Information about Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs theatrical poster
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Written by	Quentin Tarantino
Starring	Harvey Keitel Tim Roth Steve Buscemi Chris Penn Michael Madsen Lawrence Tierney Eddie Bunker
Cinematography	Andrzej Sekula
Editing by	Sally Menke
Distributed by	Miramax Films Rank Film Distributors Artisan Entertainment (DVD) Momentum Pictures (UK)
Release date(s)	October 23, 1992
Running time	99 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$1.2 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Reservoir Dogs is the 1992 debut feature film of director Quentin Tarantino. It incorporates many of the themes and aesthetics that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, memorable dialogue and nonlinear stories. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi and Lawrence Tierney. Tarantino has a minor role, as does criminal-turned-author Eddie Bunker. The film portrays what happens before and after a botched jewel heist, but not the heist itself. The origin and meaning of the film title is unclear and has given rise to speculation.

Plot

After a simple jewelery heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant. The movie opens with six men dressed in dark suits (Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink and Mr. White) eating breakfast at a diner, accompanied by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son, "Nice Guy" Eddie (Chris Penn). Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino) discusses his comparative analysis of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and "True Blue" while the rest listen. When they are going to leave the diner, Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) expresses his anti-tipping policy. Everyone disagrees with him, but Mr. Orange (Tim Roth). Then they leave the diner accompanied by "Little Green Bag" by George Baker Selection.

The scene jumps to a car, where Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) has been seriously injured by a gunshot to the lower abdomen, and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is attempting to comfort the hysterical Mr. Orange while trying to navigate the car. They arrive at a warehouse and discover that they are the first to arrive at their meeting place. Mr. Orange begs Mr. White to drop him off at the hospital and swears that he won't tell the police anything if he's arrested. Mr. Orange lies on the warehouse floor bleeding profusely when Mr. Pink comes in and suggests that the jewel heist was a set up. Mr. White says that Mr. Brown has been killed by the cops, and Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker) is missing. Both Mr. White and Mr. Pink express their anger over the fact that Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) shot and killed several of the hostages after the alarm was set off, argue over whether or not to leave the warehouse in fear of being apprehended by the police, and discuss whether or not to take the unconscious Mr. Orange to a hospital. Mr. White reveals that he told Mr. Orange his first name in the car to comfort him, and Mr. Pink angrily suggests that Mr. Orange might give that information to the authorities if taken to a hospital. The argument turns violent, and both men point loaded pistols at each other. Mr. Blonde steps in and speaks up; he has been watching for some time now, and tells them not to leave the warehouse because they are waiting for Nice Guy Eddie. Mr. Blonde takes them outside to his car and opens the trunk to reveal a captured police officer (Kirk Baltz). During the flashbacks, Joe Cabot offered Mr. White, whose real name is Larry, a heist job with five strangers. In a different scene, Joe and Eddie also offered Mr. Blonde, whose real name is Vic Vega, the same heist job.

Meanwhile, Eddie is driving towards the warehouse while talking on a cellular phone and discussing a conversation he had with Mr. Blonde concerning what went wrong. At the same time, Mr. Pink and Mr. White beat the officer excessively and Mr. Blonde ties him to a chair with duct tape. Eddie arrives at the warehouse, and orders Mr. Pink and Mr. White to come with him to retrieve the stolen diamonds from the hiding spot, while ordering Mr. Blonde to stay with the dying Mr. Orange and the tied-up cop. The officer denies knowing anything about the setup, and begs to be released. Mr. Blonde then draws a straight razor from out of his boot and tunes a radio to K-Billy's "Super Sounds of the '70s" marathon, which is playing "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel. Dancing around with the music, Mr. Blonde slashes the officer's face and cuts off his ear. Mr. Blonde then walks out to his car to retrieve a can of gasoline from the trunk of his car and brings it inside. Mr. Blonde splashes gasoline all over the officer while he begs for mercy. Mr. Blonde prepares to ignite the gasoline with his cigarrete lighter, asking "How about a little fire, Scarecrow?" when suddenly a series of gunshots hit him several times in the chest.

The shooter is the now-conscious but dying Mr. Orange, who tells the officer that he is actually an undercover police detective named Freddy Newandyke. The officer, whose name is Marvin Nash, reveals that he knew this all along, having met Mr. Orange five months prior. Mr. Orange reassures Marvin that a large police force is waiting a few blocks down the road for his signal to advance. Marvin begs him to call in the force in light of both men's serious injuries, but Mr. Orange refuses to call anyone in until Joe arrives. During the flashbacks, Mr. Orange alias Freddy met a Police Detective named Holdaway (Randy Brooks) at a restaurant. Freddy told Holdaway that he secured a spot in a heist with Joe Cabot. Both of them talked about how Eddie picked up Freddy to the warehouse to have a meeting with others. Joe gave everyone their aliases, which made Mr. Pink protest about his alias because it sounds like "Mr. Pussy" and Mr. Brown says his name sounds too close to "Mr. Shit". Holdaway provided a script which Freddy had to memorize, a false story about how he was almost caught by sheriff's deputies and their German shepherd while carrying a bag full of marijuana whilst in the men's room at a train station in a detailed fashion. The reason was to gain everyone's trust and made them comfortable with him. During the heist, Mr. Brown was driving and bleeding from a gunshot and crashed into a car, with Mr. White and Mr. Orange. They were fleeing from the police immediately after the robbery. When the police car came around the corner, Mr. White fired his guns and killed the officers. Because Mr. Brown is dead, both Mr. White and Mr. Orange hijack a car, when the driver takes a revolver from the glove compartment and shoots Mr. Orange. Reflexively, Mr. Orange shoots her and kills her instantly. Mr. White then drives away with the car while Mr. Orange howls in pain.

In the present, everyone returns to the warehouse to find a dead Mr. Blonde. Mr. Orange tells them that Mr. Blonde was going to burn the officer, and then kill Mr. Orange and the rest of the gang, when they returned, so that he might take the diamonds for himself. Eddie doesn't believe the story and furious with Mr. Orange, he shoots Marvin and kills him. Joe walks in and tells everyone that Mr. Blue was killed by the police. Both Eddie and Joe accuse Mr. Orange of being an undercover cop which makes Mr. White adamantly defend Mr. Orange. Joe is going to shoot Mr. Orange when Mr. White points his gun at Joe, and Eddie points his gun at Mr. White; the three of them pose a mexican standoff. Following the Mexican stand-off, Joe and Nice Guy Eddie have been killed. Mr. Pink, who stayed out of the fray, leaves with the diamonds. After he does, the sounds of yelling and gunshots are heard outside of the warehouse, suggesting that Mr. Pink is being killed or subdued by the police officers who have just arrived. Before the police enter the warehouse, a shot and bleeding Mr. White cradles Mr. Orange, who reveals that he is really a police officer. Mr. Orange repeats again and again that he is sorry. A devastated Mr. White puts his gun to Orange's head. The police burst in and are heard off-camera urging Mr. White to put his gun down. As the camera remains tight on White's face, we hear him shoot. The police officers react by firing on White, who is blown out of the frame. The credits roll, accompanied by "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson.

Cast

• Harvey Keitel as Mr. White / Larry Dimmick
• Tim Roth as Mr. Orange / Freddy Newandyke
• Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde / Vic Vega
• Chris Penn as "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot
• Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink
• Quentin Tarantino as Mr. Brown
• Lawrence Tierney as Joe Cabot
• Edward Bunker as Mr. Blue
• Randy Brooks as Holdaway
• Kirk Baltz as Marvin Nash
• Steven Wright as K-Billy DJ

Production

Tarantino (who had been working as a video store clerk in Los Angeles) was originally going to shoot it with his friends on a budget of $30,000 on 16 mm with producer Lawrence Bender playing Nice Guy Eddie. However, actor Harvey Keitel became involved via the wife of Bender's acting class teacher, who had managed to get a copy of the script to him. He agreed not only to act in the film, but to co-produce. Harvey Keitel then was cast as Mr. White alias Lawrence "Larry" Dimick. With Keitel's assistance, the filmmakers were able to raise $1.2 million to make the film, fairly large for an independently-financed film, but a small fraction of the typical Hollywood production.

The movie has since come to be seen as an important and highly-influential milestone of independent filmmaking. Film critic Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News said of the film's premiere at Sundance:

Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.

The screenplay, written by Tarantino, was partly inspired by Hong Kong director Ringo Lam's 1987 City on Fire. Reportedly one of Tarantino's favorite films, he borrowed several key plot points and scenes, though the styles, dialogue and stories are quite different. In particular, the "Mexican standoff" at the end of the film is similar to one that takes place in City on Fire, and both stories are told from the point of view of an undercover cop with conflicting loyalties.

Tarantino himself has been candid about his influences. In a 1994 interview with Empire magazine, he said, "I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages."

Influences

Reservoir Dogs itself inspired many similar films in the 1990s, often low-budget independent films. Movies often cited as examples include Destiny Turns on the Radio (which featured Tarantino), Suicide Kings, Thursday, 2 Days in the Valley, Killing Zoe (Tarantino was the executive producer), S.F.W. and Mad Dog Time. Reservoir Dogs is influenced by numerous films, particularly Hong Kong action cinema, French New Wave, the heist film and Samuel Fuller. It also draws influence from Stanley Kubrick's crime film The Killing, as well as A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. These influences can be seen in the suits the characters wear (inspired by the finale of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow 2, itself possibly inspired by The Blues Brothers), the color code names from The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Tierney's line about John Dillinger (he played the famous Indiana bank robber in the 1945 film Dillinger), and the juxtaposition of violence and popular music (as in Full Metal Jacket).

Tarantino's scripts have also influenced the Indian cinema. For example, the Indian movie Kaante (2002) had an extremely similar plot to Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs while also getting some of its ideas from Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects (1995).

Reception

Reservoir Dogs opened in 19 theaters with a first week total of $147,839 domestically.^[1] The film was never released to more than 61 theaters and totaled $2,832,029 at the box office domestically.^[1] The vast majority of people who saw the film saw it on videotape, especially after the popularity of Pulp Fiction. However, in Britain, the film was a success and gained recognition from its fans, hence the big push to put it into the Sundance Film Festival.

DVDs

10th Anniv. Special Edition	15th Anniv. Special Edition
Normal DVD case (Character covers briefly available)	"Matchbook" DVD case inside special "gas can" tin
Widescreen (2.35:1)/Full Screen (1.33:1)	Widescreen (2.35:1) Only
Sound: DTS Digital/5.1 Dolby/Original 2.0 Dolby	6.1 DTS-ES/5.1 Dolby EX Sound
Spanish Subtitles/English Closed Captions	English & Spanish Subtitles, "Pulp Factoids" Trivia Subs
5 Deleted Scenes	5 Deleted Scenes
Original theatrical trailer	Original theatrical trailer & other film trailers
6 Original Interviews	"Profiling the Reservoir Dogs" character study
22 Scene Chapters	28 Scene Chapters
"K-BILLY Radio" menu interactive	"K-BILLY Radio" menu interactive
"Class of '92" Sundance documentaries	"Class of '92" Sundance documentaries
7 "Tributes & Dedications"	7 "Tributes & Dedications"
"Film Noir Web" genre documentary	"Tipping Guide" menu interactive
"Small Dogs" action figure documentary	"Reservoir Dolls" action figure documentary
"Securing the Shot" location documentary	"Securing the Shot" location documentary
Reservoir Dogs "Style Guide"	Reservoir Dogs "Style Guide"
Poster Gallery	"Reservoir Dogs: The Game" exclusive interview

Both DVDs contain 4 audio commentary tracks as well: one with Quentin Tarantino, Lawrence Bender, and selected cast and crew; and 3 by critics Amy Taubin (Film Comment), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) and Emanuel Levy (author). The only difference is that the 10th anniversary edition has the cast and crew commentary on the widescreen disc, and the critics' commentaries are relegated to the full screen disc.

The 10th Anniversary edition is missing a line of dialogue as Mr. White checks on Mr. Orange. When Mr. Pink asks about him, Mr. White says "I think he just passed out". This line is present in the original non-anamorphic release and restored in the 15th Anniversary edition, marking the first time that the film has been released on DVD with both an intact soundtrack and an anamorphic transfer. The 15th Anniversary transfer also includes more vivid colors as opposed to the more washed-out look of the 10th Anniversary transfer.

Soundtrack

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  Main article: Reservoir Dogs (soundtrack)

Video game

Main article: Reservoir Dogs (video game)

A video game based on the film was released in 2006 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. However, the game does not feature the likeness of any of the actors with the exception of Michael Madsen.

Links to other Tarantino films

As in any other movies directed or written by Quentin Tarantino, there are a lot of references and connections. Big Kahuna Burger is a fictional burger place that Tarantino uses in his films including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Death Proof. The less-than-one-second snatch of mariachi music that can be heard on the radio as Mr. Blonde turns it on is the exact clip of music heard when the Sheriff drives up to the church in Kill Bill. Mr. White's real name is Lawrence Dimmick. Quentin Tarantino makes a cameo as suburbanite Jimmy Dimmick in Pulp Fiction. At one point, Mr. White mentions that he knows a nurse who could help Mr. Orange, possibly referring to Jimmy's wife, Bonnie. In an extended scene on the Special Edition tenth anniversary DVD ("Doing My Job"), Nice Guy Eddie refers to the nurse he called as "Bonnie"; Mr. White argues that he needs a 'real' doctor, after which Eddie refers to the situation at hand as "The Bonnie Situation", the name of the third chapter in Pulp Fiction.

In , when The Bride is buried alive she removes a straight razor from her boot in a similar fashion to Mr. Blonde before the infamous ear-cutting scene, and both pairs of boots are of similar design. The woman that Mr. Pink pulls out of the car that he hijacks is played by Linda Kaye, who later played the woman that Marsellus Wallace shoots in Pulp Fiction. According to Tarantino, Vic Vega (Mr. Blonde) and Pulp Fiction's Vincent Vega are brothers. Both Vic and Vincent Vega make references to having a heart attack, and both say that they don't like to receive orders. A commercial for "Jack Rabbit Slim's" is heard on the radio in the warehouse just after the ear-cutting scene. In Pulp Fiction, Vincent Vega takes Mia Wallace to Jack Rabbit Slim's. Before Mr. White, Mr. Pink and Eddie leave to drive the cars, they argue about who the rat is. At one point Eddie mentions "Snake Charmer", Bill's alias in Kill Bill.

During Mr. White's recruitment for the job, Joe asks him about a former female partner named Alabama. This may be a reference to Alabama Whitman, a character in the film True Romance, which Tarantino wrote. Also during this scene, Joe asks about a man named Marsellus Spivey, referring to him as somebody who used to fence diamonds for Mr. White. It is likely he is a relative of the character Drexel Spivey, who was Alabama's pimp in True Romance.

References in popular culture

Reservoir Dogs has frequently been referenced in other works due to its iconic nature.

Slow-motion Opening Credits scene

• In the 1996 film Swingers, during a poker game, the characters mention it as "a great scene"; as they leave to go to a party, they are shown walking in slow motion in a similar fashion.
• In the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, another Miramax film, when Jay and Silent Bob are walking around a set in Hollywood, four men in black suits can be seen walking in the background.
• In The Simpsons episode "Jazzy and the Pussycats", Lisa walks down the street with her new pets in a similar style to the same music.
• In the Red Dwarf three-part episode "Back in the Red", Lister, Kochanski, Kryten and Cat walk in slow motion to the same music.
• In Season 1, Episode 3 ("Sex, Death and Nudity") of the BBC sitcom Coupling, the three lead male characters dressed in black suits on their way to a funeral re-enact the beginning until they are told to "Stop playing Reservoir Dogs!".
• At the end of Good Charlotte's music video for "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" the band members walk out of the court room in the same manner.
• The album cover for Answer That and Stay Fashionable by AFI was inspired by the slow-motion scene.
• Jimmy Neutron Episode 30 "Send In the Clones" Jimmy creates 6 clones to do his chores. About 7 1/2 minutes into the episode there is a scene where all the Clones are walking in slow-mo where similar music from the Reservoir Dogs walk scene is playing.

Ear-cutting scene

• In The Simpsons episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", the ultra-violent cartoon characters Itchy and Scratchy are shown re-enacting the ear-slicing scene and end up decapitating Tarantino.
• In episode 2.3 of the TV series Angel, "First Impressions", Cordelia tells an angry Gunn in reference to their runaway informant Jameel, "When you do find him, you may wanna be a little more Guy Pearce in L.A. Confidential and a little less Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs".
• The first level of the video game Hitman: Blood Money depicts a man being tortured with his ear missing and a can of gas next to him.
• In the Swedish comedy-series NileCity 105,6 by comedy group Killinggänget, one of the most memorable scenes is a spoof of the ear-cutting scene, in which the cross-dressing homosexual fire-chief Greger kidnaps a sexshop-visitor, ties him up, and then tortures him with a big cod, while "Stuck in the Middle With You" plays on a boombox. Videoclip
• The ear-cutting scene is referenced in the MADtv skit "Andy Griffith '98".
• The Gaming themed webcomic Vg Cats spoofed the ear cutting scene in the strip The PUNisher
• In season 3 episode 7 of British comedy Ideal Steve uses a knife to cut off the ear of Cartoonhead's mask, and then proceeds to talk into it as Mr. Blonde did in the film
• In episode 4 of the satirical news show CNNNN, Chas Licciardello, the Brussels correspondent, is shown tied up with an assailant like Mr. Blonde dancing around him with the same song playing. The shot cuts away just as the assailant brings out a knife, with the explanation of a "Technical Problem".
• ABC's The Chaser's War on Everything has a parody of the scene imagining what it would be like if Hugh Grant was in Mr. Blonde's role.

Miscellaneous

• Season 4, Episode 17 of The Pretender is an episode-long homage to Reservoir Dogs where Jarod infiltrates a gang that only knows each other by pseudonyms. The episode ends with all the gang members turning on each other and the police storming the place.
• Rammstein's 1997 music video "Du hast" was heavily inspired by Reservoir Dogs.
• Koushun Takami has supposedly admitted that the lighthouse portion of his novel Battle Royale was inspired by Reservoir Dogs. Coincidentally, Tarantino cites the correlating scene in the film as one of his favorite movie scenes.
• Obie Trice's song 'Snitch' features the line "..knowing not to cross those reservoir dogs".
• DC Comics' first issue of the Hitman regular series, by Garth Ennis, features four killers at a table playing poker while they discuss the meaning of Reservoir Dogs, much like the characters in Reservoir Dogs discuss the meaning of Madonna's "Like a Virgin".
• The song 'Still A Fucked World' by the Yorkshire Terrierz starts with Mr. White's famous line "You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize".
• Comic artist Mike Allred showed in the 3-issue limited series "The Superman / Madman Hullabaloo" (co-published by Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics) how Mr. Pink was busted by Superman.
• In the film Sugar & Spice, one of the cheerleaders mentions seeing Reservoir Dogs and says they should use codenames when robbing the bank. Another cheerleader pleads that she wants to be Mrs. Pink, because she loves pink.
• In the Family Guy episode "Road to Rupert", Stewie and Brian attempt to escape Colorado by stealing a car with a flare gun. Their approach to an oncoming car alludes to Mr. Pink's theft of a car to escape after the heist; they frequently scream in the fashion he did, and smash a window in with the butt of the gun as well.
• In the song "Check", Zebrahead sings the line "Hey little dog, you gonna bark all day?"
• The song "Scooby Snacks" by the Fun Lovin' Criminals features the lines "Look, I don't know anything about any fucking set-up, you can torture me all you want." / "Torture you, that's good, that's a good idea, I like that one" and the lines "I need you cool. Are you cool?" / "All right, I'm cool".
• In the video game there is a movie theater in downtown Los Santos that is playing a film titled Reservoir Dregs. The game is set in 1992, the year of both the L.A. riots and Reservoir Dogs' release.
• The scene where Mr. White takes Joe's book is overheard at the beginning of the song "Kung-Fu Devil" by AFI.
• The 6/07/07 episode of The Daily Show compared the leaders of the G8 to the characters of Reservoir Dogs.
• The music video for "Watch for the Hook" by Cool Breeze recreates many scenes from the film.
• The show America's Most Wanted profiled a gang of real-life thieves, whose leader was so obsessed with Reservior Dogs he had the gang dress in identical black suits, ties, and sunglasses before committing their ill-fated robbery of a jewelry store.
• The clothes company Famous Stars and Straps distributes a t-shirt bearing the infamous walk of the Reservior Dogs with the characters bearing scarves over their faces whilst one of the characters is carrying a boombox stereo.
• There is an alternative clothing company called Mr. Blonde
• Saturday Night Live once featured a skit called "Quentin Tarantino's Welcome Back Kotter". The skit reinacts the title sequence from Reservoir Dogs, including the song Little Green Bag, with the sweathogs in place of the Reservoir Dogs.
• Jay-Z has a song titled 'Reservoir Dogs' on his 1998 album, Hard Knock Life

References

External links

• Metacritic: Reservoir dogs
• The Reservoir Watershed - article about the historical importance of Reservoir Dogs
• 'Reservoir Dogs' FAQ on imdb
• What Happened To Mr. Pink at God Among Directors
• Reservoir Dogs videogame official site

•  • [ e] The films of Quentin Tarantino
Written & directed	Reservoir Dogs • Pulp Fiction • Four Rooms • Jackie Brown • Kill Bill • Death Proof • Inglorious Bastards (upcoming)
Written	True Romance • Natural Born Killers • From Dusk Till Dawn
Abandoned	The Vega Brothers