Reservoir Dogs, 1992.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Quentin Tarantino, Chris Penn, Eddie Bunker, Lawrence Tierney, and Kirk Baltz.
SYNOPSIS:
Quentin Tarantino’s sensational debut feature gets a 4K UHD makeover for its 30th anniversary.
As the years tick by, the tedious inevitability of time dictates that the things we hold dear from days gone by start to get old and irrelevant which, in the world of the film fan, means we start to see the release of anniversary editions of movies we still think of as new(ish) or contemporary. 2022 will bring about a few notable anniversaries but probably none so poignant as the 30th anniversary of Quentin Tarantino’s groundbreaking debut feature Reservoir Dogs, which is being re-release as a 4K UHD in a rather fetching Steelbook.
Love him or loathe him, you cannot deny that the release of a new Quentin Tarantino movie is still an event, and when you are thirty years into a filmmaking career that is an impressive place to be, especially with the ever-changing trends that come and go in the entertainment world. However, with these anniversary reissues comes the opportunity to go back, reassess and see where all of those trademarks and, sometimes divisive, stylistic traits come from, and, rather pleasingly, Reservoir Dogs is still a monumental tour-de-force of style and substance.
If you have never seen it, the plot is basically a snapshot into what happens after a robbery, only this bank robbery is a botched one, where the gang didn’t all get away clean. Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) is the mastermind who has put together a group of criminals to commit a jewellery heist, and each criminal is given his own identity in order to remain anonymous. There’s Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker) and Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino), as well as Joe’s son ‘Nice Guy’ Eddie (Chris Penn) to oversee things, but Mr. Blonde is a little unhinged and starts shooting, causing the police to arrive and bedlam to ensue, splitting up the group as they try to escape.
This being Tarantino, you don’t see the heist and you don’t see Mr. Blonde apparently losing it. Instead, you get snippets of the various character’s escapes in flashback as Mr. White and Mr. Orange arrive at the meeting point, with Mr. Orange bleeding out from a bullet to the stomach. Once the other characters start to arrive and piece together what happened they realise that one of the group is a rat, and this is when the paranoia sets in.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and watching Reservoir Dogs now, when the opening credits start to the dulcet tones of Steven Wright’s ‘K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the Seventies’ radio show, you know you are in for a treat. Even more so when we are presented with the opening scene of the main characters sitting around a table discussing Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ in what still ranks as one of Tarantino’s finest moments, the dialogue sharp, witty and, above all, real, especially when Mr. Pink waxes lyrical about tipping and why he doesn’t believe in it.
Tarantino gets a lot of flak these days for being self-indulgent with his dialogue – in some cases, deservedly so – and you could accuse him of spending his entire career trying to recreate character’s speeches with the same vitality and ending up copying himself – again, also a valid point – but thirty years on this scene still feels as fresh and contemporary as the day audiences first saw it, and that really sums up how Reservoir Dogs is as a whole.
We could spend all day picking scenes and breaking them down, but chances are if you are going to purchase this disc then you are already familiar with the movie, and so what you really want to know is does the film look any better in 4K UHD and is it worth the upgrade if you already own it on Blu-ray? Well, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’ as Reservoir Dogs has never looked so fantastic.
Obviously, the reds of the copious amounts of blood flung about pops out of the screen, almost covering it from the inside of your TV, and the blacks and whites of the character’s suits all look suitably sharp, but what stands out the most is the natural skin tones and sheen of polish that gives the movie the feel of a classic; the warm tone that a lot of older movies shot on film have, that given the proper restoration treatment brings out a lot of details that you may not have noticed before, transcending the movie from its independent film roots and adding a bit of, for want of a better word, class.
Coming housed in a gleefully gruesome Steelbook, the extras (on the Blu-ray disc only) include deleted scenes and a couple of archive featurettes covering the movie and the characters, but you aren’t getting this for the extras – you’re getting it because it is the perfect upgrade of a classic movie that still feels like it was only released last week.
Quentin Tarantino may have made bigger movies and he may have made (technically) better movies, but will we be celebrating the 30th anniversaries of The Hateful Eight or Django Unchained with quite the same reverence or affection? Unlikely, but until we find that out this excellent edition serves to remind us how vital Reservoir Dogs and Quentin Tarantino were/are to the movie industry and, more importantly, that the 30th anniversary of Pulp Fiction is only two years away…
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
