Reservoir Dogs begins in the coffee shop with the gang talking about Madonna and her big dick. Or to be more specific, Reservoir Dogs begins in the coffee shop with Tarantino talking about Madonna and her big dick. To me, this just doesn't make any sense. Tarantino is not an actor and if he thinks he is, then he's certainly not a good one. So why in God's name would he make the decision to be the most vocal actor in the very first scene of his very first film? Especially when he has surrounded himself with such an amazing cast including Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Chris Penn and Michael Madsen.
In Death Proof, there was a similar scene to this in which all the girls sat around the table and talked in a similar way. However every single one of them spoke in the exact same way as each other and Tarantino. They used his same speech pattern and phrases; when they spoke, I couldn't hear their voice... all I could hear was his. Since then, this has been something that has annoyed me about his films, so to start Reservoir Dogs off with him chatting in exactly the same way to how he does in real life put me in an instantly cynical mood.
After this, we are thrown into a fairly bloody car in which Mr. Orange lies on the backseat dying as Mr. White drives him to their warehouse. Before I go on, I should point out that I love Tim Roth; I love him in Made In Britain and I even love him in The Incredible Hulk. However, what the Hell is that weird voice he's doing whilst he bleeds to death? It was a bit like a prepubescent impression of Christian Bale's Batman voice. Kind of like what it might sound like if the Dark Knight was kicked in the bollocks. This didn't ruin the film for me or even annoy me, it just kept taking me out of the moment and left me simply pondering its oddness. Imagine if you looked out of your bedroom window at night and saw your neighbours playing in a paddling pool... it wouldn't annoy you, but you wouldn't be able to enjoy the view of their otherwise lovely garden without being distracted by their strange and abnormal antics. Basically, that's how Tim Roth makes me feel when he's dying.
Once at the warehouse, they are just about to make themselves comfortable when Mr. Pink walks in and ruins the otherwise peaceful vibe with his machine-gun speed whining. In my memory of this film, it's Mr. Blonde who steals the show however having watched it again I think I'm going to change my mind. In my opinion, Steve Buscemi is by far the greatest thing about Reservoir Dogs being both funny, believable, to some degree relatable and just plain brilliant. As far as I'm concerned, he was the most watchable thing within its hour and a half running time.
By this point, things are obviously racing towards the infamous torture scene which, despite its notoriety, is actually relatively tame. What is interesting about it however, is the amount of fun the violence-desensitised viewer will have watching it. Assuming you don't mind seeing a bit of blood in your films, this scene is great fun with Mr. Blonde having the time of his life dancing away to 'Stealers Wheels' and making jokes as he prepares to hack away the ear of an unfortunate police man that he kept in his car boot.
I can't emphasise how much I enjoy this scene. The sense of fun that old Blonde is having is masterfully portrayed by Tarantino and infectiously played by Madsen. It also makes me laugh at how controversial it supposedly was when the violence takes place off screen. Compare that to the gratuitous torture in franchises like Saw and Hostel and I'm sure todays youth will wonder what the hell all the fuss was about.
Unfortunately, the end of this scene also, for me, marked the end of my enjoyment of Reservoir Dogs. From this point until the end everything, personally just comes across as slow and boring. I've never really warmed to Mr. White and so I don't care to spend time finding out more about who he is. Nothing against Harvey Keitel, I just don't like the character which isn't a problem, except that I think that you are meant to. Which leads me to my other new problem with the film.
Every single last character here with the exception of Marvin the Policeman and Mr. Orange are scumbags. With films like Goodfellas and The Godfather, I feel that as likeable as the characters may be, we are always aware that they are ultimately bastards, and in most cases 'evil'. When Scorsese's rent-a-nutter Joe Pesci flips out, we are disgusted by his actions. As much as Scorsese might glamorise his mafia, he always shows the underbelly of detest, hatred and dishonesty that makes the mob what it is.
Tarantino on the other hand, seems to simply be happy to show his murdering fuckheads as nothing but honourable and cool. When his psycho gets a bit knifey, we as the audience are enjoying what we see. The music is cool, Madsen is cool, and who doesn't feel a sense of disappointment when he's offed by Mr. Orange who, in the nick of time, empties a gun into Blonde's chest? Although Roth is ultimately as cool as the others and is himself a good guy, there really isn't any sense of judgement regarding the gang's decision to kill the ensuing police who, lets face it, are just normal guys doing their job.
After we've discovered Orange's true motivations regarding the heist, we're treated to his backstory as an undercover police guy. I like this section, I guess, but only because Tim Roth is a watchable and likeable actor. Roth aside however, I just think that this bit drags on and goes nowhere. We listen to him learning an anecdote for like ten minutes or so only for it to end having gone absolutely nowhere. Personally, if I was Lawrence Harvey, I'd kick him out of my gang for just telling such a shit story.
I have a theory about this film, and that is that it's great as long as you're only watching for the first, or maybe second time. I can't deny that I've seen it loads of times before and thought I liked it, however as the film went on, I started to get bored, and I started to remember that this wasn't the first time I'd got bored watching it. I always remember it fondly and I can only suppose that this is because I'm remembering the first few and most impactful experiences of having seen it. I know I'll watch it again, and I know that when I put it on it will be with excitement and optimism but for now, at least, perhaps for me, Reservoir Dogs just doesn't stand up to repeat viewings. I'd like this not to be the case and I'd like to be wrong but when it gets to the scene in which they talk about Pam Grier, all I can think about is how much better Jackie Brown is and how I'd much rather be watching that than this...
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