Reservoir Dogs
Double Sided UK Quad, Rolled, 30 x 40 inches
I still vividly remember the first time I saw Reservoir Dogs…it was at home after school one day after I had borrowed a friend’s pirate VHS tape and I remember watching it on our small 14” TV and craning in to hear some of the dialogue. My mother was in the room next door, so I kept the volume relatively low as to not alert her that I was watching the film that had already garnered a reputation for being ultra violent in the tabloid press. Of course, it’s rather a myth that the film is excessively violent; much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it has moments of short, sharp brutality, but is cunning in making the viewer’s mind conjure images that are worse than those shown on screen, particularly the much maligned cop torture scene. The crudeness of the language was something new to me, apart from Platoon, I’d never seen a film where the language was so salty (films such as Beverley Hills Cop were heavily censored when shown on TV in the UK). I enjoyed the illicit feel of watching it the first time, but it wasn’t until I saw it a couple of years later (after seeing Pulp Fiction) that I really digested it properly. Although the plot is heavily influenced (stolen) from Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, the writing was something very new and Tarantino’s pop culture references, humour and matter of fact dialogue about the mundane (tipping, Madonna songs, the colour aliases the gang use) has influenced many writers since. The ending is good fun – a classic Mexican Stand-off that ends with a quandary about “Who Shot Nice Guy Eddie?”, a question/campaign that contributed to the word of mouth and helped raise the film from cult into the cusp of the mainstream. I think it’s still a powerful piece of cinema; strong actors, a good script and tight, economical directing all contribute to what is still a visceral film that feels very fresh today. The UK Quad is a lovely piece of poster art, I particularly like the cast in the iconic suits and sunglasses combo with the colour coded character names, the splashes of blood and the unusual placing of the credits. |