Reservoir Dogs

Plot synopsis:
The film opens to eight men eating breakfast at a diner. Six of them wear matching black suits and ties and are using aliases: Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), Mr. Brown (director Quentin Tarantino), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel). Among them is the elderly Los Angeles gangster Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney), and his beefy son, "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot (Chris Penn). Mr. Brown discusses his comparative analysis on Madonna's "Like a Virgin". Joe's senior moments involving an old address book rankle Mr. White; White grabs the book away from Joe and refuses to give it back until Joe stops talking incessantly about it. When it comes time to pay the bill for the meal, Mr. Pink explains that he doesn't tip and defends his anti-tipping policy until Joe forces him to contribute with the group.After the opening credits, the action cuts to the interior of a speeding car. Mr. White, driving with one hand, is trying to comfort Mr. Orange laying in the back seat, who has been shot in the abdomen and is bleeding and screaming in delirium. They arrive at an abandoned warehouse, the robbers' rendezvous point. Orange begs White to take him to an emergency room but White refuses, saying that it takes a long time to die from an abdominal gunshot wound. Mr. White leaves Mr. Orange on the floor when Mr. Pink appears, angrily suggesting that their robbery of a jeweler, orchestrated by Joe Cabot, was a police set up, indicated by the rapid response of the police to the alarm. White agrees, and they wearily get their stories straight with each other.The scene cuts to Mr. Pink escaping from the jewelry store with the diamonds. While running down a street chased by three or four policemen, Mr. Pink is hit by a car, out of which he drags the woman driver and opens fire on the policemen hitting one or two of them before getting in the car and driving away.Back in the present. Mr. White reveals to Mr. Pink that Mr. Brown was shot and killed by the police during the getaway, and the whereabouts of Mr. Blonde and Mr. Blue are unknown to both. They agree to stay put for the time being.The film then flashes back to a scene showing Mr. White meeting with Joe Cabot and Nice Guy Eddie at Joe's office where he offers Mr. White (whose real name is Larry Dimmick), a low-time veteran criminal from Detroit, a job in an upcoming heist in a few months. Mr. White agrees, hinting at White's long-time friendship with Joe Cabot.In the present, after taking care of an unconscious Orange, the two men discuss the actions of Mr. Blonde, who acted psychotic during the heist and murdered several civilians in the store after the alarm had been triggered. Mr. White is angered about Joe's decision to employ such a violent individual and agrees about the possibility of a set up, while Mr. Pink confesses to having hidden the diamonds in a secure location. However, they violently argue about whether or not to take the unconscious Mr. Orange to a hospital when Mr. White reveals that he had told the former his true first name, "Larry". Mr. Blonde, who has been watching them from the shadows, steps forward and ends the dispute. White angrily chews out Blonde for his antics, while Blonde calmly defends himself, saying simply that he'd warned the staff of the jeweler's not to touch the alarm. He tells them not to leave the rendezvous as Nice Guy Eddie is on his way. Mr. Blonde walks to his car and opens the trunk to reveal a captured police officer named Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz) who he apparently took as a hostage to escape from the jewelry store.Another flashback to several months ago shows the origin of Mr. Blonde who meets with Joe Cabot and Nice Guy Eddie at their office. The meeting reveals that Mr. Blonde became involved in the heist because of his friendship with Nice Guy Eddie. Blonde (whose real name is Vic Vega) had served four years in prison for armed robbery and had refused to give the authorities Joe's name for a lighter sentence. When he meets with Joe and Eddie, they first arrange a job that will appease Vic/Blonde's parole officer, then Eddie suggests that Blonde join the crew they're putting together for the jewel heist. Blonde enthusiastically accepts.In the present, White, Pink, and Blonde beat the policeman and demand that he reveal who the "rat" is. He protests that he doesn't know. The beating continues until a furious Eddie arrives at the warehouse. After berating the men over the carnage and incompetence displayed at the heist, he orders Pink and White to assist him in retrieving the stolen diamonds and disposal of the two hijacked vehicles. He orders Blonde to stay with Marvin and the dying Orange.When Blonde questions Officer Nash again, the policeman states that he has been a police officer for eight months and is ignorant as to a possible set up. He then pleads with Blonde to release him without further incident. However, after the others leave, Blonde confesses to enjoying torture, and is really uninterested in what the cop knows and what he doesn't. He turns on the radio and dances to "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel before slashing Marvin's face and severing his ear with a straight razor. Blonde then douses Officer Nash in gasoline, making a small trail of the remaining gasoline in front of the policeman. Just as he is about to light the gasoline, Orange suddenly wakes up and saves Marvin from being burned to death by shooting Blonde several times, killing him. At this point, the policeman and Orange are alone in the warehouse. Orange reveals he is a police detective named Freddy Newendyke. Marvin says he knows (because he briefly met him a couple of months earlier) showing us that he had resisted the beating and torture so as not to reveal Orange's true identity. Orange reassures Marvin that a massive police force is in position several blocks away but are waiting to move in when Joe arrives.A series of character development past scenes detail Orange's involvement in an undercover police operation to capture Joe, and his developing friendship with White. Orange/Freddy is shown rehearsing his cover with his handler Holdaway (Randy Brooks), as well as getting into character for his first meeting with Joe.Mr. Orange/Freddie first meets Joe Cabot, Eddie, and White at a local nightclub where he tells them a fabricated story (shown in a completely fabricated flashback) about being in a men's room with a large bag full of marijuana. In the men's room with him were four L.A. County sheriffs with a German Shepherd and explains about his coolness under pressure, knowing the dog can smell the marijuana. The group is wholly amused and accepts him into their gang.Later on, Orange then goes with Eddie, White, and Pink on a drive where they discuss their favorite movie soundtracks and about Pam Grier movies from the 1970s and Eddie tells them a story about how a black waitress at one of Joe's nightclubs got even with her abusive husband as well as how black women seem to be more abused and temper angry then white women.At the warehouse, Joe Cabot meets with all of the members of the gang where he angrily tells them that their joking camaraderie might get them in trouble if they don't take the heist seriously. He gives them their aliases to be used and to go over details about the upcoming robbery of a diamond store. A brief argument ensues when Pink complains about his name. Joe regains his control over the meeting and they begin plotting the heist. Later on after the meeting, Orange develops a friendship with White as they drive over to the jewelry store to discuss their roles in the upcoming robbery. White tells Orange about a few methods of crowd control he knows are foolproof.In another flashback to the robbery getaway, we see that Brown was somehow shot in the head, and dies while driving their escape car with Orange and White. While attempting to steal another getaway car, Orange was shot in the stomach by the female driver of the car he stole along with White. Orange reflexively shoots and kills the woman after she shoots him.Flashing forward back to the present, the remainder of the heist group returns to the warehouse to find Blonde dead. Orange claims that Blonde was going to kill Marvin, Orange and the rest of the gang so that he could take the diamonds for himself. Boiling over with rage, Eddie reveals Blonde's back story, that he was a close friend of his and a loyal soldier of his father's. Orange struggles to defend himself, which makes Eddie even angrier and he fatally shoots the captive policeman three times. Joe himself arrives and, after informing the group that Mr. Blue was killed, confidently accuses Orange of being an informant, forcing White to defend his friend. A Mexican standoff ensues, leaving Joe and Eddie dead, and White severely wounded, and Orange mortally wounded. Pink, who hid to avoid the shootout, takes the cache of diamonds and flees the warehouse.As police sirens are heard outside, White cradles Orange in his arms and Orange reveals that he is in fact a detective. This piece of information devastates White, who begins sobbing in frustration and points his gun at Orange's head as police can be heard outside. At that moment, the police can be heard raiding the warehouse (with the camera in a close-up of White's face), demanding White drop his gun; he refuses and shoots Orange, resulting in the police opening fire on White just before the screen goes black.

Tags: comedy, dark, neo noir, murder, boring, suspenseful, mystery, dramatic, violence, cult, sadist, flashback, psychedelic, humor, claustrophobic, tragedy, plot twist, storytelling

Review:
From the original initial dialogue, to the final outcome, the director astonishes everyone and makes clear his style: anthological dialogues (pay attention to the discussion in the distribution of colors that will identify each gangster, hilarious) a breakthrough structure, very good soundtrack (as in all his films), great doses of violence (although not at all gratuitous, but rather ironic) and, above all, a lot of black humor.
In short, a great example of good noir cinema (with all its ingredients: shootings, violence, betrayal, suspense, etc.), but with the innovative and very personal touch of the brilliant director, who would later continue to dazzle with the wonderful "Pulp Fiction".
Reservoir Dogs is a testament to the idea that "less is more." This doesn't apply to the violence, the film is extremely violent from beginning to end, but the details of the botched diamond heist, which the entire film is based on, are conveyed only in the dialogue, except for one scene where Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) recalls his escape.
Instead of all of that garbage, Tarantino decided to just present the film as simply and straightforwardly as possible, and by doing that he makes it seem that you're really looking at a bunch of criminals trying to figure out what to do after a suspiciously failed robbery.
When films are overly violent, they usually get branded as such, but despite the extreme violence, Reservoir Dogs still manages to deliver an important overall message about the consequences of your actions.
I didn't care much for the "Kill Bill" movies, but who cares, I'm not reviewing them.If you haven't seen Reservoir Dogs, just rent it, buy it or steal it right now..
It showed their disregard for human life and that our anti-heros saw killing a cop as being as stepping on a cockroach .I urge future viewers of this movie not to instantly compare it to Pulp Fiction and enjoy it as it's own film.
Penn is good but not the best of the cast.Tarantino mercifully has little acting to do, but it is his film as writer and director.
After watching this half a dozen times with a biased, anti-Tarantino, "what the heck is so great about this guy, anyway" view(which, as most anyone watching any film with that view and a fair bit of self-knowledge will tell you, is a rather fruitless practice in pointlessness...
The editing is great, with the non-linear time-line telling the story far better than a "regular" film ever could.
One of the many Tarantino-fans, in fact, the very person who originally talked me into watching this film, once told me that he had heard of someone editing films with such time-lines - this, Pulp Fiction, Memento, etc.
All I knew was that, like another "dog" movie from the same era that I saw, 'Man Bites Dog', that it was supposed to be violent, funny and disturbing, and that it starred a long time favourite of mine Harvey Keitel, and Tim Roth, who I mainly knew from Greenaway's 'The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover'.
Ten years later I've seen it countless times so the surprise has obviously worn off, but it is still a brilliant movie because beneath the violence and wise-cracks of Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi - 'In The Soup'), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen - 'Thelma & Louise'), and Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn - 'At Close Range'), there is a lot of  depth, that being the very human relationship between Mr. White (Keitel) and Mr.Orange (Roth).
No doubt Tarantino was a breath of fresh air after the shallow era of 1980s action movies, but he was not much of an innovator, and I don't think that his super-cool style has stood even the shortest test of time; he has, after all, practically dropped off the face of the earth..
Unfortunately, a lot of people hate the police, and for them such a film functions as escapist "entertainment," but "Reservoir Dogs" seems to lack any redeeming value of another kind, like a snuff movie.
Like Guccione, Tarantino, director of "Reservoir Dogs" may be a big fan of pornography and possibly he doesn't make the distinction between sex and violence.
A total waste of time.This movie would have been pretty good without extraneous scenes floating around, popping up at random, and taking entirely too long to finish.
I watched Ringo Lam's city on fire and I was upset to see how Quentin stole everything from it to make Reservoir Dogs, Yes I like the way he combines different movies to make one but reservoir dogs was like an American Version of city on fire with white actors (not in a bad way).I know it has been said before, but I recommend you to watch City on fire, things that didn't make sens or if you don't want to waste your time listening to those tough guys talking about what they did, City on fire will just show you what happened in a small box of time.But anyway, I think Mr Blond and Pink made it look pretty though.I am sorry, just in case he paid for the rights..
Tarantino has a minor role, as does criminal-turned-author Eddie Bunker.It feels a bit silly to write it now, but there was a time when Reservoir Dogs barely made a ripple in the cinema loving world; in America that is.
Everybody knows that criminals are big losers but still there is a strong tradition in American cinema especially in Hollywood of making films which glorify criminals.Everybody knows that Godfather,a film about a mafia family is hailed as a classic film.People know well as to what kind of things mafia do and how harmful they are to human society in general.Reservoir Dogs is one such dumb film which through its antics champions the cause of crooks without morals.Tarantino is believed to be a humorist however his humor is undoubtedly bland and mainly consists of filthy abuses.A word about the violence in the film: by showing macabre scenes of senseless violence Tarantino has shown that in the name of creative freedom and in order to gain easy publicity all rules can be broken and more the violence the more controversial the film is going to be.Good that this film has not been emulated by other film makers.
First, I love Tarantino, because he is able (as a director) to follow his own unique style and made a very good movie like Pulp Fiction.
3) Movie focuses on same characters who are connected to the same story which makes it easier to follow.I believe all of the actors did a pretty good job.
just like the entire film...).I've seen lots of movies, and maybe I didn't like the 10% of them, because I usually try to see what's behind it, and if there's something, I appreciate it, but this is definitely the worse thing I've come upon..
Quentin Tarantino seems to concentrate his movies very much along the lines of "cool" and "tough" and pulpy storylines and characters.
To me, his scripts come across as done by someone who reads too many B-grade comic books, mainly because his movies have very similar content.The story is very thin, and to sum up the what you see on the screen most of the time: there's a bunch of cookie-cutter emotionally retarded tough-guys who compete over who can deliver the coolest and toughest lines to each other and wave their shiny guns at each other with the right sort of swagger.
That sort of thing is just so ho-hum, clichéd, and juvenile that I felt like tuning out right away.Mixed into this macho posturing is some gratuitious violence (even to the point of being repulsive at times, for example when Mr. Blonde gets his way with the cop) and a couple of "cool" stories in the vein of Pulp Fiction's story about McDonald's in France (what depth).
The only redeeming quality of this film is that you can watch this one film and and you will have just seen every Quentin Tarantino movie ever made, because they are all the same.
"Pulp Fiction's" violence was milder and stood out less from the rest of the story, but "Reservoir Dogs" goes way over the top.
But if I want to see a good crime movie I'll stick with The Maltese Falcon, The Grifters, Miller's Crossing; hell, even 101 Dalmatians is a better "film noir" than this overrated stinker..
Many people believe "Reservoir Dogs" is a good film.
"Dogs" is about a group of men who messed up a bank robbery and went to a warehouse to talk about things and get very angry at each other.Many find the movie hip, but at best the movie itself is not hip, the pitiful characters may seem to be, but really the only hip character is Mr. White, played by Harvey Keitel.
The film's violence is legendary, as is its potty-mouthed dialog, but neither of those are necessarily bad things in a movie.
"Reservoir Dogs" has great casting, an amazing script, awesome characters and a classic sound track.
Upon the release of "Dogs", Tarantino was rightly vaulted into the great directors' fame and, I imagine, became even more enthusiastic about film-making.The end product is a very good film that sees five anonymous hit men team up for a big heist  an armed robbery on a Diamond warehouse that will be central to the wide variety of eccentrically quirky characters who all lend their skills to the job.
The interactions and actions between the characters are at focus, placing environment in the backseat; this means that Reservoir Dogs can proudly boast of having one of the greatest dialogue-driven scenes in film, and it takes place at the beginning at the diner when Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) explains to the other guys why he does not tip waitresses--the others are compassionate and argue that they are minimum-wage workers no rely on tip, but Mr. Pink is stern: "Do you know what this is?
"The film is full of gems like these, full of great colourful gangster performances (in particular Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde--the most badass character in history) and full of clear-eyed and gory style.
This is no surprise as Reservoir Dogs was originally written as a short film, barely stretching 20 minutes and with characters that weren't meant to be particularly developed or dimensional.
This seemed more like a fantasy crime movie that would only be interesting to the person thinking about it in their own unique way.There's also some torture scene put in, which I really thought didn't need to be.
Reservior Dogs is a classic film and Quentin Tarantino is just an absolute genius.I really liked this film, it was gripping and suspenseful.
Reservoir Dogs (1992) is a slow paced story-driven flick about a heist gone wrong.It's a Tarantino's movie, so go on for it knowing that: plot is not linear, there's a lot of swearing, acting is great, story is awesome.
However, at the time this film was first released, as was with his still best picture 'Pulp', he was regarded as a filmmaker who makes violent movies, filled with violence, chock full of violence, "too violent" (if there ever could or should be such a thing in movies), etc.
True, Tarantino writes and works his actors to such an intensity that the feelings that go with violent acts and violent tension is there, and true he shows the blood, he lets us hear the cries of agony and despair, and indeed there are times that bullets fired into people are shown as such right in frame.
Yet he never exactly displays any truly violent acts (he decided to leave the shot of Masden slicing the ear on the editing floor, unlike a director like David Lynch who gets right inside the matter) - his technique is to evoke and strive for all of the emotions one would feel in such asituation, movie or in real life, to the most honest, near heart-wrenching limits, and thus to someone who may have even not even seen the film the images that appear in a trailer or on a video box bring the notion of this being an overly violent movie immediately.
For most films with such an ambitious and grounded script, nearly every performance is a crucial asset to the film's success, and Tarantino knows this in his bones, as well as in the casting of the right parts (i.e. Steve Buscemi auditioned for Mr. White but got Mr. Pink, makes sense doesn't it): Keitel and Tierny are like old pros merely portraying old pros; Roth has a true breakout performance as Orange; Busemi himself proves why he's needed in film today; Chris Penn makes for a fine supporting role; Masden is one of the most convincing of the 90's psychos; even Tarantino makes a perfect monologue for himself in the opener.
"reservoir dogs" is the perfect example of a movie that continues to receive praise albeit it deserves none of it.it is a weak rip-off of ringo lam's "city on fire" -- a bit of cinematographic education goes a long way and i recommend watching the original instead of this over-hyped puke.Tarantino has made two good movies during his career, "pulp fiction" and "jackie brown" ...
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 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.
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..
Moreover, you can see what are probably the earliest hatchings of the 'reverse-plotting' trend starting here that lead to such films as Memento getting made.All of the cast are excellent, and it can only be the work of the hands of fate that while some went on to really make names for themselves (Tarantino, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi) others (Michael Madsen, Chris Penn) just got delegated to either supporting roles or straight-to-video roles.
The dialogue is just people talking about normal stuff like music, TV, movies and random stories.
It seems that it was only yesterday when in 1992 the then unknown director Quentin Tarantino screened his debut film, "Reservoir Dogs", at Sundance with great success suddenly becoming the new star of independent cinema and an the most promising director of that "class of 1992".
But despite the rights and wrongs of Tarantino's career, the groundbreaking "Reservoir Dogs" is a fine example of excellent cinema and a classic of the 90s on its own right.The plot begins with two criminals, codenamed Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) and Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), arriving to an abandoned mortuary.
Finally, the arrival of another member, Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), complicates the plot, as the other three are sure that he is the one who betrayed them.Without a doubt, "Reservoir Dogs"' greatest strength is in the remarkably well-written script by Tarantino himself.
With very simple, but effective camera-work and a great use of incidental music as a soundtrack, Tarantino crafts a superb film despite its budgetary limitations shows a very promising talent with huge potential as a filmmaker.The four main characters are wonderfully played by a very effective cast of actors.
Almost a flawless film.Wheter one loves or hates Tarantino becomes meaningless at judging this film, its qualities makes it speak for itself as one of the best movies about crime ever made.
This film has been a blueprint for basically every other wanna-be-like-Tarantino movie made in the last seven or so odd years.
Reservoir Dogs is easily the best film Quentin Tarantino has directed.
Like I said before, Tarantino makes you think like this is going to be a great film but it ends up disappointing.
I really wanted to love this movie because of its creativity but the script completely ruined it for me.I don't recommend this movie but I do recommend Tarantino's next film, Pulp Fiction.
"Reservoir Dogs" is a great film with a couple flaws that I wasn't too interested in.
See the movie for yourself and figure it all out."Reservoir Dogs" ain't no "Goodfellas," but on the level of film it is a masterpiece.
I like films where there aren't many characters, because you will almost always find the actors on screen giving some of the best performances of their lives.
Harvey Keitel was the most enjoyable to watch, and finally we have a film with Tim Roth that I actually like.
I had started and stopped this film many times before actually sitting down and watching it all the way through.
Probably the same things what makes other Tarantino's movies good: great soundtrack, good actors, stylish direction and of course - violence (actauly there was only one scene which I would call really violent).
Also everything in a movie looked pretty realistic (like violence) and all characters acted very natural (there were many memorable dialogs, so you could know each character better).
Took me totally by surprise because I wasn't expecting this type of witty and hilarious writing.Reservoir Dogs is still one of my favorite Quentin Tarantino movies of all time.