Taratino's debut still holds up as a classic crime film

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2017)

I remember walking out of the theater after seeing this film the first time and telling my friend, "If I ever make a movie, I'd want it to be something like this!" Quentin Tarantino's movie obsessed personality completely clicks for me, with a fondness for exploitation and genre cinema, but balanced with a respect and understanding of classic and foreign cinema. "Reservoir Dogs" offers a perfect cocktail mix of pulp and art, equal parts Don Siegel and Joseph H. Lewis, but also equal parts Jean-Pierre Melville and David Mamet. The story is a straightforward heist film, but what Tarantino does differently is how he structures his story. Fro one, he never shows the actual heist and a majority of the film is the events following the failed heist, with flashbacks to events prior to said heist. Flackbacks have become a trademark of Tarantino's, but he uses them in a way that serves the story, providing necessary information for the audience at a specific time. Another major departure from standard heist films is Tarantino's dialogue, which is amazingly sharp and fun to listen to. No one write like he does, though he has plenty of imitators who've attempted to mimic his voice, it's a kind of artificial movie-speak that will either delight or annoy filmgoers. When you top all that off with an amazing cast, that includes Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Chris Penn, Tim Roth, and classic film heavy Lawrence Tierney, it's hard to imaging this film going far wrong. Of special note, Madsen especially gives good in a can't-take-your-eyes-off-of-him performance as the psychotic Mr. Blond. Much like Anthony Perkins' performance in "Psycho," this role for Madsen pretty much typecast him as a smiling villain for much of his career. Tarantino has been called out for copying much of the plot of Ringo Lam's Hong Kong action film "City on Fire." Without revealing any spoilers, the story is undeniably similar, right down to some very specific scenes. However, as good a film as "City on Fire" is, "Reservoir Dogs" is soooo much better. Tarantino clearly lifted many story elements from that film, but he used them to make a much stronger film. Re-watching this film now, another fun element is you get to watch Tarantino's cinematic universe begins to take shape, with character being potentially related to or appearing to other Tarantino stories, with the names Alabama ("True Romance"), Vega ("Pulp Fiction"), Skagnetti ("Natural Born Killers"), Marvin Nash ("Natural Born Killers" and "Pulp Fiction") all getting mentioned at one point or another. But as I wrote at the top of this review, Tarantino completely has my number and his sensibilities seem perfectly in sync with my own, which is probably why I see "Reservoir Dogs" as a true cinematic classic.