Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s first film to direct, though he’d made major script contributions on other films such as From Dust Till Dawn (1996). It’s a bloody and violent, gritty tale of honor among thieves. Each member of the group is called by colors, such as Mr. Blue, Pink, White, Blonde, and Orange. The plot revolves around one particular diamond heist, mainly, which doesn’t quite go as planned.

 

Tarantino is credited for “redefining” the gangster genre for his original story of Reservoir Dogs. The film got its name, by the way, from the film Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987), whose title Tarantino could not pronounce back when he worked as a video store clerk.

 

The film’s certainly no chick flick; there aren’t any female speaking parts, though there is much male dialogue, of course written by Tarantino himself. If you’ve already seen the film go ahead and read the trivia below, but if you haven’t you may want to wait until afterwards. That holds true for the quotes as well; just scroll down to the cast list and find out who’s who if you really don’t already know.

Related Links:

• Matt's Complete Reservoir Dogs Archive
• Jack Rabbit Slim's: Reservoir Dogs
• The Movie Vault
• Steve's Reservoir Sounds - KBILLY: Home of Rock
• MovieMania's Reservoir Dogs page with sounds, pictures, trailers, info and more!
• Reservoir Dogs Official Site
• KevinTX's collection
• James Berardinelli's review
• James Kendrick's review
• Lisa Skrzyniarz's review
• Brian Webster's review
• Reservoir Dogs - Empire Magazine
• Movie poster
• Quentin Tarantino

 

Trivia about Reservoir Dogs:

 

• Reservoir Dogs was originally to be shot in Super 8 and black and white, with only a few thousand dollars of Tarantino's own money, using his friends as cast. A friend of Tarantino’s was in an acting class given by Keitel's wife. When Keitel saw the script he was so impressed that he immediately signed on and helped raise funds.
• Tarantino's original draft was spelled phonetically.
• Quentin used to stand around and say “All right my dogs; let's get to work.”
• The warehouse was originally white. But the art department painted it green to better contrast with the red from the blood.
• City of Fire by Ringo Lam was so similar to Reservoir Dogs it isn't funny. It is almost a Hong Kong version that predates Tarantino's. It makes you wonder that he didn't just use that as a template the entire movie.
• During the critics' screening, with organizations such as Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, and Time to name a few, the movie got horrible reviews. Entertainment Weekly and Premiere left mid-film, and were followed by several other critics.
• When Tarantino worked in a video store, he referred to the French film Au Revoir Les Enfants as “the reservoir film” because he couldn't pronounce the title. He combined this with “Straw Dogs,” a Sam Peckinpah film from 1971, to produce the title “Reservoir Dogs.” Although Tarantino chooses to remain quiet about this, this story has been confirmed by his mother and Roger Avary, among others.
• The radio ceases to play after “Stuck in the Middle With You” finishes.
• Madonna signed a copy of Erotica for Tarantino and wrote on it “Quentin: It's about love; not dick.”
• Nice Guy Eddie was not supposed to get shot, however there was a fluke and Tarantino decided to keep it.
• Grossed 2.812 million in the US.
• Reportedly, in the Italian version the main titles sequence where the guys walk down the street outside the diner is not shown in slow motion.
• The wrapped boxes in the factory are coffins, and Mr. Blonde was sitting on a hearse. You see, the factory was originally going to be a black-painted funeral home.
• While Nice Guy Eddie is on the phone trying to find out about the rat, an orange balloon flies in front of the camera. Hint hint...
• The opening breakfast scene was shot in Pat & Loraines' Restaurant in CA.
• This was originally intended to be a sequel to True Romance. However, Tarantino's original ending to True Romance was changed into a happy one, which made it impossible to connect the two films.
• Mr. White was originally going to have a flashback scene, in which he goes into more detail about his life of crime with Madonna.
• Mr. Blonde drops by a Big Kahuna Burgers (also in Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Natural Born Killers, and From Dusk Till Dawn) on his way to the rendezvous.
• There are references made to Marsellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction.
• Vic Vega has the same last name as Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction.
• The movie was an A Band Apart film. Their symbol is of the Dogs walking at the beginning of the film.
• The conversation between Joe and Mr. White about a woman named Alabama is a reference to the character Alabama, played by Patricia Arquette in True Romance (1993), which was also written by Quentin Tarantino.
• Although he supposedly killed more people than any of the other characters did, Mr. Blonde is never seen killing anyone on-screen.
• Mr. Pink is the only main character whose real identity is never revealed, and the only one who lives.
• Robert Kurtzman did the special make-up effects on Reservoir Dogs for free, under the condition that Tarantino would write a script for From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) based on a story by Kurtzman.
• The criminals in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) also used colors to identify each other anonymously.
• The actor who plays the lady that Mr. Orange shoots was Roth's dialogue coach. Roth insisted that she take the role, as she was very hard on him.
• Tarantino wanted James Woods to play a role in the film, and made him five different cash offers. Woods' agent refused the offers without ever mentioning it to Woods as the sums offered were well below what Woods would usually receive. When Tarantino and Woods later met for the first time, Woods learned of the offer and was annoyed enough to get a new agent. Tarantino avoided telling Woods which role he was offered because “the actor who played the role was magnificent anyway". It is widely accepted that the role that Tarantino was referring to was Mr. Orange.
• Revealing mistakes: All car scenes obviously filmed with the car on a trailer.
• Continuity: In the opening scene in the diner, the size of Mr. Blue's cigar.
• Continuity: The radio switches itself off after Mr. Blonde finished torturing Marvin Nash.
• Continuity: Mr Pink puts the cigarette in his mouth twice when talking to Mr White.
• Continuity: The size of Mr. Blonde's cigarette when in Joe's office.
• Crew or equipment visible: Reflected in a shop window as Mr. Pink runs along the street.
• Continuity: When the police are chasing Mr. Pink in the first flashback, they run by all the same stores twice.
• Continuity: When Mr. Pink pulls the woman out of the car, his bag is on the ground next to the floor. When he gets into the car, there is no bag, and yet he has it later.
• Continuity: The identity of the person who almost killed Mr. Blonde changes from Mr. White to Mr. Pink.
• Continuity: Marvin Nash kicks at the gas can in Mr. Blonde's hands, yet in the next shot his feet are bound.
• Boom mike visible: Shadow visible behind Cabot's head as he gives out names.
• Continuity: When firing at the police, the slide on Mr. Pink's pistol locks back, indicating an empty clip, and yet he continues to fire without reloading.
• Continuity: When Nice Guy Eddie shoots Nash, the muzzle-flashes from the gun and damage to Nash's chest don't appear close enough together.
• Continuity: Mr. Orange's position on the loading ramp.
• Continuity: In one scene Nash is shown to have his legs restrained by duct tape, in a separate scene he kicks his leg up in the air as gasoline is thrown on him. In the next scene, his leg is re-restrained.
• Miscellaneous: Nice Guy Eddie leaves his cellular phone on the table as he leaves the diner in the opening scene.

 

 

Quotes from Reservoir Dogs:

 

Nice Guy Eddie: We got places all over the place.

 

Mr. White: I'm hungry. Let's get a taco.

 

Mr. White: If you shoot this man, you die next. Repeat. If you shoot this man, you die next.

 

Mr. Brown: OK, let me tell you what Like a Virgin's about. It's all about this cooze who's a regular fuck machine, I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.

Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that?

Mr. White: A lot.

Mr. Brown: Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker and it's like, whoa baby, I mean this cat is like Charles Bronson in the Great Escape—he’s digging tunnels. Now, she's gettin’ this serious dick action and she's feeling something she ain't felt since forever. Pain. Pain. It hurts her. It shouldn't hurt her, you know her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when this cat fucks her it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it once was like to be a virgin. Hence, "Like a virgin."

 

Mr. Pink: I'm very sorry the government taxes their tips - that's fucked up. That ain't my fault. It would seem to me that waitresses are one of the many groups the government fucks in the ass on a regular basis. Look, if you ask me to sign something that says the government shouldn't do that, I'll sign it, put it to a vote, I'll vote for it, but what I won't do is play ball. And as for this non-college bullshit I got two words for that: learn to fuckin' type, 'cause if you're expecting me to help out with the rent you're in for a big fuckin' surprise.

 

Mr. Orange: This is a very weird situation. 'Cause I don't know if you remember back in '86 there was a major fucking drought. Nobody had anything. People were living on resin---smoking the wood in their pipes for months. This chick had a bunch. And she's begging me to sell it. So I told her I wasn't going to be Joe the pot-man anymore, but I would take a little bit and sell it to my close, close, close friends. She agreed to that, said we'd keep the same arrangement as before; 10%, free pot for me, as long as I helped her out that weekend. She had a brick of weed she was selling; she didn't want to go to the buy alone. Her brother usually goes with her, but he's in county unexpectedly.

Mr. White: What for?

Mr. Orange: His traffic tickets. Got a warrant. They stopped him for something, found warrants on him, took him to county. Now she doesn't walk around alone with all that weed. I don't want to do this. I have a very bad feeling about it. But she keeps asking me, keeps asking me keeps asking me, finally I said OK 'cause I'm sick of hearing it. Now, we're picking the guy up at the train station---

Nice Guy Eddie: Wait a minute. You go to the train station to pick up the buyer with the weed on you?

Mr. Orange: The guy needed it right away. Don't ask me why. Anyway, we're get to the station and we're waiting for the guy. I'm carrying the weed in one of those little carry-on bags. I got to take a piss. So I tell the connection I'll be right back, I'm going to the boys' room. So I walk in the men’s' room, and who's standing there? Four Los Angeles County sheriffs and a German shepherd.

Nice Guy Eddie: They're waiting for you?

Mr. Orange: No, they're just a bunch of cops hanging out in the men's room, talking. When I walked through the door, they all stopped what they were talking about and they looked at me.

(Laughs)

Mr. Orange: German shepherd starts barking. He's barking at me. I mean it's obvious. He's barking at me. Every nerve-ending, all my senses, blood in my veins, everything I have is screaming, "Take off, man! Just bail, just get the fuck out of there!" Panic hits me like a bucket of water. First there's the shock of it--- BAM! ---Right in the face. I'm standing there drenched in panic. All these sheriffs looking at me, and they know, man. They can smell it. Sure as that fucking dog can, they can smell it on me.

 

Joe: All right ramblers let's get rambling!

 

Mr. Pink sees Mr. Orange is shot in the stomach.

Mr. Pink: Is it bad?

Mr. White: As opposed to good?

 

Mr. White: If you get a customer, or an employee, who thinks he's Charles Bronson, take the butt of your gun and smash their nose in.

 

Mr. Brown: Mr. Brown? That sounds too much like Mr. Shit.

 

Joe Cabot: And you are Mr. Pink.

Mr. Pink: Why am I Mr. Pink?

Joe Cabot: Cause you're a faggot, ok?

 

Mr. Pink: How about I be Mr. Purple?

Joe: No, You can't be Mr. Purple.

Mr. Pink: Why not?

Joe: Someone on another job is Mr. Purple!

Mr. White: Who cares what your name is?

Mr. Pink: Oh yeah that's easy for you to say you've got a cool sounding name. How about we trade, OK? You're Mr. Pink.

 

Mr. White and Mr. Pink are washing up after the robbery went awry.

Mr. Pink: You kill anybody?

Mr. White: A few cops.

Mr. Pink: No real people?

Mr. White: Just cops.

 

Mr. Blonde: Are you gonna bark all day, little doggy, or are you gonna bite?

 

Mr. White: You shoot me in a dream you'd better wake up and apologize.

 

Nice Guy Eddie asks if anyone knows what happened to Mr. Blue

Mr. Blonde: Either he's alive or he's dead, or the cops got him ... or they don't.

 

 

Cast overview, first billed only:

Harvey Keitel ....  Mr. White/Larry 

Tim Roth ....  Freddy Newendyke/Mr. Orange 

Michael Madsen ....  Vic Vega/Mr. Blonde 

Chris Penn ....  Nice Guy Eddie 

Steve Buscemi ....  Mr. Pink 

Lawrence Tierney ....  Joe Cabot 

Randy Brooks ....  Holdaway 

Kirk Baltz ....  Marvin Nash 

Edward Bunker ....  Mr. Blue 

Quentin Tarantino ....  Mr. Brown 

Rich Turner ....  Sheriff #1 

David Steen ....  Sheriff #2 

Tony Cosmo ....  Sheriff #3 

Stevo Poliy ....  Sheriff #4 

Michael Sottile ....  Teddy