Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Chris Penn
Year: 1992
Duration: 99 mins
BBFC Certification: 18
By this stage, Reservoir Dogs surely needs little introduction. The debut film from Quentin Tarantino already felt like an established classic when it was first released in 1992; as the decades have rolled on, not only has film itself remained a consistent high point of Tarantino’s career, but the cinematic language, style and tone that it introduced have seemingly never left us. For 90s cinema especially, and perhaps even for cinema in general, Reservoir Dogs stands as a Rubicon moment, a definitive before and after that helped herald in a stylistic shift that shunted film towards its modern era.
High time then to do something special for the film’s 30th anniversary. Reservoir Dogs has had a curious history on home video. While, certainly for UK releases, the film has been gifted with a bountiful amount of extras across numerous DVD and Blu Ray special editions, the actual film transfers used for numerous past releases have certainly been somewhat lacking in terms of clarity and punch. Lionsgate are seeking to rectify this with a brand spanking new 4K transfer for their new 30th anniversary edition – yet will it be able to rectify past wrongs and give Reservoir Dogs a new lease of life?
Watching the film again, it is curious to note just how intimate Reservoir Dogs feels. For a film so synonymous with shaking up the cinematic landscape, it is ironic that so much of it, both in its set up and execution, often feels more appropriate to a theatre production than the big screen. With a simple story necessitated by a debut filmmaker’s budget, the set up is deceptively straightforward – a group of crooks meet up in an empty LA warehouse after a botched robbery attempt. Through a series of confrontations and flashbacks, we eventually find out which one of the crew is a rat and has betrayed the others.
From this simple premise, however, Tarantino works wonders, elevating what could have been a conventional criminal tale into one with so much idiosyncratic style and originality that it couldn’t help but inspire and influence a whole generation of filmmakers who arrived in its wake. For a film debut, Reservoir Dogs is remarkable. Supremely confidant and self assured in its mould breaking risks, it often feels like the work of a veteran filmmaker as opposed to a kid from LA who hadn’t even hit his thirties. Rarely has there been such a self assured cinematic debut, where confidence can be found not just in the story being told, but far more importantly, in how that story is told.
Many artists, whether they be writers, painters, musicians or directors, often take a while to get up to speed and produce work that feels uniquely their own. What is astounding about Reservoir Dogs is that ‘Tarantino’, the cinematic brand, arrives fully formed. From the long, ambling conversations filled with pop culture references, to the experimental, time jumping structure and moments scored with esoteric pop/rock cuts, Reservoir Dogs doesn’t see a director slowly taking off from the starting grid, it sees them already running at full speed and firing on all cylinders, breaking old cinematic conventions as quickly as they establish new ones all of their own.
For all its zeitgeist quaking influence, however, how does Reservoir Dogs fare thirty years later, viewed at a time when its innovation and daring will no doubt feel more conventional? Thankfully, Reservoir Dogs has never been a film solely defined by its originality. Underneath all the hallmarks that would go on to define Tarantino and his career, it is a gripping story filled with, ugly, tragic, humorous and flawed characters.
With its brief running time and razor sharp, economical storytelling, Reservoir Dogs continually packs a punch as it flits between its main warehouse setting and character expanding flashbacks, with Tarantino never loosening his grip on the audience even as he sits back occasionally and lets the dialogue flow. He is helped by a sterling cast of actors delivering brilliant performances, from Steve Buscemi’s abrasive Mr. Pink to Harvey Keitel’s quietly tragic Mr. White and Chris Penn’s hilariously charismatic turn as Nice Guy Eddie. Towering over them all, perhaps, is Micheal Madsen’s Mr. Blonde, whose turn as one of cinema’s most underrated screen psychopaths helped to cement one of the 90s most iconic cinematic moments, dancing to Steelers Wheel, razor blade in hand.
Tarantino would go onto make better films. Pulp Fiction, more ambitious, more shocking and more humorous, is generally seen as the definitive ‘Tarantino’ movie, while Jackie Brown (despite what Aldo Raine may say in Inglourious Basterds) very well may be his masterpiece. Yet despite their abundant qualities, none of them ever had quite the impact of Reservoir Dogs. A defining piece of 90s cinema and one of the great film debuts of all time, it was a little doggie that would go on to have one hell of a bite.
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Lionsgate are releasing Reservoir Dogs in a limited edition 4K steelbook on the 21st November. Any 4K release of a Tarantino film is an interesting proposition, as the director himself has professed a preference for watching films on VHS. In a recent Sight and Sound article, he stated that a higher resolution isn’t always desirable, criticising the ‘clean’ digital look of modern restorations compared to the more dirty, yet organic feel of the film prints used on many VHS masters.
It is unclear what, if any, involvement Tarantino has had with this new release of Reservoir Dogs. Judging by his above comments, it is hard to say if he would fully approve of it…because, compared to older DVD and Blu Ray releases, this new version of Reservoir Dogs is a revelation. Clean, yes, but still looking incredibly filmic, everything has been improved across the board with this new 4K master. Resolution and detail see a significant upgrade, bringing the film to beautifully sharp life. The Dolby Vision grade pushes the film in a slightly darker direction than previous releases, but you feel that this was always how the film was meant to look. Reservoir Dogs certainly isn’t a visual feast, with the majority of the film taking place in a dark warehouse. Yet when colours do occur, the Dolby Vision grading makes them pop, such as in the yellow street markings seen when Nice Guy Eddie is driving around town or in the striking wall of graffiti seen behind Mr. Orange when he is rehearsing his anecdote.
There is very little film grain throughout, but don’t worry, the transfer hasn’t been DNR’d to death. It looks wonderfully rich, filmic and organic, with a very good encode to boot. Overall, the 4K presentation of the film is absolutely beautiful.
Sound wise, the new release only comes with a DTS 5.1 track. Being such a dialogue heavy film, it doesn’t have its work cut out, but there is good use of the rear channels during the musical moments. An original stereo track from the film has sadly not been included.
Extras wise, this release certainly comes up light. I only received the 4K disc for this review, which contains no extras at all (not even a commentary). An accompanying Blu Ray will contain some deleted scenes and two featurettes, Playing it Fast and Loose and Profiling The Reservoir Dogs. It is a great shame that the wealth of extra features from previous special editions has not been included. I also cannot confirm if the new 4K transfer appears on the Blu Ray (although one thinks that it would).
So while there are a few disappointments here, they pale in comparison to what this new release does right. Reservoir Dogs has never looked great on home video – until now. It is not often that a new transfer makes you feel as if you are watching a familiar film for the first time, but this is one of those rare occasions. For fans of the film, don’t hesitate to pick this one up. It is, quite simply, stunning.
Reservoir Dogs is on 4K UHD + Blu-ray SteelBook 21 November from Lionsgate UK
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