Quentin Tarantino
Reservoir Dogs -1992
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Tarantino Facts
1963-present
2009 Inglourious Basterds Director /
Screenwriter
2007 Death Proof Director /
Cinematographer / Producer /
Screenwriter
2007 Grindhouse Director / Screenwriter
2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Grave
Danger Director / Screen Story
2005 Sin City Guest Director
2004 Kill Bill Vol. 2 Director / Screenwriter
2003 Kill Bill Vol. 1 Director / Producer /
Screenwriter
1997 Jackie Brown Director / Screenwriter
1995 ER: Motherhood Director
1995 Four Rooms Director / Executive
Producer / Screenwriter
1994 Pulp Fiction Director / Screen Story /
Screenwriter
1992 Reservoir Dogs Director /
Screenwriter
• Director/screenwriter/actor/prod
ucer Quentin Tarantino was
perhaps the most distinctive and
volatile talent to emerge in
American film in the early '90s.
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Tarantino learned his craft from
his days as a video clerk rather
than as a film-school student.
• He developed an audacious
fusion of pop culture and
independent arthouse cinema;
his films were thrillers that were
distinguished as much by their
clever, twisting dialogue as their
outbursts of extreme violence.
http://movies.amctv.com/person/113
658/Quentin-Tarantino/details
• Wrote the screenplays for
“True Romance” and
“Natural Born Killers”
• He didn’t have enough
money or financial backers
to make the movies – they
were sold to other
directors.
• Tarantino took the money
from “True Romance” and
started work on “Reservoir
Dogs” – a movie about a
failed heist.
Facts about
“Reservoir Dogs”
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Reservoir Dogs received financial backing
from LIVE Entertainment after Harvey
Keitel agreed to star in the movie.
Word-of-mouth on Reservoir Dogs began
to build at the 1992 Sundance Film
Festival, which led to scores of glowing
reviews, making the film a cult hit.
While many critics and fans were praising
Tarantino, he developed a sizable number
of detractors. Claiming he ripped off the
obscure Hong Kong thriller City on Fire,
the critics only added to the
director/writer's already considerable
buzz.
During 1993, Tarantino wrote and directed
his next feature, Pulp Fiction, which
featured three interweaving crime
storylines
Quick Summary
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Reservoir Dogs jumps back and forth
between pre- and post-robbery events,
occasionally putting the narrative on
pause to let the characters discuss such
topics as the relative importance of
tipping, who starred in Get Christie
Love!, and what to do when you enter a
men's room full of cops carrying a
briefcase full of marijuana.
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The story jumps back and forth to the
present fouled up heist, to what the
plans leading up to the heist. The
audience learns about the characters
through the flashbacks.
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Dramatic Irony – the audience learns
who the cop is before the characters.
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Each character has code name, for
example; Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, etc.
Trivia
www.imdb.com
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Tarantino wanted James Woods
(supposedly Mr. Orange) but his
agent didn’t tell him because the
money offered was way below what
he was normally hired for. When
Woods met Tarantino for the first
time and found out about it – he
fired his agent.
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The film contains 272 uses of the F
word.
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Aside from the opening credits, the
film never refers to any of the
characters as a "Reservoir Dog".
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During filming, a paramedic was kept
on the set to make sure that Mr.
Orange's (Tim Roth) amount of blood
loss was kept consistent and realistic
to that of a real gunshot victim.
Trivia Cont.
• The warehouse where the majority
of the movie takes place was once a
mortuary, and thus is full of coffins.
Mr. Blonde doesn't sit down on a
crate, it's actually an old hearse he
perches on.
• Directly prior to the scene showing
the colored bottles of soap, you see
two shirts hanging on the wall, and
a rag in the distance on the floor.
These are appropriately in sync with
the surnames of the characters in
their present states. Mr. White and
Mr. Pink are upright and close to
each other, corresponding to the
two shirt colors, while the orange
rag laying in the distance would be
the position of Mr. Orange in the
next room.
And yet some more Trivia for you
• Michael Madsen had difficulty filming the torture scenes. He was
particularly reluctant when he was required to hit actor Kirk Baltz.
When the cop, pleading for his life, says that he has a child at home
(a line not in the script, Madsen, himself a new father at the time,
was so disturbed by the idea of leaving a child fatherless that he
couldn't finish the scene.
• Mr. Orange's apartment was actually the upstairs to the warehouse
where most of the movie takes place. The filmmakers redecorated
it to look like an apartment in order to save money on finding a real
apartment.
• The theatrical release of the film contains no female speaking parts.
• All the actors who portrayed the criminals have spent time in jail.
Film “Development”
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Director Trademark: [Quentin Tarantino] [[long take]: While torturing the cop, we
follow Mr. Blonde continuously from the warehouse to his car outside, back into
the warehouse again.]
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This movie has no orchestral score. All the music you hear are prerecorded tracks.
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Armed with $30,000 and a 16mm camera, Quentin Tarantino was all set to make
the film with a bunch of friends, including his producing partner Lawrence Bender
who was going to play Nice Guy Eddie. It was then that Tarantino received an
answerphone message from Harvey Keitel, asking if he could not only be in the
film but help produce it. Keitel had gotten involved via the wife of Bender's acting
class teacher, who had managed to get a copy of the script to him. Keitel's
involvement helped raise the budget to $1.5 million.
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Quentin Tarantino wrote the first draft in three and a half weeks.
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Director Trademark: ['Quentin Tarantino' (q)] [trunk] Before the audience sees the
contents of Mr. Blonde's trunk, the camera looks up at Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, and
Mr. Pink from inside the trunk.
Costumes, we don’t need no stinkin’ costumes…
or cars
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The suit Harvey Keitel was his own. It
had been a specially made gift from
French designer Agnès B.
The film's budget was so low that
many of the actors simply used their
own clothing as wardrobe; most
notably Chris Penn's track jacket. The
signature black suits were provided
for free by the designer, based on her
love for the American crime film
genre. Steve Buscemi wore his own
black jeans instead of suit pants.
Mr. Blonde's Cadillac Coupe de Ville
actually belonged to Michael Madsen
because the budget wasn't big
enough to buy a car for the character.
What was that?
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Chris Penn's blood squibs accidentally went
off too early in the big stand-off scene,
forcing him to fall to the floor. There is not,
as is commonly believed, a mystery round
being fired off-screen.
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The title for the film came to Quentin
Tarantino via a patron at the now-famous
Video Archives. While working there,
Tarantino would often recommend littleknown titles to customers, and when he
suggested _Au revoir, les enfants (1987)_,
the patron mockingly replied, "I don't want
to see no reservoir dogs!
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According to various stories, pop singer
Alecia Moore took her stage name Pink after
Mr. Pink because she loves this movie. She
apparently wanted to be called "Mister Pink"
but her manager talked her out of it.
You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
• Robert Kurtzman did
the special make-up
effects for free, on the
condition that Quentin
Tarantino write a script
for From Dusk Till Dawn
(1996) based on a story
by Kurtzman.
Everyone makes Mistakes…
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Near the end, we
learn that the cops are waiting for Joe to arrive at
the warehouse before they make the bust. Why,
then, do the police (presumably a different team)
show themselves at the robbery? Because of the
gunplay involving civilians.
• There are many other goofs, continuity errors, or
revealing errors in the film – check out IMDB to
read more about them. Some are even in the
“Spoiler Alert” area – read them after we are
done the film…
The End