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March 28, 2024, 10:34:03 AM

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Reservoir Dogs

Started by madhair60, September 09, 2019, 10:45:15 AM

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madhair60

Watched Reservoir Dogs and all. Expect more Tarantino threads yeah. Never seen this, thought it was good. Some scenes betrayed the low budget but I was enormously impressed by others such as the early sequence of Buscemi legging it from the pigs. Very well acted throughout.

up_the_hampipe

Keitel is at his most Keitel in this one. "You're gonna be OKAaaAAyyYY!"

Al Tha Funkee Homosapien

Classic 90s T-shirt as well.

Dex Sawash


Didn't like this film but don't remember it well enough to say why.

madhair60

Waited the whole movie for the reservoir, no dice. No dogs neither.

BeardFaceMan

Of course it was Tim Roth, he was the only English one.

Operty1

I put this on the other day as i hadn't seen it in years, and found the whole opening scene so excruciating that i switched it off.

I know people praise Tarantino's dialogue, but none of that opening scene rings true in any way, especially where it sits in the context of the film (just before the 'caper').

perhaps i've just heard it too many times over the years, but cut the coffee shop scene off and it's much better.

Puce Moment

I really do love this film. It is one of my favourites and for me easily (by some way) his best film. It's just so taut and tense, and the fractured timeline is perfect. It has very few overt references, and even those are managable. It is less silly than Pulp Fiction.

The scene of Buscemi escaping (as noted above) is fantastic - extremely well-shot. I remember being surprised by the sight of a character tagging pigs like that with very little reflection. Also, the music is fantastic.

The only weak point I have ever been able to make about it is the casting of Roth, who I think is a very mannered and not very good actor. There are so many actors that could have played that part better, but it's a minor issue.

Johnny Textface

Quote from: madhair60 on September 09, 2019, 10:45:15 AM
Very well acted throughout.

Apart from Roth who I think is the weakest but probably given too much to do.
Michael Madsen is an absolute menacing joy in this.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on September 09, 2019, 12:11:19 PM
Of course it was Tim Roth, he was the only English one.

I got the comedy reference here, I trust all you other CABbers got it, too.

Shit Good Nose

Hate it, always have done.

As Bob Mills once said - if you want to watch Reservoir Dogs, watch Kansas City Confidential and City On Fire instead.

madhair60

Why would you watch two different things if you wanted to watch Reservoir Dogs? That's just stupid.

Puce Moment

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 09, 2019, 03:17:27 PM
Hate it, always have done.

As Bob Mills once said - if you want to watch Reservoir Dogs, watch Kansas City Confidential and City On Fire instead.

I feel completely validated.

bgmnts

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 09, 2019, 03:17:27 PM
Hate it, always have done.

As Bob Mills once said - if you want to watch Reservoir Dogs, watch Kansas City Confidential and City On Fire instead.

Or you could just watch Reservoir Dogs.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 09, 2019, 03:17:27 PM
As Bob Mills once said - if you want to watch Reservoir Dogs, watch Kansas City Confidential and City On Fire instead.
Does watching Reservoir Dogs mean I've seen the other two films automatically? Which other films does this work with? I could save so much time.

BeardFaceMan

There are lots of little moments that Tarantino straight up stole, sorry, paid homage to, from Hong Kong films in Reservoir Dogs, he certainly hit the ground running with his thievery from, um, nods to, other films.

rasta-spouse

Is there a good resource that documents Tarantino's plagiarism?

I find RD quite hard to watch these days. Not sure why, perhaps because it was so hugely influential that now it seems maybe even more dated than if it had been an underseen gem (if that makes sense). It's a well directed film though, lots of cool flourishes. So when Tarantino says he's a much better director these days I am confused (one of the things he says is that he's much better at handling extras, again I hadn't noticed).

He's definitely a much worse screenwriter now. And I do get the feeling it was Roger Avary who was responsible for the badass plotting of Pulp Fiction.   

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on September 09, 2019, 04:30:04 PM
Which other films does this work with?

QT's entire cv.


Quote from: rasta-spouse on September 09, 2019, 04:57:58 PM
Is there a good resource that documents Tarantino's plagiarism?

I'm sure someone, somewhere, has put together a complete dossier with side-by-side scene and sequence comparisons, but off the top of my head (and these are things that could objectively be labelled as plagiarism/rip-off as opposed to stylistic influence [e.g. Kubrick's The Killing is a stylistic influence on RD, but there aren't any heavy lifts from it]):

Reservoir Dogs - "borrows" most heavily from Kansas City Confidential and City On Fire (from which it lifts entire sections of dialogue to boot).  QT has also freely admitted that he stole the naming conventions from The Taking of Pelham 123;
Pulp Fiction - the only QT film which I think is genuinely brilliant (so far - still haven't seen Hateful Eight or Once Upon A Time...), ironically the one that has been most heavily criticised for its heavy borrowing from French new wave, particularly Melville's collaborations with Alain Delon;
Jackie Brown - probably QT's least plagiaristic, perhaps better seen as a spiritual sequel to Foxy Brown and Coffy and a more general homage of blaxploitation but without any direct scene lifts (that I can remember, anyway);
Kill Bill - borrows VERY heavily from the 36th Chamber of Shaolin films (Kiddo's training sequence is lifted almost shot-for-shot from the first one, and even features Gordon Liu), the Lady Snowblood films, the Sister Street Fighter films, along with other Sonny Chiba films;
Inglorious Basterds - not a remake/rip-off of Enzo G Castellari's film of the same name (which is a low-low-budget rip-off of The Dirty Dozen), but it takes a lot of stuff from other "macaroni" war films of the 60s and 70s (such as Five For Hell), as well as (and perhaps most notably) Truffaut's The Last Metro;
Django Unchained - aside from the title and theme song (a particular banging-head-against-wall moment for me when it came out and everyone was saying how amazing the theme song for it was...), Unchained actually draws more heavily from Corbucci's other films - particularly Companeros and The Mercenary - as well as the political westerns of Sergio Sollima


You'll notice I've not mentioned Death Proof there.  I omitted it on purpose because I've only seen it once (absolutely hated it, aside from the amazing looking bowl of nachos Kurt's tucking into to - I think QT should quit directing and become a food photographer) and don't remember enough about it to be overtly critical.

Also, as I said, I've not yet seen The Hateful Eight or Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.  From clips and what I've read about Eight, though, it does seem like he's taken from Cut-Throats Nine and The Great Silence, but I can't really back those up with any concrete opinion.  It's in our Netflix list to watch, but I keep putting it off.


I'll also shoehorn in here my other QT gripe about his script doctoring of the otherwise excellent Crimson Tide, where his "contributions" are woefully out of place and stick out like a cartoon throbbing thumb.  Abysmal work.

Fishfinger

Quote from: Puce Moment on September 09, 2019, 12:47:21 PM
The only weak point I have ever been able to make about it is the casting of Roth, who I think is a very mannered and not very good actor. There are so many actors that could have played that part better, but it's a minor issue.

IIRC Tarantino wanted James Woods for the role, but his agent never even mentioned it to him. Woods only found out about it much later from QT himself. I think he'd have been really good (he is of course a massive dickhead) and the dynamic with Harvey Keitel would have been interesting.

Mr Banlon

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on September 09, 2019, 02:34:28 PM
I got the comedy reference here, I trust all you other CABbers got it, too.
Absolutely (sort of)

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Fishfinger on September 09, 2019, 08:32:35 PM
IIRC Tarantino wanted James Woods for the role, but his agent never even mentioned it to him. Woods only found out about it much later from QT himself. I think he'd have been really good (he is of course a massive dickhead) and the dynamic with Harvey Keitel would have been interesting.

He famously fired his agent when he found out about it something like two or three years after the event. 

Roth was in the same open casting sessions as Buscemi and Madsen.  I'm pretty sure Tarantino said he thought Roth was an American amateur and didn't realise he was a seasoned and well established British actor.

bgmnts

I like Tim Roth and think he's actually a rather decent actor.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 09, 2019, 07:20:34 PM
I'll also shoehorn in here my other QT gripe about his script doctoring of the otherwise excellent Crimson Tide, where his "contributions" are woefully out of place and stick out like a cartoon throbbing thumb.  Abysmal work.
For once, I am in complete agreement with you.

marquis_de_sad

The problem with saying Reservoir Dogs is just a rip off of City on Fire and Kansas City Confidential is that Reservoir Dogs doesn't feel anything like those films. Note the clear influence, yes, but it's about how you handle the material, not whether it's original or not.

BeardFaceMan

But there's a bit of a difference between being influenced by a film, and stealing scenes and dialogue from a film. What Tarantino does goes a bit beyond being influenced by a film, he just likes to take cool moments from what he thinks are obscure films that no one has seen and put them in his films.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on September 09, 2019, 11:52:36 PM
The problem with saying Reservoir Dogs is just a rip off of City on Fire and Kansas City Confidential is that Reservoir Dogs doesn't feel anything like those films. Note the clear influence, yes, but it's about how you handle the material, not whether it's original or not.

It feels like those films when he lifts plot, verbatim dialogue and does scenes shot-for-shot and beat-for-beat.  That's not influence, that's blatant ripping off.


Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Mr Banlon on September 09, 2019, 08:40:16 PM
Absolutely (sort of)

Yer Man Shit Good Nose should definitely have gotten it, given his avatar.

easytarget


Old Nehamkin

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 10, 2019, 12:45:39 AM
It feels like those films when he lifts plot, verbatim dialogue and does scenes shot-for-shot and beat-for-beat. That's not influence, that's blatant ripping off.

Which scenes in Reservoir Dogs does this apply to?