Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American heist film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length directorial debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunker as diamond thieves whose heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong. Kirk Baltz, Randy Brooks, and Steven Wright also play supporting roles. The film incorporates many motifs that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling.
The film is regarded as a classic independent film and a cult film. Although controversial at first for its depictions of violence and heavy use of profanity, Reservoir Dogs was generally well received, and the cast was praised by many critics. Despite not being heavily promoted during its theatrical run, the film became a modest success in the United States after grossing $2.9 million against its scant budget. It achieved higher popularity after the success of Tarantino's next film, Pulp Fiction (1994). A soundtrack was released featuring songs used in the film, which are mostly from the 1970s. It was named "Greatest Independent Film of All Time" by the British film magazine Empire, which in 2008 also named it the 97th-greatest film ever made.
Plot
Eight men planning to rob a jewelry store for a diamond shipment eat breakfast at a diner. To pull off the heist, boss Joe Cabot assembles six experienced robbers who are strangers to each other. Joe and his son, "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot, have known some of the team for years, but to shield identities, the rest use aliases: Mr. White, a career criminal; Mr. Blonde, a trigger-happy ex-convict; Mr. Orange, a reputed drug dealer; Mr. Pink, a paranoid neurotic; Mr. Brown, a pseudophilosopher; and Mr. Blue, an even-tempered cohort.
When an alarm is tripped during the heist, the police arrive quickly. Running from police, Pink hijacks a car, killing a couple of police officers in a shootout. White, who shoots police officers pursuing in a prowler, flees with Orange, who is shot hijacking a car before he kills the driver. Shot in the abdomen, Orange bleeds profusely in the back seat of the car driven by White. Despite Orange's pleadings to be taken to a hospital, White insists that he is not fatally wounded. At their warehouse hideout, White and Orange rendezvous with Pink, who informs them that he has hidden the diamonds nearby.
Pink believes that the job was a setup and that the police were waiting to ambush them. White informs Pink that Brown is dead, Blue and Blonde are missing, and Blonde—a loose cannon—murdered several bystanders during the heist. White is furious that Joe, his old friend, would employ Blonde, who he describes as a psychopath. Pink argues with White, who feels responsible for Orange being shot, over whether to get medical attention for Orange, and Pink is wary that Joe is not there to get a doctor. The pair draw guns on each other, but they stand down when Blonde arrives with a kidnapped policeman, Marvin Nash.
In flashback, having been paroled after a four-year prison sentence, Blonde meets with the Cabots. To reward him for not giving Joe's name to the authorities, the Cabots offer Blonde a no-show job. Though grateful, Blonde insists that he wants to get back to "real work", and they recruit him for the heist.
In the present, White and Pink begin to torture Nash for information. Eddie arrives and orders them to go with him to ditch the getaway vehicles, leaving Blonde in charge of prisoner Nash and the in-and-out-of-consciousness Orange. Nash denies prior knowledge of the heist, but Blonde resumes the torture by slashing his face and cutting off his ear with a straight razor while a radio plays "Stuck in the Middle with You". When Blonde prepares to set Nash on fire, Orange shoots and kills him. Disclosing to Nash that he is an undercover police officer, Orange says that the police will arrive when Joe comes to the warehouse. Nash replies that he recognized Orange, revealing that Nash protected Orange's cover under torture. Flashbacks show scenes of Orange gaining Joe's and White's confidence and building rapport with the team.
When Eddie, Pink, and White return, Orange tries to convince them that Blonde planned to kill them all and steal the diamonds for himself. Eddie shoots and kills Nash and accuses Orange of lying, since Blonde proved loyal to his father. Joe arrives with news that the police have killed Blue. Suspecting that Orange is the traitor behind the setup, Joe is about to execute him, but White intervenes, holding Joe at gunpoint and insisting that Orange is not a police officer. Eddie aims his gun at White, creating a Mexican standoff. All three fire. Both Eddie and Joe Cabot are killed, and White and Orange are wounded.
Pink (the only uninjured person), takes the diamonds and flees, but is apprehended by the police outside. As White cradles the dying Orange in his arms, Orange confesses that he is in fact a police officer. White presses his gun to Orange's head. The police storm the warehouse and order White to drop his gun. Gunshots sound and White collapses.
Cast
Rich Turner played Sheriff #1. Nina Siemaszko played police officer Jody McClusky; her scenes were deleted from the theatrical release. There is an unseen accomplice of Joe and Eddie who speaks to Eddie on the phone. His name is Dov Schwarz, named after the sound editor on My Best Friend's Birthday.
Production Quentin Tarantino had been working at Video Archives, a video store in Manhattan Beach, California, and originally planned to shoot the film with his friends on a budget of $30,000 in a 16 mm black-and-white format, with himself playing Mr. Pink and producer Lawrence Bender playing both Nice Guy Eddie and a police officer chasing Mr. Pink. According to Tarantino, the title Reservoir Dogs came about after a patron at the store mispronounced the title Au revoir les enfants as "reservoir dogs". Bender gave the script to his acting teacher, whose wife gave the script to Harvey Keitel. Keitel liked it enough to sign as a co-producer so Tarantino and Bender would have an easier job finding funding; with his assistance, they raised $1.5 million. Keitel also paid for Tarantino and Bender to host casting sessions in New York, where the duo found Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, and Tim Roth. Tim Roth's agents originally wanted him to be Mr. Pink or Mr. Blonde, but he preferred Mr. Orange because he would "be an English actor pretending to be American playing a cop pretending to be a robber". Michael Madsen wanted to play Mr. Pink and auditioned for that part but Tarantino insisted that he play Mr. Blonde.Michael Madsen interview: How The Hateful Eight star ducked and dived his way through Hollywood Jon Cryer was asked to audition for the role of Mr. Pink, but he backed out at the last minute. James Woods was also considered for Mr. Pink, but his agent turned it down without telling him. Jeffrey Dean Morgan successfully read for the role of Mr Brown but Tarantino ultimately decided to play the part himself. Jeffrey Dean Morgan says he lost Reservoir Dogs role to Quentin Tarantino: ‘F‑‑‑er!’ Viggo Mortensen, George Clooney, Samuel L. Jackson and David Duchovny also read for roles.Samuel L. Jackson: Tarantino's Leading Man In June 1991, Tarantino directed a short film version of Reservoir Dogs as a proof of concept at the Sundance Institute.
The film contains multiple homages to other films. In a 1992 interview, Tarantino says he likes the title of Reservoir Dogs because "it sounds like in a film by Alain Delon by Jean-Pierre Melville... I could see Alain Delon in a black suit say: "I'm Mr. Blonde". Moreover, Le Samouraï is one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite films and influenced him in the creation of the world of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. The idea of the costumes of the films came from a discussion between Tarantino and the costume designer Betsy Heimann, about French noir films with Alain Delon. Tarantino has said that Reservoir Dogs was influenced by Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film noir The Killing: "I didn't go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my 'Killing', my take on that kind of heist movie." The film's plot was also inspired by the 1952 film Kansas City Confidential. Additionally, Joseph H. Lewis's 1955 film The Big Combo and Sergio Corbucci's 1966 Spaghetti Western Django inspired the scene where a police officer is tortured in a chair. Having the main characters named after colors (Mr. Pink, White, Brown, etc.) was first seen in the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The film also contains key elements similar to those found in Ringo Lam's 1987 film City on Fire. Tarantino praised the film City on Fire and mentioned it as a major influence. He cited Ulu Grosbard's 1979 film Straight Time as an influence too, explaining that the criminals in Reservoir Dogs were "not wise guys or gangsters. They're like Dustin Hoffman in Straight Time: they do jobs".Woods, Paul. Quentin Tarantino: The Film Geek Files. London: Plexus Publishing, 2000, p. 22. Straight Time was based on the novel No Beast So Fierce, written by Edward Bunker.
The film's production experienced several significant difficulties. Tarantino said that everybody "hated" Lawrence Tierney by the end of the first week of production because of his on-set behavior and volatility; he seemed (to some of the cast and crew) to be evincing psychological problems. Ultimately Tierney was fired, with Tarantino stating "Tierney was a f—ing nightmare. He was completely insane. He was so crazy... All the other actors and the crew can't stand him. And all of a sudden, he yells at me, does something disrespectful and so, I fired him at the breakfast table. The crew breaks into applause."Quentin Tarantino Pays Tribute To Michael Madsen With 'Reservoir Dogs' Memory: "I'm On Your Side, Buddy"
The warehouse scenes were filmed in an unused mortuary filled with caskets, funeral equipment, embalming fluid, and a hearse. Mr. Orange's apartment was a room on the second floor of the mortuary, set to look like living quarters. The building has since been demolished.
Tarantino's decision not to film the diamond robbery was twofold: for budgetary reasons, and to keep the details of the heist ambiguous. By not showing the robbery and having the characters describe it, Tarantino explained, the film is allowed to be "about other things", similar to the way in which the burglary in Glengarry Glen Ross and its film adaptation is discussed, described, and debated, but never shown. Tarantino compared the technique to the work of a novelist, and said he wanted the film to be about something not seen and to "play with a real-time clock as opposed to a movie clock ticking".
Reception Box office Reservoir Dogs premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1992. It became the festival's most talked-about film, and it was subsequently picked up for distribution by Miramax Films. After being shown at several other film festivals, including in Cannes, Sitges, and Toronto, Reservoir Dogs opened in the United States in 19 theaters on October 9, 1992, with a first week total of $147,839. It was expanded to 61 theaters on October 23, 1992, and totaled $2,832,029 at the domestic box office. The film grossed more than double that in the United Kingdom, where it did not receive a home video release until 1995. During the period of unavailability on home video, the film was re-released in UK cinemas in June 1994. In other European countries it had a more modest financial performance. In Spain, it sold 77,721 admissions for a total of 56.6 million pesetas ($550K).
Critical reception