Orange (Tim Roth), Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) and the others on his theory of why not to tip a waitress, the movie takes place in the panic that sets in after the heist goes belly up. Pink (Steve Buscemi) expounds for the benefit of Mr. With the exception of a masterfully rambling opening gabfest, in which Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), who's fresh out of the slammer, starts blasting away - any one of them could have turned Judas. That way, when the job goes sour - as it does when the cops, as if on schedule, show up and Mr.
Nobody knows anybody, so nobody trusts anybody. His plan is supposed to encourage trust, but in fact it has the opposite effect. This way, Joe figures, nobody can rat out nobody else.
#Lawrence tierney reservoir dogs code
One job, and they scatter to the winds, knowing each other only by their gang code names. Joe (Lawrence Tierney), the sting's boss, has made a special point to hire each member of this urban wild bunch for a one-shot deal. The temporary nature of the team is important.
It's brutal, it's funny and you won't forget it. The movie, which zeros in on the anatomy of a diamond heist, and, beyond that, the flimsy notion of honor among a temporarily assembled gang of Los Angeles thieves, is as caustic as battery acid. Seemingly relishing in the opportunity to pull out all the stops, the actors could all be singled out for their outstanding work, but the same adjectives could be used to describe this terrific ensemble as they yell, confront, joke and strut powerfully and explosively.If Quentin Tarantino's gritty, bone-chilling, powerfully violent new film, "Reservoir Dogs," doesn't pin your ears back, nothing ever will. Tarantino’s complex plot construction works very well, relieving the warehouse setting’s claustrophobia and providing lively background on robbery planning, the undercover cop’s successful preparations and the gang’s crude male bonding.ĭripping with the lowest sexist and racist colloquialisms, dialogue is snappy, imaginative and loaded with threats, and the director, presumably with the help of Keitel, has assembled a perfect cast. This launches the bloodbath for real, and when Tierney and Penn finally show up to identify the fink, Tarantino stages a rather amazing shoot-out that hilariously sends up the climaxes of Sergio Leone’s “For a Few Dollars More” and especially “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.’ The worst is left off-camera, but it’s still a needlessly sadistic sequence that crosses the line of what audiences want to experience. The young officer is brutally tortured in a scene that drove numerous fest viewers from the unspooling here, and may make even the brave look away. Hotheaded Harvey Keitel takes his injured cohort, Tim Roth, to a hideout where they are soon joined by Steve Buscemi, who is obsessed with remaining “professional.” As they ponder who the rat may have been, in comes psychotic Michael Madsen with a hostage cop. Two of the robbers and a couple of cops are killed, and the gang splits up. The diamond heist at an LA jewelry store goes awry, however, when it becomes apparent the cops have been tipped off. To put it chronologically, crime kingpin Lawrence Tierney and son Chris Penn recruit six pros to whom they assign false, color-themed names, so that no one will know anything about the others.