According to Quentin Tarantino, the last director one would expect walked out of a screening of his cult-classic movie Reservoir Dogs: Wes Craven.
Talking to EW at the Tribeca Film Festival, the director goes into more detail about what happened during the movies 1992 premiere at Sitges International Film Festival:
“There was all this talk about the torture scene. Steve Buscemi, he comes to me and he goes, ‘Quentin, did you hear what everyone is saying? They’re saying the torture scene ruins the movie!’ And I go, ‘What are they talking about? It’s the best thing in the fucking movie! Did you see how many people walked out? That’s the shit!’… They showed Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive, which was just drowned in zombie guts and brains. Finally I’ve got an audience that won’t walk out. I even joked about that in the opening introduction for the movie. Five people walked out of that audience, including Wes Craven. The fucking guy who did Last House on the Left walked out? The guy who did Last House on the Left, my movie’s too tough for him.”
It really is hard to imagine Wes Craven having a problem with the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs. Then again, the director had a lot of hidden symbolism, and deeper meanings for the violence that he portrayed on screen (check out the documentary Never Sleep Again for more insight into Craven’s thought process). Perhaps he thought Reservoir Dogs’ torture scene was all style, and no substance? Who knows. One thing is clear: it doesn’t sound like Quentin Tarantino minded one bit.
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Originally published May 3, 2017. Updated November 23, 2019.
