Reservoir Dogs: 15th Anniversary Edition – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

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Director

Quentin Tarantino

Cast

Harvey Keitel”¦”¦”¦.Mr. White/Larry Dimmick
Tim Roth”¦”¦”¦.Mr. Orange/Freddy Newandyke
Michael Madsen”¦”¦”¦.Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega
Chris Penn”¦”¦”¦.Nice Guy Eddie Cabot
Steve Buscemi”¦”¦”¦.Mr. Pink
Lawrence Tierney”¦”¦”¦.Joe Cabot
Edward Bunker”¦”¦”¦.Mr. Blue
Quentin Tarantino”¦”¦”¦.Mr. Brown
Steven Wright”¦”¦”¦.K-Billy DJ (voice)

The Movie

It’s almost scary to think that Quentin Tarantino came out of nowhere to become one of the most influential directors of the last two decades a scant fifteen years ago. Considering his slim body of work, Tarantino has definitely crafted a legacy for himself based on the first two films he directed: Pulp Fiction, which was nominated for a plethora of Academy Awards, and his first (and best) film, Reservoir Dogs.

Following the misadventures of a group of men who know each other only by the colors they are assigned, Reservoir Dogs is the tale of a bank robbery gone wrong. Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) has assembled a group of men to pull off the perfect bank robbery. Known only as colors to one another, Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker) and Mr. Brown (Tarantino) are assembled to pull off a daring heist. Cabot has given them all names by color so that if they are caught, no one can squeal on the others because they don’t know each other by name. When it goes horribly wrong, the crew finds themselves holed up in a grimy warehouse when things start to get interesting as they begin to fight amongst themselves.

It was a tremendous debut for Tarantino, a film which would help jumpstart the new wave of British crime films, and 15 years later it still stands as the best work he’s done. The key in looking at this film in hindsight is to look at the manner in which Tarantino presents his story. He doesn’t tell it in a linear fashion; he shows a series of stories from each of the main characte’s perspective. There isn’t one universal perspective of the events that is shown; instead there are several different ones. It gives freshness to the story, as it’s not just one version of the “truth” behind everything. Different perspectives bring about different ways of interpretation, as well as how different characters view things. It wouldn’t work, however, if the film’s writing wasn’t nearly as strong as it is.

Tarantino has an advantage of being a writer-director as opposed to merely one or the other, but the key is that he has an uncanny understanding in each role of what the other wants to do. This is a strongly written script, with each character given a definitive quality to it that it almost becomes easy for Tarantino to develop a relatively complex story out of the simplicity he provides. This is a tale of bad men in the midst of a situation that is ever-increasing in intensity and paranoia. The way the men play off each other, and the violence of the finale, only serves as the culmination of a terrifically written film.

Writing is one thing, but Tarantino lucked out when he got a top notch cast for his film. With a cast of mainly character actors as opposed to ‘name’ actors, Tarantino is able to bring out the sort of vision he wants with the film by having a top-notch chemistry throughout the film. While no one gives an exceptional performance, it’s how they interact with each other that make it so engrossing.

While it is violent on a level that is both shocking and over the top, Reservoir Dogs is a film that riffs on other films from cinema past and yet has managed to inspire a myriad of copycats in the 15 years since its release. It’s a terrifically violent film that established Tarantino that set the standard for crime films for the last 20 years.

The Audio

With a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, the film’s soundtrack has been remastered for this release. It’s an improvement over the previous editions, as it’s a bit more complete and well-rounded then before. It isn’t that much more spectacular than prior versions but sounds much better than before.

The Video

Presented in a widescreen format, this version of Reservoir Dogs has been remastered for this brand new edition. The film’s colors are a bit more clear and better separated this time around, as the blood

The Extras

This edition of Reservoir Dogs comes loaded with extras on both discs.

On the first disc there are a small amount of extras. There’s a Pulp Factoids Viewer that brings up various facts about the film and its cast. The film has several commentaries, the first being with Tarantino, Producer Lawrence Bender and select cast and crew. There are also three film critics who give commentary tracks for the film: Peter Travers, Amy Taubin and Emanuel Levy (who wrote “Cinema of Outsiders: The rise of American Independent Film”).

The second disc contains the bulk of the features for this DVD edition. Playing it Fast and Loose is a documentary about the film’s effects on the art of making movies after its release. Featuring several lecturers on film and other luminaries of the field, including Harry Knowles of aintitcool.com and “Rebels on the Backlot” author Sharon Waxman, it’s an interesting look at the film without ever really talking about the film directly. The piece is more of piece waxing about the film’s quality and its influence, but yet never really talks about it any meaningful detail. Profiling the Reservoir Dogs is a look at the psychological sides of Mr. Pink, Mr. Brown, Mr. White and Mr. Blonde. It’s interesting to see how the men could’ve come to be from a background standpoint; Criminal Profiler Pat Brown has put together moderately detailed sketches of what their pasts and present would be. Tipping Guide is a quick guide to how the four main characters would tip a waitress at various levels of cash spent.

Four Deleted Scenes, including two different takes on the ear-cutting scene, are included. Shown in rough form, they’ve already been included in prior editions of the DVD. Reservoir Dolls is a reenactment of the ear-cutting scene with action figures crafted from the likeness of Mr. Blonde, Mr. Orange and the police officer. K-Billy Sounds of the ’70s is a menu in which one can listen to some of the outtakes from Stephen Wright during the film with Tarantino’s commentary in the background. There’s also a Reservoir Dogs Style Guide, which is a 30 second bit showcasing the suit and tie look of the criminals.

Class of ‘92 is a feature focusing on the explosion of independent cinema that started in 1992 with the Sundance Film Festival. Considered the start of the current era in which independent films could be made and distributed without the studio system, Amy Taubin from the New York Times and Peter Travers from Rolling Stone join some of the directors including Tarantino give some retrospective on the proceedings. Featuring an animated Tarantino talking about his shutout of awards, it’s amusing to hear his perspective on why his film didn’t win an award if only because his career didn’t need the help that the other films needed. It’s also a retrospective from various filmmakers of that festival discussing their films in retrospect to various degrees of interest. There’s also some Tributes and Dedications from Tarantino as well as a sneak peek at the video game inspired by the film as well as the original theatrical trailer. Finally, Securing the Script is a feature that focuses on how they found the proper locations to shoot various scenes.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for Reservoir Dogs: 15th Anniversary Edition
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIE

10.0
THE VIDEO

9.0
THE AUDIO

9.0
THE EXTRAS

7.5
REPLAY VALUE

9.0
OVERALL
9.0
(NOT AN AVERAGE)