When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
I remember going to see “Reservoir Dogs” in the summer of 1993 when I was still living in Dublin, Ireland. Word of mouth from the 1992 Sundance Film Festival was that the movie’s writer and director, Quentin Tarantino, a former video store clerk, made one of the most important independent films of all time and was labeled by many as “the new Scorsese,” because of his use of non-linear storytelling and dialogue-driven scenes, many of which build toward an eruption of violence.
Having sold his first two screenplays, “True Romance” and “Natural Born Killers,” Tarantino put the money he earned towards his first directorial feature, “Reservoir Dogs.” After Harvey Keitel read the script and liked it enough to come on board as a producer and actor, Tarantino and his producing partner Lawrence Bender, were able to raise $1.5 million and a classic was born.
The story centers on eight gangsters as they prepare to carry out a diamond heist. We never see the actual robbery but witness the aftermath in which several of the characters are killed. The remaining four characters, who all go by aliases, Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), and Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), hide out in an abandoned warehouse where it comes to light that one of them may be an informant. With the police closing in, temperatures flaring, and everybody analyzing each other, for a job bound by loyalty, who can be trusted?
To date, Tarantino has directed nine films and while each of them has been entertaining, I still find his first movie, “Reservoir Dogs,” to be his best. When most of the action within a film transpires in one location, it can either be suspenseful or boring. Thankfully, “Reservoir Dogs” is not only gripping but filled with a plethora of what has now become customary Tarantino trademarks; graphic, stylized violence, nonlinear storytelling, pop culture references, Mexican standoffs, philosophical dialogue, and many more.
While his next feature, “Pulp Fiction,” is considered by many to be the pinnacle of his filmmaking career, I still stand by “Reservoir Dogs” as his best work to date. While “Pulp Fiction” expanded in terms of scope, script, set pieces, and A-list stars, it was missing the structured claustrophobia of its predecessor, the incertitude of every character’s motivation, and the overall despondency of the story’s outcome. Sometimes, less is more.
Tarantino has influenced a new generation of filmmakers, just as Martin Scorsese, Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Leone, John Woo, and John Carpenter inspired him. As Tarantino’s career expanded over the years, he would constantly threaten that his next film would be his last and that he would retire from the world of filmmaking. With “Kill Bill: Vol. 3” and a new western titled “Django/Zorro” currently in various stages of production, it’s hard to tell if he will direct them both, direct one of them, or just produce them. He is not the type to announce in advance what his next project will be but if this is really going to be his last outing, it should make for an interesting last stand.
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