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“‘Like A Virgin’ is all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick.”
Those are the first words you hear in Reservoir Dogs, but isn’t this supposed to be an ultra-violent heist movie? Why are they chatting about what’s in the charts from years gone by? That’s because Tarantino’s script for this – and his subsequent films, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, show that even men with guns can talk about the less meaningful things in life. They all have discussions about nothing just like us – it’s just that previous films have rarely, if ever, gone at great lengths to make their characters seem more human and it’s all the better for that.
Note though that this isn’t a film for those who take offence to characters using a constant stream of strong or racist language.
The film is a part rip-off, er.. I mean “homage”, to John Woo‘s City on Fire which starred Chow Yun Fat – including the final four-way confrontation – but here it takes place over a weekend on which the local radio station is having a “K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the 70s weekend” – and all those tracks make the soundtrack, including Stealer’s Wheel‘s Stuck in the Middle with You during the infamous torture scene, which was aped in an episode of The Simpsons‘ Itchy and Scratchy cartoon “with guest director Quentin Tarantino”.
In another homage to another heist film, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, all the characters have the names of colours to protect their own identity.
Told in flashback, six men are recruited to pull off a heist at a jeweller’s shop with a brilliant cast: the thoughtful Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), the shit-scared Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), the fast-talking Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) most-knowned for the fact that “I don’t tip”, the psychopath Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Madonna fan Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino) and the man for whom we know little Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker).
Managing the job is Mr. White’s friend Joe (Lawrence Tierney) and there’s back up from his son “Nice Guy” Eddie (Chris Penn).
What makes this different from other films is not only the flashback sequences telling you what went on – since the post-opening-credits-sequence opens with Mr. Orange bleeding over the back seat of a car and Mr. White panicking like hell – but the links between this and others with which Quentin Tarantino – has been involved.
Mr. White also used to go out with Alabama, the girl played by Patricia Arquette in True Romance, which was also written by Tarantino, as was Pulp Fiction and that film’s Vincent Vega (John Travolta) is the brother of this film’s Mr. Blonde, aka Vic Vega. Tarantino also wrote Natural Born Killers, but its director Oliver Stone rewrote it and Tarantino had his name taken off it.
Also, although not a Tarantino link, it’s interesting to know that the woman who put the bullet in Tim Roth’s stomach was his dialogue coach. He gets to fire at her, too, but he wanted to have some way of getting back at the person who forced him to perfect his American accent.
Reservoir Dogs is a film I could watch a million times, but for the rest of you who are new to it, after you’ve seen it for the first time and know who the rat inthe house is you can watch it again and see how the others reacted to therat at any particular point in the film.
And why is it called Reservoir Dogs? According to Tarantino, “Because they’re DOGS man.. and they’re like, from the RESERVOIR, man!”. Hmm…
Presented in 4K 2160p, the picture is absolutely stunning compared to when I last watched it in HD. This is instantly obvious in the opening scene as all the main cast are sat around the cafe table, with facial definition looking fantastic. Plus, also early on in the white house, Mr Pink’s eyes are bulging out of his head when he says after discussing Mr Blonde, “I don’t wanna kill anybody…” before justifying why he had to shoot his way out of the jewellery store, saying how he’d have to shoot to get out of any such situation.
The audio is perfectly fine, mostly centreing around dialogue, but since I only received the 4K disc for review, then I was initially wondering where the extras are, only to realise that since almost all 4K releases are accompanied by the Blu-ray (which was once a stipulation, but now, they seem to have got away from this – albeit without dropping the price, given that you no longer get a free Blu-ray on those), and so that’s where the extras reside. According to the press release, these are:
- Deleted Scenes: Background Check; No Protection; Doing My Job; Cutting Off The Ear – Alternate Take A; Cutting Off The Ear – Alternate Take B
- Playing It Fast and Loose
- Profiling the Reservoir Dogs
The menu features the ‘walking’ footage to a piece of music… that’s not in the film! Huh?! It’s The Mighty Imperials’ Duck Hunt. I wonder why they did that?
Reservoir Dogs is released today on 4K Steelbook.
It’s also available on Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Video.
Cert: 
Running time: 100 minutes
Year: 1992
Chapters: 16
Cat.No:
FHEB3835
Distributor: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Released: November 21st 2022
Picture: 2160p High Definition
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35, and Dolby Vision for 2022 Remaster)
Languages: English 5.1 Dolby Audio, Spanish 2.0 Dolby Audio
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Disc Format: BD100
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Producer: Lawrence Bender
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Background radio dialogue written by Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary
Music Supervisor: Karyn Rachtman
Cast:
Mr. White: Harvey Keitel
Mr. Orange: Tim Roth
Nice Guy Eddie: Chris Penn
Mr. Pink: Steve Buscemi
Joe Cabot: Lawrence Tierney
Mr. Blonde: Michael Madsen
Mr. Brown: Quentin Tarantino
Mr. Blue: Eddie Bunker
Holdaway: Randy Brooks
Marvin Nash: Kirk Baltz
Sheriffs: Rich Turner, David Steen, Tony Cosmo, Stevo Polyi
Teddy: Michael Sottile
Shot cop: Robert Ruth
Young Cop / Background Radio Play: Lawrence Bender
Shocked Woman: Linda Kaye
Shot Woman: Suzanne Celeste
K-Billy DJ (voice): Steven Wright
Background Radio Play (voices): Laurie Lathem, Maria Strova, Burr Steers, Craig Hamann
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.