Ragtag group of gangsters aren’t sure who to trust in Quentin Tarantino’s violent debut, RESERVOIR DOGS
RESERVOIR DOGS (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Friday, March 14, and Saturday, March 15, 12 midnight
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
Why does Steve Buscemi have to be Mr. Pink? Because Quentin Tarantino said so. Former video-store clerk Tarantino burst onto the indie film scene with the ultraviolent genre picture Reservoir Dogs, about a diamond heist gone horribly wrong, with big nods to Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, Joseph Sargent’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and other American noirs. You know there’s a problem if Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) has to be called in to clean up the mess made by Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), Mr. Brown (Tarantino), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), and, of course, Mr. Pink, all of whom are dressed in ultra-cool black-and-white suits, which makes all the red look that much richer. The robbery was organized by Joe (Lawrence Tierney) and his son, Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn), who has some pretty serious issues of his own. Double crosses, Madonna discussions, and a torture scene set to the Stealers Wheel song “Stuck in the Middle with You” make things go from funny to frightening in hysterical blasts of bloody irony as tensions mount and the criminals debate whether they were set up. Reservoir Dogs served as quite a debut for writer-director Tarantino, instantly making him an indie-film hero and sending him on his way, to be followed by his great script for True Romance and his Palme d’Or winner, Pulp Fiction, pulling off quite a triple play in three awesome years to start a career. Reservoir Dogs is screening at midnight on March 14 & 15 as part of the IFC Center’s “Late-Night Favorites” series, which continues with David Lynch’s Eraserhead March 21-22 and Kubrick’s The Shining March 28-29.