Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Writers:

Quentin Tarantino (written by)
Roger Avary (background radio dialog) ...

Release Date:

23 October 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Seven Total Strangers Team Up For The Perfect Crime. They Don't Know Each Other's Name. But They've Got Each Other's Color

Plot:

After a simple jewelery heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Robbery | Diamond | Flashback | Heist

Awards:

8 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Harvey Keitel	...	Mr. White - Larry Dimmick
Tim Roth	...	Mr. Orange - Freddy Newandyke
Michael Madsen	...	Mr. Blonde - Vic Vega
Chris Penn	...	Nice Guy Eddie Cabot
Steve Buscemi	...	Mr. Pink
Lawrence Tierney	...	Joe Cabot
Randy Brooks	...	Holdaway
Kirk Baltz	...	Ofcr. Marvin Nash
Edward Bunker	...	Mr. Blue (as Eddie Bunker)
Quentin Tarantino	...	Mr. Brown
Steven Wright	...	K-Billy DJ (voice)
Rich Turner	...	Sheriff #1
David Steen	...	Sheriff #2
Tony Cosmo	...	Sheriff #3
Stevo Polyi	...	Sheriff #4 (as Stevo Poliy)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and language.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) | Finland:K-18 | Hungary:18 | Argentina:16 | Singapore:M18 (cut) | Philippines:R-18 | Brazil:18 | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | South Africa:16 | Singapore:R(A) | Argentina:18 (DVD rating) | Canada:18A (Alberta) (2009) | Australia:MA (Cable TV rating) | Canada:18+ (Quebec) (Original rating) | Australia:R | Belgium:KNT | Canada:16+ (Québec) | Canada:R | Denmark:15 (DVD rating) | France:-16 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:III | Iceland:16 | Ireland:18 | Israel:18 | Italy:VM18 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:(Banned) (original rating) | South Korea:18 (re-rating) | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Johnie's Coffee Shop - 6101 Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Live Entertainment

Trivia:

Edward Bunker, a former career criminal, was the youngest felon to be sent to San Quentin. (He was 17.) He was a novelist and also played cons in other films - Runaway Train (1985), The Longest Yard (2005) and Straight Time (1978) (which was based on his novel) and worked as a technical advisor on others - Heat (1995), for instance. Jon Voight's character in 'Heat' was based on Bunker.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the beginning diner scene, after Mr. Pink finally puts a dollar in for the tip, they all get up and start to walk away from the table. Nice Guy Eddie leaves his "brick" cell phone on the table.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mr. Brown: Let me tell you what 'Like a Virgin' is about. It's all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song. It's a metaphor for big dicks.
Mr. Blonde: No, no. It's about a girl who is very vulnerable. She's been fucked over a few times. Then she meets some guy who's really sensitive...
Mr. Brown: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... Time out Greenbay. Tell that fucking bullshit to the tourists.
Joe: Toby... Who the fuck is Toby? Toby...
Mr. Brown: 'Like a Virgin' is not about this sensitive girl who meets a nice fella. That's what "True Blue" is about, now, granted, no argument about that.
Mr. Orange: Which one is 'True Blue'?
Nice Guy Eddie: 'True Blue' was a big ass hit for Madonna. I don't even follow this Tops In Pops shit, and I've at least heard of "True Blue".
Mr. Orange: Look, asshole, I didn't say I ain't heard of it. All I asked was how does it go? Excuse me for not being the world's biggest Madonna fan.
Mr. Blonde: Personally, I can do without her.
Mr. Blue: I like her early stuff. You know, 'Lucky Star', 'Borderline' - but once she got into her 'Papa Don't Preach' phase, I don't know, I tuned out.
Mr. Brown: Hey, you guys are making me lose my... train of thought here. I was saying something, what was it?
Joe: Oh, Toby was this Chinese girl, what was her last name?
Mr. White: What's that?
Joe: I found this old address book in a jacket I ain't worn in a coon's age. What was that name?
Mr. Brown: What the fuck was I talking about?
Mr. Pink: You said 'True Blue' was about a nice girl, a sensitive girl who meets a nice guy, and that 'Like a Virgin' was a metaphor for big dicks.
Mr. Brown: Lemme tell you what 'Like a Virgin' is about. It's all about this cooze who's a regular fuck machine, I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.
Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that?
Mr. White: A lot.
Mr. Brown: Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker and it's like, whoa baby, I mean this cat is like Charles Bronson in the 'Great Escape', he's digging tunnels. Now, she's gettin' the serious dick action and she's feeling something she ain't felt since forever. Pain. Pain.
Joe: Chew? Toby Chew?
Mr. Brown: It hurts her. It shouldn't hurt her, you know, her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when this cat fucks her it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it once was like to be a virgin. Hence, 'Like a Virgin'.
Joe: Wong?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (#26.20)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

WES TURNED COUNTRY

A stylish and excellent example of expert story-telling.

After watching this half a dozen times with a biased, anti-Tarantino, "what the heck is so great about this guy, anyway" view(which, as most anyone watching any film with that view and a fair bit of self-knowledge will tell you, is a rather fruitless practice in pointlessness... if you've decided you're not going to like it, there's very little reason to think that you will, no matter how good it is; you need an open mind), I finally decided to give it a fair hearing... and I saw it for what it is. An unusual film, at least for its time. A stylish film full of cool dialog, cinematography, editing and music. The whole thing comes together perfectly and is very short of creating a sublime film experience. The plot is excellently written and told. The pace is perfect. I wasn't bored for a second, nor did I ever really want it to move faster or slower. The cinematography is magnificent, and incredibly well-integrated. Pans, dolly trips and, lest we forget, the stationary shots... all perfectly used. Very stylized. The acting is top-notch all-round. With most of the cast being name actors, this is no surprise, but they really do shine. Madsen, Buscemi, Keitel, Roth... all incredible. The one role that had less than good... well, let's be honest, it had rather awful acting. I'm speaking, of course, of Tarantino's character. Now, don't get me wrong; in From Dusk Till Dawn, this man did great. But just about any other time I've seen him act, he just doesn't seem to have the first clue. Being a film-maker myself(albeit on somewhat of a smaller scale than Quentin), I can relate to wanting to cast yourself in a role... but sometimes, you just need to face up to the facts, and admit it if you can't act. Still, that is a minor complaint. Another one might be that there are at least two fairly big characters that seem completely and entirely expendable... they had no real role in the action and could very, very easily have been cut with no real loss to the overall product. I won't name them here, but anyone who's seen the film will know who I'm talking about. All the characters, however, are well-written and their actions credible. Tarantino knows his stuff when it comes to writing... something that also shows in the dialog, which, although somewhat drawn-out at times, is exceptional. Well-delivered, too. When it comes to direction, he shows how talented he is, as well. The film is very well put together. The editing is great, with the non-linear time-line telling the story far better than a "regular" film ever could. One of the many Tarantino-fans, in fact, the very person who originally talked me into watching this film, once told me that he had heard of someone editing films with such time-lines - this, Pulp Fiction, Memento, etc. - so that their time-lines were perfectly linear. I'm sorry, I entirely respect their right to do such a thing... and I won't claim that their doing so has less artistic value than the original films in any way... but I refuse to watch that. A big part of this being so well-told lies in the time-line. Also, I'm a firm believer of watching something the way the makers intended it. Don't edit, don't censor, don't make your own version and pass it off as anything but just that... your own version, and not the original. Sorry, rant over. Finally, I just need to comment on the music... the soundtrack of this is just great. Tarantino collected so many amazing 70's tunes for this film and used them great. All in all, just a really, really good film. Very little keeps this from being a perfect ten, most of which I've covered here. I recommend this to anyone who can stomach the violence and who likes their films with a side of style. 8/10