Review of Reservoir Dogs (1992) by Dillinger P — 14 Nov 2014

As far as debut films go, you dont get much better than this. Tarantino would go on to enjoy multiple successes and become a house hold name, but it is his earliest concoctions that really grab his true and unwavered love for film and thrust them into our faces.

Dogs revolves around a gang of thugs, put together by a father and son family crime syndicate. When a jewel heist goes horribly wrong, speculation of a snitch within the group begin to spread like wild fire, forcing old friends to become bitter enemies in the blink of an eye.

The great thing about this complex sounding film is that it isnt complex at all. You dont see the bank heist, you dont get back stories for every character, there is very little filler included in here.

The action revolves around the current predicament, the fallout from the fuck up and its in this position we feel like part of the team itself. Scratching our heads with them, getting upset with them, speculating on their behalf.

This would all fall to shit if the cast and script were not of par and both are a cut above the rest. Tarantino's script gets across true characters, refrencing trends within conversations, making these people feel real, rather than actors.

Helping this scenario is the fact that the cast include, now breathe deeply, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Harvey Kietel, Quentin Tarantino, Steve Buscemi and Chris Penn. Each and every one of these actors slam dunks their iconic roles, while bitch slapping us with their distinct conversational skills.

The direction is fluid also, its no secret that Quentin has taken from the best and used it to his advantage, but here he just includes so many iconic cinema moments in history. The image of all the friends holding guns towards one another being a perfect representation of this, or even Mr Blonde's dancing/torture routine.

He keeps us invested throughout the entire experience, shocking us all by the end. The film still holds up over 20 years since its release, it is as iconic as it is influential, even if some of the ideas are tried and tested, jam packed with a cracking soundtrack and you have yourself a cult classic on your hands.

There are a couple of minor flaws here and there, inconsistancies between cuts and a bit too much over exposure on one character later on in the film but these things dont hurt the movie, just add more of an indie feel to the whole experience.

Want an example of how to raise the bar and struggle to hit it? Look no further.