Fears that Reservoir Dogs – the first film by Quentin Tarantino – might have become dated or in danger of showing its age a troubling thirty years since it (and Tarantino) exploded onto the cinema scene are thankfully utterly unfounded thanks to this glorious new 4K transfer And its accompanying Blu-ray disc loaded with new special features. In fact, the film not only retains its power but seems even more important now in an era where films like this just don’t get made anymore or if they do they dwell in the murkier corners of the indie sector and rarely get the opportunity to break through to a larger and potentially more appreciative audience. Reservoir Dogs is and always will be a game changer.
The film demonstrates all those qualities that will forever be associated with Tarantino and that in many ways have become his trademarks; the pop culture savvy, whipcrack-smart dialogue, the non-linear story structure, eye-watering violence and a peculiar form of internal justice that applies to his stories and his characters alone. We won’t insult you by reminding you of the story beyond the fact that it chronicles the aftermath of a meticulously-planned heist by a gang of colour-coded street gangsters that goes catastrophically wrong when it becomes apparent that one of their number is an undercover Police officer. Running to just 100 minutes it’s easily Tarantino’s tightest, punchiest movie – he’s undeniably become a little more self-indulgent as his career’s progressed but as his films remain absorbing and engrossing because nobody else makes films like him we tend not to mind too much – and it’s all the better for its brevity. The film possesses a stomach-churning urgency following a deceptively languid opening where Tarantino’s camera prowls around the table of the diner where the gang are spit-balling as the final plans are laid before events spiral out of control and our ice-cool protagonists take refuge in an old warehouse to ponder their next move as one of their number bleeds out from a stray gunshot wound. The performances are stunning, of course, from Harvey Keitel’s tough nut Mr White, the only one of the group displaying a hint of humanity, Steve Buscemi’s weaselly Mr Pink, Tim Roth as the fresh-faced Mr Orange, Chris Penn as the surly, swaggering Nice Guy Eddie and, of course, Michael Madsen’s terrifyingly psychopathic Mr Blonde. It’s Madsen, of course, who delivers the film’s signature sequence, the scene that sealed Tarantino’s reputation as, left alone in the warehouse with an injured Police prisoner, Mr Blonde proceeds to torture and mutilate him before threatening to set him on fire. It’s a scene that still shocks and repulses in equal measure and it’s a stone-cold cinema classic moment.
Reservoir Dogs itself, of course, is also a cinema classic. Looking startlingly sharp, vivid, and grain-free on this new 4K transfer (presented in a special SteelBook edition for those who collect such things) it’s supported by a Blu-ray (unavailable for viewing for this review) that includes deleted scenes and two new featurettes Playing It Fast and Loose and Profiling the Reservoir Dogs. But the film’s the thing and never more than here, finally given the quality home entertainment it deserves (although Tarantino would surely be happier with a VHS release) as one of the greatest films of the late 20th century, the film that launched the career of one of cinema’s most uniquely maverick and iconoclastic directors.
Reservoir Dogs is available now as a limited edition 4K SteelBook
