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Reservoir Dogs is Quentin Tarantino's 1992 debut as a feature film director. It co-stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, and Lawrence Tierney. Tarantino also has a minor role.
The screenplay, written by Tarantino, was inspired by Hong Kong director Ringo Lam's Long hu feng yun (City on Fire) from 1987, starring Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee. Reportedly one of Tarantino's favourite films, he borrowed much of the plot as well as many of the scenes.
Tarantino was originally going to shoot it with his friends, but luckily he was able to get the script to Harvey Keitel, who loved it. Funds were raised partly from selling the script for True Romance and what money Harvey Keitel was able to raise. The final budget was a mere $1.2 million. The makers had so little to work with that many of the costumes used in the film belonged to the actors themselves.
In Tarantino's words, the film is "a heist movie" in which, as Murphy's law would have it,
"everything that can go wrong, does go wrong".
Plot synopsis
The film portrays the events preceding and following a robbery (but not the actual robbery itself) orchestrated by Joe Cabot and his son "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot. Six men are recruited by the Cabots to carry out the robbery and are given the aliases Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Brown to protect their identities.
Reservoir Dogs begins with Joe, Eddie, Pink, Orange, Brown, Blue, Blonde and White eating at a restaurant. Mr. Brown is discussing his interpretation of the song "Like a Virgin" and Mr. Pink expresses his anti-tipping policy.
We are then taken to a scene in a car with Mr. White and Mr. Orange immediately following the foiled robbery. Mr. Orange has been seriously injured by a shot to the lower abdomen, and Mr. White is attempting to comfort Mr. Orange while at the same time trying to navigate the car back to the warehouse rendezvous point.
At the warehouse, Mr. White, and Mr. Orange discover that they are the first of the robbers to arrive. Mr. Pink comes in shortly thereafter, and discusses with Mr. White what went awry while Mr. Orange lies on the warehouse floor bleeding profusely. Mr. Pink suggests a setup since an entire legion of police officers arrived not long after the alarm was set off and reveals that he was able to take the diamonds and hide them.
Flashback: Mr. Pink running down the sidewalk with police hot on his tail. He is hit by a car, but manages to get up, force the driver out, and drive the car away. Back at the warehouse, Mr. Pink and Mr. White both suggest their discomfort with the actions taken by Mr. Blonde, who had executed several of the hostages after the alarm was set off.
Mr. White and Mr. Pink move to the main floor of the warehouse with the crippled Mr. Orange. Mr. White and Mr. Pink argue over whether or not to abandon the warehouse in fear of their position being compromised and whether or not to take Mr. Orange to a hospital. When Mr. White reveals to Mr. Pink that he told Mr. Orange his first name and where he came from (Larry from Milwaukee), Mr. Pink begins fear his own safety and begins arguing with Mr. White.
As the arguement climaxes, and both men are pointing guns at each other, Mr. Blonde casually walks in sipping a soda. Their arguing continues, although not as dramatically, until Mr. Blonde takes them outside to his car. Mr. Blonde opens the trunk to reveal a captured police officer.
Flashback: Joe Cabot's office and the revelation of Mr. Blonde's true name: Vic Vega, who has just been released from prison after taking the blame for a crime Joe committed. Eddie and Vega wrestle around for a bit in a friendly way, while Joe looks on in dismay. Joe and Eddie offer Vega a job with good pay and ask if he would be interesting in pulling off a diamond heist for them.
The film then returns to the present, and Eddie is on a cellular phone discussing the "major problem" which has occured. Eddie arrives at the warehouse and storms in to see Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, and Mr. White pounding on the police officer that was in Mr. Blonde's trunk. The three summarize the events of the afternoon to Eddie who refuses to believe there is any setup. Eddie orders Mr. Pink and Mr. White to come with him to move the cars and to retrieve the stolen diamonds from Mr. Pink's hiding spot, while ordering Mr. Blonde to stay with the dying Mr. Orange and the tied up police officer.
Mr. Pink and Mr. White refuse to leave Mr. Blonde alone with Mr. Orange and the officer, calling him a psychopath, while Mr. Blonde calmly defends himself and sips his soda. Eddie dismisses the claims and takes Mr. White and Mr. Pink outside with him to move the cars and gather the diamonds, leaving Blonde alone with Mr. Orange and the officer.
At this point the famous ear-cutting scene begins. Mr. Blonde and the officer exchange some words. The officer denies knowing anything about the setup, and begs to be released. Mr. Blonde, in a calm and disturbing way, states that he does not care what the officer does or does not know, but that he is going to torture him anyways. Mr. Blonde turns on the radio which is playing Stuck in the Middle With You by the artist Stealers Wheel, and moves slowly and sadistically, while moving to the music, towards the officer. Mr. Blonde tapes the officer's mouth shut, pulls out a razor, and begins waving it around in front of the officer's face. Angry, Mr. Blonde slashes the officer above the eye and takes a few steps backward. He then charges back up to the officer and violently grabs his head, cuts his ear off, and dangles it in front of the officer, who is screaming behind the tape in agony.
Mr. Blonde then casually walks out of the warehouse while the officer continues to scream in agony. He grabs a gasoline container from the trunk and brings it back inside. He opens the container and pours gasoline over the officer and leaves a small trail of it on the ground.
The tape on the officer's face falls off and, in agony, he begs for mercy. Mr. Blonde dismisses his requests and begins to light a match. Suddenly, a series of gunshots ring out and hit Mr. Blonde several times in the chest, causing him to stutter backwards and fall into the wall. We see that the shooter is the now-conscious Mr. Orange.
Mr. Orange, clearly weakened by his wound, tells the officer that he is actually an undercover police officer. The tied-up officer reveals that he knew all along that Mr. Orange was the rat, because he had met him through a mutual friend. Mr. Orange reassures the tied-up officer that a large police force is waiting a few blocks down the road for his signal to advance. The officer begs him to call the officers in, but Mr. Orange refuses to call anyone in until Joe arrives.
Flashback: Mr. Orange, his real name being Freddy, and a detective named Holdaway meeting at a restaurant. Freddy tells Holdaway that he has secured a spot in a heist with Joe Cabot. Freddy talks about his first meeting with the other members of the gang, and, judging from Mr. White's discussion on the Brewers, Holdaway assumes he is from Milwaukee.
Flashback: the first meeting, where Mr. Blonde tells a story, which he and Holdaway made up, about how he was almost caught by the police with a carry-case full of marijuana.
Flashback: A police station, Freddy and Holdaway search for info on Mr. White, who they discover is named Lawrence Dimick.
Flashback: Mr. Orange's apartment just before the robbery, where he is called down to Eddie's car by telephone. Mr. Orange arms himself, places a ring on his finger, looks at himself in the mirror and tries to calm himself down.
Flashback: The rendezvous warehouse, before the robbery, where some of the group is talking and joking. When the everyone finally arrives, Joe begins to explain the master plan and gives everyone — except for himself and Eddie — their aliases. Mr. Pink protests his name as being too homosexual and Mr. Brown says his name sounds too much like Mr. Shit. The group begins to argue until Joe lays down the law and regains control of the meeting and begins explaining the plan, but the scene ends before Joe can begin.
Flashback: Freddy and Holdaway discussing the robbery plans. Freddy expresses his discomfort with the entire set-up but Holdaway calms him down and assures him that protection will be there for him.
Flashback: Mr. White and Mr. Orange sitting out front of the diamond store several days before the robbery discussing the plan. Mr. White quizzes Mr. Orange on the particulars of the plan and offers advice on how to deal with any problems that may arise. There seems to be good chemistry between the two.
Flashback: Mr. Brown, Mr. White and Mr. Orange fleeing from the police following the robbery. Mr. Brown, driving, crashes the car into a pole and looks to be bleeding from the head. Mr. White jumps out of the car and runs to the end of the alley to find a police car coming around the corner. Just as the police car stops, Mr. White unloads his two guns into the windshields, killing both officers. Mr. White comes back to the car to find Mr. Brown dead and Mr. Orange in shock. Mr. White pulls Mr. Orange along with him to the end of the alley and forces a car to stop and orders the driver out. The driver, however, is armed with a gun and shoots Mr. Orange in the stomach just before he opens the door. Mr. Orange shoots the driver in the forehead, killing her instantly. Mr. White pulls Mr. Orange, shocked by what he just did, into the car and they begin to drive to the rendezvous warehouse.
Mr. White, Mr. Pink, and Eddie return to the warehouse to find Mr. Blonde dead and the officer bloodied and covered in gasoline. Mr. Orange tells thim that Mr. Blonde went insane and was going to burn the officer alive. Eddie, furious at Mr. Orange, pulls out his gun and shoots the officer several times in the chest, killing him.
Mr. Orange tries to cover his actions by claiming that Mr. Blonde was going to kill the officer, himself and the rest of the gang once they walked in. Mr. White believes him, Eddie thinks he is lying and Mr. Pink is neutral, trying to calm everyone down. Eddie demands that Mr. Orange tell him the truth, at which point Joe walks in and claims that anything else Mr. Orange says would just be "more bullshit".
Joe then accuses Mr. Orange of being an undercover cop because he wasn't "100% sure" that he could be trusted while Mr. White adamantly defends Mr. Orange. Joe pulls his gun out and points it at Mr. Orange; Mr. White pulls his gun out and points it at Joe; and Eddie pulls his gun out and points it at Mr. White. Mr. Pink begins to scream for everyone to calm down as the three yell at each other and threaten to shoot.
Joe brings his eyes back to Mr. Orange and shoots him several times. Mr. White shoots Joe and Eddie, and Eddie shoots Mr. White as he falls. Eddie and Joe fall to the ground dead, but Mr. White and Mr. Orange are still alive. Mr. Pink quickly walks out of the room, grabbing the diamonds, only to be confronted by the police outside.
Mr. White pulls Mr. Orange close to him and points his gun at the door, ready to shoot any police officers who come in. Mr. Orange tells Mr. White that he's a cop, and Mr. White, clearly horrified by this statement, puts the gun to Mr. Orange's chin as he tries to control his tears. The police storm inside and demand Mr. White put the gun down, but Mr. White fires and kills Mr. Orange at which point the police open fire on Mr. White, killing him.
Analysis
As is stated above, the robbery itself is never seen; the majority of the film's conflict takes place between the criminals themselves as they attempt to sort out the events of the day, while the tension between them mounts. The narration makes extensive use of flashbacks. For instance, at one point, the identity of the undercover cop, or "the rat" as the robbers put it, is revealed to the audience but not the protagonists.
The film gained notoriety for the amount of profanity in the dialogue, and for the level of violence it contained. However, Tarantino has pointed out that there are actually very few scenes of overt violence shown: for instance, in the infamous "ear torture" scene, the camera focuses away from the actors at the critical point (instead scanning a wall on which the words "Watch your head" have been sprayed).
By the standard of mainstream Hollywood action movies, the body count is quite low: there are 11 fatal shootings in the film. What is perhaps unusual about the violence in the film is the combination of gritty (and gory) realism with quirky touches, such as 1970s pop music, not least during the ear-slicing scene. The film takes place while a local radio station has a "Super Sounds of the Seventies" week.
Cast
Crew
External link
sv:De hänsynslösa
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