Thirty years after the film's original release -- and coinciding with the film's re-release in 4K-Ultra HD -- Reservoir Dogs remains one of director/writer Quentin Tarantino's most impressive films. It's a lean, mean character drama that lacks many of the filmmaker's more laid-back tendencies. But while it's bolstered by strong acting and solid directing, the film's script elevates it beyond its minor setting.
Written while Tarantino was working as a clerk at a video store, a copy of Reservoir Dogs' script ended up in the hands of Harvey Keitel. Impressed with the material and signing onto the then-micro-budgeted film as a producer, Keitel helped raise over $1 million for the project, leading to the casting of actors like Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi and Michael Madsen. The finished product still shows signs of that limited budget, forgoing much in terms of spectacle or outright action. As a result, Tarantino's focus was on the script and the characters, helping establish what remains his best strength as a storyteller.
What Makes Reservoir Dogs Unique
For the most part, Reservoir Dogs takes part in a single location -- a warehouse -- following a diamond heist that went sideways. Befitting a film originally conceived with as small a budget as possible, this refocuses the full attention of the movie onto the characters, not the event. Reconvening at their prearranged destination, the surviving members of the crew quickly do their best not to turn on each other. Career criminal Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is distracted by the seriously wounded Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), while the panicky Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), the unhinged Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) and an increasingly exhausted Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) debate what to do next -- and if there was a cop in their gang.
The script of Reservoir Dogs is conversational and casual but carries a great deal of character work through even minor gags or references. The film's opening scene introduces the entire main cast, along with their leader Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and a few unlucky members, discussing the music of Madonna and tipping over breakfast. It's a masterclass in efficient storytelling, establishing the entire group and its base elements through dialogue. The script is impressive, using the lack of action to its advantage. The actual robbery is never shown, only teased in brief flashbacks and conversation. It takes what could have been a straightforward crime story and explores it from multiple perspectives, adding further variety and depth to the characters. Mr. Pink's desperate escape from the cops is different than the bittersweet irony of the group's only cop being felled by a civilian, leading him to murder her in cold blood.
Why Reservoir Dogs Is Still One of Quentin Tarantino's Best
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The script's decision to leave as much to the imagination as possible allows it to build an air of mystery around itself while fully zeroing in on the character dynamics and minor beats that define the film. The performances are all riffing well on Tarantino's dialogue, often heralded as one of his great strengths as a writer. But the flourishes and distractions that would come to fill his later films are absent here, being replaced with a lean sense of tension broken by bouts of dark comedy.
Tarantino's later films have a malaise that he utilizes well for world-building, but it also leads to run times approaching three hours. By contrast, Reservoir Dogs is a sprinter, clocking in at just over an hour and a half and playing out like a morality play -- dissecting the limits these seemingly "professional" men will allow themselves to breach if it means their own safety and state of mind. There's a tension and speed to Reservoir Dogs that his later films, for all of their merits, have never quite matched. While it may be the smallest film of his career, Reservoir Dogs might also be one of Tarantino's most effective.