Directorial debut of now famous Quentin Tarantino, “Reservoir Dogs” came out in 1992 with hardly any fanfare, but soon became a cult hit. Today it is hailed as “the greatest independent movie of all time”, and it helped launch Tarantino’s career.
“Reservoir Dogs” is a crime film told in a non linear fashion describing the events prior to and after a botched diamond heist. It is focused on a group of criminals trying to pull off the heist and their subsequent fallout after their plans fall through. Six criminals know each other only by their code names (Mr. Blue, Mr. Pink and so on), and the distrust between them leads to a bloody, violent outcome. The distrust among them is not unfounded, since one of the crew members is actually an undercover cop. The film boasts with an impressive cast – Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Chris Penn and Tarantino himself – and features a whole bunch of classic Tarantino elements: quick, ultra-verbal dialogues with loads of swear words, non linear storytelling and vivid depictions of violence.
The film was a modest success upon its release. Even though it received high praise from many critics, large parts of the viewing audiences were outraged by the amount of violence and profanity featured in the film, and walking out of the theater half way through the film was not an uncommon sight. The success of Tarantino’s next film “Pulp Fiction” renewed the interest in his debut feature film, and “Reservoir Dogs” is now considered an absolute cult classic.