsessed with professionalism. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) has just gotten out of jail after taking the rap on a job for Cabot; he's grateful for the work but isn't the same person he used to be. While Mr. Blonde goes nuts during the heist, the thieves are surprised by the sudden arrival of the police, and Mr. Pink is convinced one of their team is a cop. So who's the rat? What do they do about Mr. Blonde? And what do they do with Mr. Orange, who took a bullet in the gut and is slowly bleeding to death? Reservoir Dogs jumps back and forth between pre- and post-robbery events, occasionally putting the narrative on pause to let the characters discuss such topics as the relative importance of tipping, who starred in Get Christie Love!, and what to do when you enter a men's room full of cops carrying a briefcase full of marijuana.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/15/2022
UPC:	0031398253785
Original Release:	1992
Rating:	R
Source:	Lions Gate
Format:	Blu-ray

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Harvey Keitel	Mr. White/Larry
Tim Roth	Mr. Orange/Freddy
Michael Madsen	Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega
Chris Penn	Nice Guy Eddie
Steve Buscemi	Mr. Pink
Lawrence Tierney	Joe Cabot
Quentin Tarantino	Mr. Brown
Kirk Baltz	Marvin Nash
Randy Brooks	Holdaway
Edward Bunker	Mr. Blue
Rich Turner	1st Sheriff
David Steen	2nd Sheriff
Tony Cosmo	3rd Sheriff
Stevo Poliy	4th Sheriff
Michael Sottile	Teddy
Robert Ruth	Shot Cop
Lawrence Bender	Young Cop / Background Radio Play
Linda Kaye	Shocked Woman
Suzanne Celeste	Shot Woman
Laurie Latham	Background Radio Play
Maria Strova	Background Radio Play
Burr Steers	Background Radio Play
Craig Hamann	Background Radio Play
Steven Wright	K-Billy DJ

Technical Credits

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino	Director,Screenwriter
Jamie Beardsley	Asst. Director
Lawrence Bender	Producer
Michelle Buhler	Makeup
Richard N. Gladstein	Executive Producer
Betsy Faith Heimann	Costumes/Costume Designer
Paul Hellerman	Production Manager
Monte Hellman	Executive Producer
Marcia Holley	Stunts
Harvey Keitel	Co-producer
Pat McGroarty	Stunts
Sally Menke	Editor
Karyn Rachtman	Score Composer,Musical Direction/Supervision
Sandy Reynolds-Wasco	Set Decoration/Design
Ken Segal	Sound Mixer
Andrzej Sekula	Cinematographer
Ronna Wallace	Executive Producer
David Wasco	Production Designer
Ronnie Yeskel	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut is an audacious, low-budget, neo-noir thriller that immediately established the former video-store clerk as the '90s filmmaker to watch. Armed with a terrific script that employs jarring, temporal shifts and mesmerizing, pop-culture-obsessed dialogue, the budding auteur assembled a letter-perfect cast of seasoned veterans and talented newcomers. Perennial screen heavy Lawrence Tierney plays the career criminal who recruits a team of supposedly top-notch triggermen -- Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Penn -- to pull off a big diamond heist. The desperadoes bungle the job, however, instigating a massive shoot-out that sends them scrambling for the deserted warehouse they've chosen for a rendezvous. Tarantino makes his characters colorful, violent, desperate men who are generally garrulous and often comically profane. What's more, they don't flinch from the sight of blood, something in which Resevoir Dogs is awash. Violent and nihilistic, this stylish picture boosted Tarantino's stock and influenced a slew of Gen-X filmmakers to crank out similarly gritty but less effective imitations.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

A study in violence and pop hoodlum cool, Quentin Tarantino's debut film adrenalized the gangster film and put Tarantino on the auteur map. Adapting the novelistic structure of Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956) and using observational long takes, Tarantino shifts between the preparations for an ill-fated heist and its extraordinarily bloody aftermath, increasing tension through the gradual revelation of each color-coded character's true nature as they figure out what went wrong. As in Howard Hawks's and Sam Peckinpah's films, the driving concern is honor among men, but, as in the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Tarantino's crooks also define themselves through a plethora of pop culture references, from Lee Marvin to the "Stuck in the Middle With You" ear-slicing and the opening exegesis of Madonna songs. Drawing praise and fire on the film festival circuit for juxtaposing humor and brutal violence, and attacked for being too indebted to the Hong Kong action film City on Fire (1987), Reservoir Dogs opened to critical acclaim, jump-starting former video clerk Tarantino's career. Although its extreme bloodshed hampered its box office, Reservoir Dogs's postmodern generic self-awareness went on to be almost as influential on 1990s gangster movies as Tarantino's next film, Pulp Fiction (1994).

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola