Reservoir Dogs, 1992 - DVD

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Written by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney

Ok. I think it's safe to say that Reservoir Dogs was one of the films that revitalized the independent film market in the US. One of the films. I give Tarantino a lot of credit. I think that his best work is, by far, True Romance. It's the only film of his (besides Natural Born Killers) that he did not direct, nor act in (whew)... but it was also his most intelligent script.

Dogs, for me, comes second. I actually tried to watch Pulp Fiction the other night (both Dogs and Fiction just got released as special edition DVDs in August), and I had to turn it off. That film just does not warrant repeat viewings... save Butch's story. Other than that, the film loses its draw for me.

So, I received my DVD copy of Reservoir Dogs, the Mr. Brown version (which has no real special feature... not sure why people were going gaga over the Mr. Brown edition)... and I haven't watched the film in quite a while, so I popped it in.

First I watched the deleted scenes. All of the scenes were present in the script of Reservoir Dogs... and it's understandable why they were taken out of the film. They killed the pacing. The only other deleted scene there are two different angles of the 'ear cutting' scene. And, I might be in the minority here, but I like the movie the way it is... the torture scene in the film reminds me of the scene in Taxi Driver where Travis is talking to Betsy on the telephone, and the camera tracks to an empty hallway... the work looked very similar, but used for different reasons.

There are a number of different stories surrounding this film... but the basic background story is that Tarantino sold the script for True Romance for $50,000 to begin raising the money for Reservoir Dogs. At the time, a friend of Tarantino's was in an acting class with Harvey Keitel's wife... who gave the script to Keitel. Keitel signed on to the project immediately, and began to help raise the money for the film. The budget for Dogs was roughly $2 million dollars.

I think it's important to note that, regardless of the fact that that is $2 million dollars in 1992 money (money hasn't changed that much, but it has changed)... the majority of the actors knew good material when they saw it. The film has a very strong plot, incredibly strong characters and (for those interested in how to keep your budgets low) only three or four actual locations. Read actual as 'paid' locations.

Now, I will point out that quite a number of plot points and scenes were taking from the Hong Kong action film City on Fire, directed by Ringo Lam and starring Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee... both of which would team up for John Woo's The Killer in 1989.

This fact was a sore point for a lot of people... and even got someone (Mike White) to document the footage is a short called "You're Not Fooling Anybody"... which compared the two films, Dogs and City on Fire. The arguement has merit, for anyone who has seen the two films back to back.

I think there's a difference between an homage to outright stealing... and even though this is a distinct favorite of Tarantino's (who served for years as a video store clerk...), I think that the scenes are a little too similar for comfort. Does this make Dogs a bad film? Absolutely not. But it does make Tarantino (in my eyes) a shakey director.

I think that there were some very good performances in this film... in fact, the only actor who I didn't like was Keitel. I think his work was extremely forced and unbelievable. I thought that the majority of his lines were forced, and that the only time I believed him was when he was mad. So, he can play mad.

This kind of film reminds me of the comic book series Hellraiser. Bear with me... I am making a solid point.

Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's... Epic Comics came out with a series of books that were offshoots of Clive Barker's horror film Hellraiser. The idea was to have short stories that dealt with the world of L'Merchant's puzzle box, and the Cenobites.

What ended up happening was that the Hellraiser series became a spring board for some of the industries most respected and talented artists. Jon Muth, Kent Williams, John Van Fleet, Ted McKeever, Dan Brereton, Bill Koeb, Scott Hampton, David Dorman... along with many others... they went in and did some incredible work... the majority of it painted material, which you only really found in Heavy Metal. All of them went on to have (and continue to have) successful careers.

Now, I bring this up because look at the cast:

Tim Roth - I don't think his career would have taken off had he not had this film as a platform... though I think his work in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was brilliant. He needed that exposure... I dare say Hollywood exposure... to really propell his career. This was just the beginning... and although he hasn't done such stellar work since Pulp Fiction, he still has incredible acting skills, and has landed some decent (at least money wise) roles in films such as Rob Roy, Four Rooms, Planet of the Apes, Invincible and The Musketeer. We'll see what the future holds for Roth...

Michael Madsen - His two big roles pre-Dogs were in The Doors and Thelma & Louise... and I only remember him slightly in The Doors. His work earlier than those were mostly television and supporting roles... but I think that word got out after Dogs that he had audience drawing ability... even though it was only slight. His work post-Dogs is pretty impressive, actually. Madsen has made a rather hefty name for himself in the straight to video market... in the action genre. He's had some ok luck with feature films, such as Free Willy (1 and 2), The Getaway, Wyatt Earp, Species (1 and 2), Mulholland Falls, Donnie Brasco... and some films yet to be released, Die Another Day (the new James Bond film), the adaptation of Moebius's Blueberry comic book, and Tarantino's come-back movie, Kill Bill (scheduled for 2003).

Aside from those films... the man has made over fifty other films, both feature length and made for tv... which indicates, to me, that there's a market for his abilities. Along with film, he's also done voice over work for the just released version of Grand Theft Auto III. Pretty impressive, all around.

Chris Penn - Brother to Sean Penn and musician Michael Penn (one of my personal favorites)... Chris started his career out with All the Right Moves and Rumble Fish, both in 1983. He would continue to get decent mainstream work, including Footloose, Pale Rider, At Close Range, Best of the Best... and would score Dogs in 1992. I think his performance was among the best of them... and, as luck would have it, he would follow up Dogs with Tony Scott's film True Romance. In 1993, Penn would have a starring role in Robert Altman's ensemble piece Short Cuts... To Wong Foo, Mulholland Falls, The Funeral, Rush Hour, Corky Romano, Murder By Numbers and the soon to be released Stealing Harvard. I don't think he's headliner material, but he has a great presence about him, and works very well as a supporting star.

Steve Buscemi - Buscemi is the only one of the group (besides Keitel) that had a semblence of a career, prior to Dogs. Or, I should say was one of the few who were recognizable. Buscemi has done some pretty decent work, prior to Dogs. Mystery Train, King of New York, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink... all first rate performances, regardless of the size of the role. He's an incredible actor, and over the past ten years has acted in some pretty decent films. I'm glad that the Coen Brother's continued to use him... from The Hudsucker Proxy to Fargo to The Big Lebowski... he is well suited for their films. His other films are pretty decent, too... the roles keep getting more and more mainstream... and larger. Rising Sun, Airheads, Living in Oblivion, Billy Madison, Desperado, Trees Lounge (which he also directed), Escape from L.A., Con Air, Armageddon, 28 Days, Ghost World... and a number of films recently released: The Laramie Project, Mr. Deeds and Spy Kids 2. I think Buscemi has the strongest career, of the four.

The cast, in and of itself, were guys on the brink... and this film just helped propell them. Not only the actors, but for Tarantino and producer Lawrence Bender as well. Bender has gone on to produce all of Tarantino's other work (save Natural Born Killers and True Romance): Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. His other production credits are pretty decent, as well. Fresh, Killing Zoe, Good Will Hunting, Anna and the King, The Mexican and the soon to be released Knockaround Guys. He'll also be producing John Dahl's next film, The Great Raid.

For his first film, Andrzej Sekula did a pretty incredible job with the cinematography of Dogs. His work on this film, with its low budget and the minimum amount of locations, really prepared him for the larger films that he would shoot in the future, with as much skill. He would go on to shoot Pulp Fiction, Oleanna (for Mamet), Hackers, Four Rooms (The Man From Hollywood), and American Psycho. Later this year he will be finishing up directing Cube 2: Hypercube... should be interesting.

One of the things that was thought out straight from the get-go was the sequence of events in the film... which leads to the intelligent decisions in regards to editing. Sally Menke has worked on all of Tarantino's films... and I think it's very important to point out that a director who trusts an editor this much is worth their weight in gold. Tough decisions come from the editing room... and having watched the deleted scenes, one has to wonder who made the decision to leave them out, in regards to the pacing of the film. Her other work really doesn't ring of a successful editor... but it's obvious she has talent, having been nominated for Best Editing for Pulp Fiction. She, too, will be working on Kill Bill.

One thing I will point out are all of the goofs in the film. There are quite a few (though not as many as last year's Spider-Man), and you can check them all out on IMDB. Whomever was doing continuity... well, they just weren't paying attention, I guess.

All in all, Reservoir Dogs is a pretty decent film. I think it's safe to say that it's a cult classic... has very strong dialog and well developed characters. There are some very good directing decisions made (some of those directly from City on Fire)... and this is one of the better directorial debuts I've ever seen...