A visceral, violent Situational Comedy

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2015)

'Reservoir Dogs' was Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut and immediately he showed what he was capable of. He made critics and audiences sit up and notice. The plot of the film follows a group of criminals as they try to identify the rat among them after a botched jewellery store heist.
First of all, there may be many individuals who might accuse this film of being high on style and low on substance and I won't completely disagree with them, but when the style is so viscerally mesmerising, I am willing to forgive the slight lack of thematic depth. A huge chunk of the film takes place inside a warehouse sporadically interrupted by flash backs which give us a little background on some of the characters. These scenes in the warehouse considering the context of the plot are absolutely riveting and they pretty much make the film feel like a play at times. The palpable tension in these scenes reminded me a lot of 'Dog Day Afternoon'. The main theme of this film I think is identity. The characters in the film don't know anything about each other including the names. All they know is that they have to professionally carry out a job by trusting each other and working as a team. The audience is also put in a similar position. We don't get to know too much about any of the characters either. We are always kept at a distance intentionally. However we can get some glimpses of the nature and characteristics of certain characters through some of the dialogue and some of their behaviour, but even then it's only glimpses. Throughout the film we see roles being reversed. Genuine bad guys asking each other and trying to figure out who the 'bad guy' among them is, we see a bit of a role reversal in an interrogation scene leading to gory torture, we see good guys doing bad things along with bad guys to win their trust,etc. This film is also a quintessential 90s film. The flashback scenes outside of the warehouse ooze the gritty nature of 90s L.A. with the street graffiti, the crime and the rugged streets, etc. The story is in a way simple, but in the simplicity we see how the lives of criminals ultimately fall apart.
I have always felt that Scorsese and Tarantino's directorial styles are somewhat similar. They both have no problems in using bloody violence, they employ deft ways to pay tribute to the films that inspired them in their films, they use music in their films in a very artistic and contextual way and they make films that can be deemed to be 'cool'. All this can be found in 'Reservoir Dogs'. The soundtrack of this film is absolutely fantastic. It brilliantly complements the 'cool'-ness of the visuals. Tarantino likes his set pieces and there are two absolutely brilliantly directed set pieces in this film that gave me goosebumps. The screenplay has to be admired a lot too as it is the screenplay that complements the direction and in a way lays down the scope for Tarantino to create and tension in the film.
The acting is brilliant from all involved. There are some lengthy single takes which allow the actors to really go for it and I noticed a lot of method acting throughout especially from Keitel and Buscemi. Keitel, Buscemi and Roth are the ones that impressed me the most.
'Reservoir Dogs' might not be the most deep film that I have ever seen, but I still consider it to be a masterpiece. This is a film where a rookie director showed us his skills behind the camera and gave us an entry to a style of filmmaking that later became a standard to which films made by other directors with similar style came to be compared and being called 'Tarantino-esque'. Yes it is at times self- indulgent, but it still is a visceral experience and one of the best directorial debuts in film history that should never be missed by film lovers.