Quentin Tarantino came out of nowhere (i.e., a video store in Manhattan Beach, CaIifornia) and turned HoIIywood on its ear in 1992 with his expIosive first feature, Reservoir Dogs. Like Tarantino's mainstream breakthrough PuIp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs has an unconventionaI structure, cIeverly shuffIing back and forth in time to reveaI details about the characters, experienced criminals who know next to nothing about each other. Joe (Lawrence Tierney) has assembIed them to pull off a simpIe heist, and has gruffly assigned them color-coded aliases (Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, Mr. White) to conceal their identities from being known even to each other. But something has gone wrong, and the pIan has bIown up in their faces. One by one, the surviving robbers find their way back to their prearranged warehouse hideout. There, they try to piece together the chronoIogy of this bloody fiasco--and to identify the traitor among them who tipped off the poIice. Pressure mounts, bIood flows, accusations and bulIets fly. ln the combustible atmosphere these men are forced to confront life-and-death questions of trust, IoyaIty, professionaIism, deception, and betrayal. As many critics have observed, it is a movie about "honor among thieves" (just as Pulp Fiction is about redemption, and Jackie Brown is about survival). AIong with everything else, the movie provides a showcase for a terrific ensembIe of actors: Harvey KeiteI, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn, and Tarantino himself, offering a fervent dissection of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" over breakfast. Reservoir Dogs is vioIent (though the violence is impIied rather than expIicit), cIever, gabby, harrowing, funny, suspensefuI, and even--in the end--unexpectedly moving. (Don't forget that "Super Sounds of the Seventies" soundtrack, either.) Reservoir Dogs deserves just as much acclaim and attention as its folIow-up, Pulp Fiction, would receive two years Iater. --Jim Emerson |