World, Meet Quentin Tarantino

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2005)

Quentin Tarantino is loved and hated by many, as is his debut feature, Reservoir Dogs. Like the bulk of Tarantino's work, many criticize Dogs as being pointless, excessively violent, and filled with over-the-top obscenities. I've always looked at it in a different light, as I consider it something of a The Crucible for the '90s.
The Reservoir Dogs are Mr. White (Keitel), the sympathetic veteran; Mr. Orange (Roth), the young rookie; Mr. Pink (Buscemi), the squirrelly yet levelheaded one; Joe Cabot (Tierney), the tough guy boss; Nice Guy Eddie (Penn), Cabot's enterprising son; Mr. Brown (Tarantino), bit part #1; Mr. Blue (Bunker), bit part #2; and of course the infamous Mr. Blonde (Madsen), the laid-back badass. The ragtag Dogs are assembled to pull off a diamond heist, but their simple crime turns into a bloodbath, and the Dogs, one by one, regroup at a warehouse, where they hypothesize and accuse as to who among them is an undercover police informer.
Right off the bat, Tarantino directs, writes, and pseudo-scores a film masterfully; not bad for a high school dropout whose resume consisted of porn theater worker and a video store clerk. His direction is fresh, gritty, and packed with homages.
His writing is realism embellished with "cool". Considering that the Dogs are all ruthless criminals, the strong usage of expletives is perfectly feasible and never feels gimmicky. The dialogue is intense and thoroughly realistic, yet Tarantino sprinkles "cool" throughout it, and he does it so impeccably that one hardly notices (he does this even better in his follow-up, Pulp Fiction). And by "pseudo-scoring", I mean that Tarantino fills the film with fun, hip, energizing music, yet he did not write a note of it. A perfect example of this is the masterpiece of a scene in which Mr. Blonde tortures a young cop while the radio plays "Stuck In The Middle With You" by Stealer's Wheel. In fact, there is no doubt that Dogs almost single-handedly revived this great song and made it a pop culture classic. The uneasy juxtaposition of brutal violence and upbeat pop music is reminiscent of Wes Craven's The Last House On The Left, only it is done infinitely better than in the aforementioned House.
But what impresses me the most about Dogs is: a) Tarantino's flawless direction of his actors. The cast is literally perfect and the chemistry flows relentlessly. The emotion is raw and real, especially in the performances of: -Tim Roth: Considering that his character has a profusely bleeding bullet wound in the gut throughout most of the film, what Roth does with his role is nothing short of remarkable. Through his visceral facial expressions and perfect delivery of dialogue, the audience feels his pain. -Harvey Keitel: Keitel reveals everything that is going on inside his character's mind through his immaculate facial expressions. -Steve Buscemi: Never before and never again will audience love such a squirrelly character, and this due almost entirely to Buscemi's absolutely fantastic performance. -Michael Madsen: In his limited screen time, Madsen delivers a performance that is sinister, funny, likable, and reprehensible all at the same time. and b) The storyline. On the surface, Reservoir Dogs is a stylized gangster movie, but underneath, it is an intriguing character study and a cynical commentary on human nature. Like in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, a dangerous suspicion breaks out, and for the duration of the story, the characters are in a flurry of accusations and frustrations.
As for the infamous level of violence, this Dog has more bark than its bite. It has more of a violent reputation than actual violence. Yes, an ear is cut off. Yes, a number people are shot and killed. This is nothing new or particularly shocking. Hasn't anyone seen the far more brutal GoodFellas?
Tarantino has crafted a masterpiece with Reservoir Dogs, a film that entertains and distresses from the opening scene (in which Mr. Brown offers a dissection of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and Mr. Pink explains why he does not tip) to the gut-wrenching final frame. A brilliant and remarkably impressive debut from a filmmaker who went on to greatness I need not comment on.
10/10