In 1992, high-school drop-out and former video rental shop worker, Quentin Tarantino, made his debut feature film, Reservoir Dogs.
The plot is very clear: a group of criminals go on a job expecting it to be success, but it ends badly. The film explores the aftermath of the incident and how it happened. I found the plot of the film to be very interesting, and I was constantly entertained as it slowly unfolded.
Acting: the film's main cast consists of people like Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Chris Penn and Lawrence Tierney. For the performances I could tell you that just about everyone here is bringing their best. If I had to choose one performance that stood out to me the most I would have to pick Michael Madsen as Mr Blonde. With his character he accomplishes what I imagine most actors would find very difficult - to do horrible things on screen and still be a likeable character - and he does that with a refreshing and enjoyable sense of dark humour. I would also like to mention the performance of Lawrence Tierney who plays Joe Cabot, I thought he played the more experienced, elder gangster very well. And his character was a rather good contrast when compared to his younger and obviously less experienced associates.
Screenplay: Tarantino himself wrote the screenplay for the film, and while it does have the kind of violence the director is known for, it is a lot more dialogue-driven, and the words spoken by these characters sound and feel like the words actual people would say. I particularly like the conversation at the start of the movie about a certain well-known 80s song, because of how realistic it is.
Cinematography: the film was shot by Andrzej Sekula. and I think he did quite well with his camerawork. What I think struck me about the shots in the film was how close-ups of people unapologetically focus on the very gritty, almost grotesque, blood that would go on to become one of the director's most notable trademarks. I thought that these shots add to the brutality of the situation these people find themselves in.
As to the music, while this film is mostly dialogue-driven and is for the most part confined to a warehouse, it has no actual composer. There is just a selection of songs from the 1960s and 1970s to fill the gap which I felt was a nice change. It was worthwhile to sacrifice an original music score due to the budget constraints of an independent film. One song in particular stood out to me and gave a scene a very dark comic edge without which I think the scene would have been very difficult to watch. I'm glad it wasn't.
While I did enjoy my viewing experience and I found very little of which I disapproved, I feel I stumbled on one weakness, which would be a couple of characters too many - Tarantino as Mr Brown and Edward Bunker as Mr Blue. Now I understand that Tarantino had a heavy workload making this film and I respect him for that, but I don't see why his character is necessary. He does have some dialogue at the start, and some more - briefly - later in the film (both during flashbacks). That is all we see of him, but he even gets billing in the opening credits. Usually when a actor gets billing in opening credits he has a bit more to do than just a few words. To me this feels like just another way of Tarantino making his presence known to his actors. In the case of Bunker who plays Mr Blue, again some dialogue then he is gone, and to me all he did in his remaining screen time was to be another body to fill the room.
In conclusion I found Reservoir dogs to be full of good performances, wonderfully scripted dialogue and any dull moments were almost non-existent. And it was truly impressive to see what someone could do with such skill and mastery of his profession. I will truly be interested to see what Mr Tarantino comes up with for us in the future.
Having taken all pros and very few cons into account, I'm going to give Reservoir Dogs an..
A+
