Review of Reservoir Dogs (1992) by Lloyd H — 09 Feb 2013

Reservoir Dogs is one of the best and most important films of the 90's and is one of the best directorial debuts of all time. Quentin Tarantino becomes an overnight success as he writes and directs his first feature film. The story consists of the incidents before sand after but not during a bank robbery and is like no other heist movie. The cast is bursting with talent and is one of the strongest assembled casts I can think of in a debut feature.

Harvey Keitel carries the story brilliantly as Mr. White and gives one of his best performances. Tim Roth plays Mr. Orange and his performance in this film is my favourite of his. All of his scenes with Harvey Keitel are brilliantly perfomed. Michael Madsen gives the performance of his spiralled out of control career as Mr. Blonde. His scene where he torchers the policeman whilst dancing to 'Stealers Wheels - Stuck In The Middle With You' is my favourite scene of film and one of my all time favourite movie moments.

Steve Buscemi is great comic relief as Mr. Pink and shares some great scenes with Harvey Keitel. Lawrence Tierney, Chris Penn and the Director himself Quentin Tarantino all give fine performances also. One of my favourite scenes of the film is the opening when the whole group are in the diner together and are discussing tipping waitresses whilst Tarantino waffles on about Madonna's song Like A Virgin. The dialogue is random and pointless, but is bizarlely throuroughly entertaining and it opens the film brilliantly.

This none linear piece is some of Tarantino's finest work. The script is magnificent, the characters are individually and collectively brilliant and the casting is perfect. The violence is chilling and full of suspense and the story telling and concept is refreshingly original. Reservoir Dogs was a strong platform for Tarantino to build his career on, and twenty years on it still holds its own as a brilliant piece of film making.