Review of Reservoir Dogs (1992) by Stevenf — 21 Oct 2013

As the camera circles and observes the scene, it's clear to see the talent involved in 'Reservoir Dogs', director and writer Quentin Tarantino is one of those men sitting at the table, alongside Michael Madsen, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney and Tim Roth amongst others, they are well dressed in black suits and are having a rather crude discussion surrounding the Madonna song "Like a Virgin".

These men don't know each other, but they share chemistry over coffee, but we soon learn that they have reason for being there, a jewellery story heist that we see in flashbacks, because for most of the film, we have a lot of dialogue taking place in the warehouse that was the agreed rendezvous, but you can now judge from this wording that it all goes horribly wrong, and as a few start to appear at the warehouse with various theories as to what went wrong, the most prominent of these being an informant within the pack, injuries and deaths have happened, and now they must find out what truth there is to the 'rat' business.

The unfortunate shortcomings of the film lie with its characters having little intrigue or prospect about them, the plot revolves around them, but at the same time it revolves more around trying to find out what went wrong, the plot is intriguing, but not enough time is spent working up a point to each 'colour', each man being called a different one so as to protect their names, but that isn't to say the performances aren't immense, with Madsen almost stealing the show with his cold and collective attitude, each time he's about to speak is edgy because of his unpredictability and menacing demeanour.

Keitel is the level headed one who looks after Roths character after he is shot. There are plenty of surprises and shocks along the way, while introductions to the characters through flashbacks intertwine well with the main arc of the warehouse, but we don't have particularly witty or mesmerising dialogue, the script relies on its characters and its conclusion of figuring out the problems of the heist.

Tarantino is a proven marvel when it comes to unique filmmaking, this film was the kick off to some dark humour such as Madsens "Mr Blonde" toying with his victim as he dances to "Stealers Wheel", it funny but frightening, we have no idea what is about to happen, and Tarantino has carried on this witty and quick fire shooting that captures smaller but significant details that matter.

This isn't his finest work, but here we get a crisp and sharp introduction to the technique and capabilities of Tarantino, he assembles quite the sought after cast with equally impressive performances, and a soundtrack that works well with the darkly humorous script, not as tight as it should be but still a cut above most, it talks perhaps a little too much, but never becomes boring or stale.