A group of criminal converge on a warehouse after a robbery gone awry in Quentin Tarantino's electrifying first feature film Reservoir Dogs.
This is considered to be one of the greatest independent films ever made, and it was quite impressive with what Tarantino was able to do for just a $1.5 million budget. It's partly because of the budgetary restrictions that I feel the story is enhanced, with the limited locations and the heist not actually being shown developing it into a great crime thriller.
The jumbled chronology also helps elevate the material, with it shifting between the main location of the warehouse, and the events leading up to the heist being planned which keeps things interesting.
At 99 minutes, this is Tarantino's shortest film by some distance. It's a lean story that doesn't outstay its welcome and just about avoids being too slight to justify the story being told.
However, the greatest aspects are almost certainly the dialogue and performances. Tarantino would carry this on superbly with his other works as every conversation is livewire and engaging. The characters may talk about the most random subjects possible, but it's constructed with such finesse that you find yourself never being bored by it. In the opening scene where the criminals are having breakfast before the heist, the meaning behind Madonna's song 'Like a Virgin' and Mr Pink's habit of not tipping are discussed, but it's so entertaining in the manner in which they negotiate these areas, as well as the fact in informs the audience of what the characters are like indirectly.
Speaking of the characters, they are fantastic. Nearly every single one is unique or eccentric in some way, with the veteran Mr. White, psychopathic Mr. Blonde, the slimy Mr. Pink and foul-mouthed Nice Guy Eddie all bringing something great to the table.
The acting for these characters needed to be accomplished, and thankfully everyone delivered. Harvey Keitel (Mr. White), Tim Roth (Mr. Orange), Michael Madsen (Mr.Blonde), Chris Penn (Nice Guy Eddie) and Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink) are all standouts for me and have great screen presence.
Tarantino's direction is very confident for a first feature film, with such a tight grasp on production making it look very easy. It proved to be a strong calling card with the personality he put into his filmmaking, as its gleeful violence, dark humour and great choices of music made it stay in people's minds long after they left the cinema.
I did find there to be a few issues. This mainly comes from certain scenes being sluggish in the overall pacing, and they're all scenes that are flashbacks from the main timeline. They add necessary characterisation to the criminals, but they really left me wanting to cut back to the warehouse.
Also, the sound mixing seemed a little off, as characters were often very quiet when speaking and ruined my immersion in certain scenes as I couldn't exactly make out the flow of conversations.
Overall, I still think it's quite amazing that the production turned out the way it did, and a lot of thanks should go to producer Lawrence Bender, who gave the script to his acting teacher which then found its way to Harvey Keitel who liked the script so much he agreed to co-produce. A much larger budget was then able to be financed because of that, and allowed Tarantino's career to fully kick off.
Final Verdict
A lean story, superb characters, engaging dialogue, and some great dark humour makes this first Tarantino effort one you should definitely seek out.
Comments