Powerful; brilliantly written and consistently engaging, Reservoir Dogs has to be one of the greatest debuts if not overall films of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2008)

Reservoir Dogs, at least for me, is one of those films that sneak up on you in terms of long term opinion. The first time I'd seen Reservoir Dogs was after a wave of Tarantino enthusiasm having watched and loved Pulp Fiction, a film released two years after this little masterpiece. But I was disappointed; I felt like I hadn't been taken through the roller-coaster ride of emotions; laughs and thrills that I had been with Pulp Fiction, a few months prior. But looking back and after many further viewings, Reservoir Dogs has snuck up on me because I now value it a little higher than Pulp Fiction and bizarrely enough, I get more of an emotional kick out of this film then Tarantino's follow up.
Perhaps it was my naivety in regards to independent film at the time that I didn't take to this after the first viewing, but any doubts towards this not being an excellent and spell-binding film have since been laid to rest. Reservoir Dogs is a film that delves into the past from the present, setting up several characters; situations and stories within flashbacks that all combine to deliver a hair-raising climax with plenty of other dramatic, some more gruesome than others, moments thrown in for good measure. Reservoir Dogs is at its very core, a brilliant and emotionally fuelled film that twists, turns, creates doubts and delivers on levels of artistic creativity, out and out action and stupendous dialogue without ever feeling like a gimmick.
Some of my favourite scenes in the film rely on slow motion such as the German Shepard police dog barking in the cloakroom amongst the other officers and Cabot (Tierney) lighting up a cigarette as he gives his opinion on the false story, smoke flying up all around him as another voice-over kicks in. Then there are the scenes in the warehouse in which Steve Buscemi playing Mr. Pink and co-producer Harvey Keitel playing Mr. White deliver some fantastic performances aided with dialogue that sums up the situation, mentality and emotions running high given that scenario they find themselves in. But the film knows how to rope us in and juxtapose our feelings and emotions without ever feeling manipulative. Some examples of this is are at the very beginning when, after a quiet and relatively subtle breakfast conversation, Mr Orange (Roth) lies screaming and bloody in the back of a car Â– something has gone wrong. There is also the incidence when Mr Blonde (Madsen), during that infamous 'ear' scene, leaves the action to go to his car in order to get a can of petrol. These juxtapositions and toying with the audience sums up not only the brilliance of being able to switch between scenarios but also highlights Tarantino's skill as a writer/director.
The truth is that any scene that takes place in the warehouse rendez-vous is just pure genius, whether it is dialogue between two or three people or the torture scene or the unforgettable climax. A diamond robbery has gone wrong and the immediate theory of an undercover cop crops up thanks to the quick thinking of Mr. Pink; the more outgoing and independent of the thieves. But this seed planted in the audiences mind is one of a few things we are to concentrate on throughout the duration. Twinned this, we get numerous flashbacks and, indeed, flashbacks within flashbacks that tell us a greater deal of information involving the heist and the characters past situations. But here several things work at once: Nice Guy Eddie (Penn) arrives and maintains there is no 'rat', perhaps disbursing the theory of a traitor, challenging the audience to work it out. Mr. Blonde is established as someone who is just out of prison and his awkward situation involving parole officers and such doesn't faze him as he accepts the new job from his former employees of the heist. This creates a dangerous opinion of him in our minds, further emphasising the earlier opinion we had of him when it was established 'Blonde went crazy' and shot several people, including a young woman. It is an appetiser for what's to come, especially when he has a policeman at his mercy; but my favourite bit is when we learn he went to a drive-thru restaurant at a time of crisis and with a policeman in his boot.
But these criminals in suits are not caricatures of mobsters from other crime/heist films. Mr. Orange screams and squeals in agony after being shot thus expelling any 'tough-guy' stereotype we may have of these guys in this genre. It is later established to great effect that he is a very humble and humane person, with bigger fish to fry. Tarantino executes a film here with random flashes of violence such as the torture scene climax and Mr. Pink's breakaway flashback. He lands his pop culture dialogue with talk of Madonna; The Silver Surfer and likens Gene Tierney to 'The Thing'. It even transpires some of the guys enjoy Lee Marvin's work. Shot on a budget with the help of Harvey Keitel but written with a budget of a lot less in mind, Reservoir Dogs shocks but entertains; humours but does not glamorise and generally gives its viewer a kick every time they watch it.