A dazzling blend of influences and originality

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2000)

The script for "Reservoir Dogs" was written in just three weeks and is a blend of originality, enthusiasm, and homage. Quentin Tarantino worked in a video store and turned himself into a sponge and encyclopedia of cult, often violent, marginal and sometimes classic cinema. The film is dedicated to, among others, the cult figures Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Chow Yun Fat, and Roger Corman. The taut screenplay is filled with references to Tarantino's favourite films: "The Killing", "White Heat", "Rififi", "Ocean's Eleven", and "Straight Time" (based upon the book by Eddie Bunker, who plays Mr. Blue), among many others. The concept of a gang of mutual strangers known only by colours appears in the New York subway heist film, "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three", one of Tarantino's favourites. A key source was another Tarantino favourite, Ringo Lam's "City On Fire", which features Chow Yun Fat as an undercover cop infiltrating a jewel gang, scenes in a cafe, a sequence where the cool-looking gang walk in hip, bedraggled unity towards the camera, and concludes with an identically composed Mexican stand-off. Another source was "Odd Man Out". The film is fascinating for its complex borrowings, but most admirable for the profane poetry of the dialogue, the complexity of the narrative structure (similar to "Rashomon"), and the stylishly camp soundtrack. It is supremely cool, and gained an instantly devoted following. Everything about it was taken from somewhere else, and yet it has a style all of its own that established the Tarantino signature - a look and sound all its own.