Hacker Cinema
Reservoir Dogs
1992 · Film · 99 min
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
A botched robbery indicates a police informant, and the pressure mounts in the aftermath at a warehouse. Crime begets violence as the survivors -- veteran Mr. White, newcomer Mr. Orange, psychopathic parolee Mr. Blonde, bickering weasel Mr. Pink and Nice Guy Eddie -- unravel.
10 positive29 neutralfrom 39 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
40 comments on Hacker News
It's quintessential-Tarantino, but I don't ever recommend it anymore (start with Django or Reservoir Dogs). Decades ago I shared this movie with college friends — mostly because we enjoyed decadence.
If you've not seen Pulp Fiction by 2026 [0], how can I safely recommend you submit yourself to hours of semi-disconnected robberies, rapes, and deceit? It's a great movie, EEAaO is just better storytelling.
[0] similarly, how does one recommend the acclaimed Deliverance without blushing?
One should note the officers in the missile silo at the opening of the film:
Michael Madsen of Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, and John Spencer of L.A. Law and of course, The West Wing.
FWIW, I've seen every one of Tarantino's films since "Reservoir Dogs".
I may give "The Road" a chance though.
Roger Ebert on Madsen’s breakout role in Reservoir Dogs:
> One of the discoveries in the movie is Madsen, who has done a lot of acting over the years (he had a good role in “The Natural“) but here emerges with the kind of really menacing screen presence only a few actors achieve; he can hold his own with the fearsome Tierney, and reminds me a little of a very mean Robert De Niro.
RIP MM
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/reservoir-dogs-1992
This are the seven smallest violins and they play a whole concert just for you
≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠ ≠
(Didn't know that phrase was first used in a episode of m.a.s.h. - always thought, it's originally was coined by Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino's "reservoir dogs" - and I always used it in the same context: at a restaurant, when a (small) tip isn't accepted as such or when a tip is not justifiable bc of the bad service ...)
Sure, but it was also very predictable. Even 20 years ago individual European states started wielding the censorship bludgeon to keep their societies from exploding.
Heck, has there ever been freedom of speech in Europe? Just consider the classic films France has censored (paths of glory, Battle for Algiers) over the last 70 years while allowing the most deprived smut unchallenged. The UK's censorship has a wiki entry (including reservoir dogs and Battleship Potemkin!!). And those are the most liberal speech countries in Europe.
Anyone with a few hundred dollars can buy mics, steady cams, action cams and more off of amazon that would give them quality above the black and white or 16mm film that some directors started out on.
Anyone could go and make their own clerks or reservoir dogs and some people are going out and trying. Where are all the incredible movies?
Even forgetting the tools where are all the incredible scripts since everyone has access to books on script writing and a computer?
For those who don't know, this is a quote from Tarantino's debut movie "Reservoir Dogs" (1992). The line is said by Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) in the first scene.
The parent was quoting from 'Reservoir Dogs', a Quentin Tarantino film from the early 1990s.
TV: I’m loving the series Reservation Dogs right now (not to be confused with Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs). It’s about some kids living on a Reservation in Oklahoma. It feels like a mix of the vibes of Freaks and Geeks and Northern Exposure, with lots of magical realism. Seems to be critically acclaimed but I don’t see a lot of buzz about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservoir_Dogs
Similarly, Atlanta was fantastic, challenging, and seemed to throw something completely different at you in every episode. I think Hiro Murai is going to be one of the great filmmakers of his generation.
I guess it’s a stretch to call it underrated because it was overwhelmingly critically acclaimed, but I feel it belongs to be talked about alongside the all-time greats when anecdotally I don’t hear much about it. For example, I’ve heard several casual references to Mad Men in the past few months, whereas I have never heard anyone mention Atlanta except when I have brought it up. Could just be my perception that’s off, though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_(TV_series)
> Now imagine either of those two writers gave you a list of rules to follow. You’d throw that piece of paper in the garbage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manual
This book has been the inspiration for/method for a lot of hit records.
I think you are underestimating how much method, methodology, effort and development goes into something like Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino may have apparently emerged fully-formed, but he had spent decades learning about cinema the hard way -- watching it, studying it, absorbing the logic/form of cinema. It is (and Pulp Fiction is) not a work of pure intuition; it's clearly a work of homage.
Its definitely going to lead to some pushback I think. People crave the bespoke and the niche. Films that bother shooting in 70mm see these showings booked up a month out because there's so much demand for something a little bit more refined. It just depends on the willingness of money to invest into these things, and that tends to ebb and flow over time. Right now we seem to be at a highly commercialized crossroads with what sorts of films are being produced, but maybe in the future the pendulum will shift again and we will see something like Reservoir Dogs from the next Tarantino.
Everything got more expensive. They pumped out Deus Ex in under 2 years with a staff of less than a hundred FTE.
As a child I was ecstatic when I learned the gaming industry had eclipsed the movie industry. Now I know what that meant: we went from Reservoir dogs to Marvel Endgame.
The word "censorship" has gotten frivolous, imo.
I don't claim any specific boundaries for the term, but... there are more angles to this than censorship. Spielberg is from perhaps the most commercial art form, cinema. They make Airplane cuts, TV cuts, video cuts. They remaster the score, cut regional releases... These are all commercially oriented "censorship," arguably. Cinema is an art form that's literally pitched to investors and financiers. Purity and absolutes don't exist here.
Meanwhile... Books have come in editions since printing. Before that, stories evolved too. Especially for important or really old texts, we're always interested in "The Original." That tends to be when the history matters to us more than the story. That's somewhat at odds with stories "Living." We have stories today that originated milenia ago in forgotten civilisations. They've been written countless times.
The original Nancy Drew may be an important cultural artefact. But, solving mysteries by racial profiling or otherwise violating "modern sensibilities" makes it a dead story. Revising additions keeps Nancy Drew suitable reading material for 9 year olds, which is what being a living story means here.
Anyway... I'm taking the dissident position. I do like and want the raw, "uncensored" cuts. I want Reservoir Dogs. I want even edgier materials that large, centralised studios
OTOH, I have no hard objection to releasing updated editions that reflect updated morals. The freedom & openness obligation that we have is to keep the original intact and available. Intellectual property tends to be the barrier to this, not censorship.
It's often fine to rewrite, recut. In fact, it can keep art alive. Guns and Roses pulled a track from an old album, because it had bigoted lyrics. IDK why exactly they "censored" the album, but my guess is that the band doesn't want to sell the album like that anymore... they definitely don't want to play it anymore. Maybe social norms changed. Maybe Axl changed. What seemed edgy and rebellious to 20 year old Axl just seems asshole now.
"Anti-Censorship" is a failing paradigm, currently.
Is moderating HN or a subreddit censorship? Is having a a newsroom editor censorship? IMO it's a lot more about who makes the decision than what they do. If GnR revise an album, IMO it's ridiculous to call it censorship. Same for having moderation on HN, revised editions of children's books etc.
Censorship is a feature of power and monopoly. A subreddit does not have power to "censor," just moderate. Facebook or Twitter's moderation policies are censorious by default. You can't have global-scale, medium-wide content policies that are not censorship.
Eh, the fact a phone can resolve the question of whether Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs was released first doesn't stop us discussing which is the better film.
Puss in Boots was a fantastic movie for my 7-yr-old, in my eyes it's more like a hispano-western and the artwork is super interesting for me 40-yr-old. Watching it on a small screen where I constantly do breaks would be a shame.
We have a small movie theater in Linz, Austria, where they do do put up older movies, just a few months ago I was the only of two dressed as expected for Reservoir Dogs. And then they skip movies altogether and I have to the big one outside the city center. I wish they'd digitalize the movie-wishlist so I could enjoy older movies with friends that we actually want to see.
I think it’s gone up because of the cultural marking of “cheap tippers.” You see it lambasted in movies and TV (in Reservoir Dogs it’s even a significant point of foreshadowing). The scale as I understand it is:
For delivery, tip 10-20% on the subtotal based on the size of the order and the service/delivery time (and perhaps your relationship with the deliverer or business, in cases where they have a dedicated pool). Often these people live off tips and their wage doesn’t even cover gas/maintenance on their own vehicles.
Dining in? Outside of very bad service, I’ll tip 18-20% of the subtotal. Service industry is hard and there’s a lot going on. Even with a bad experience, sometimes it’s not your waitstaff’s fault and they’re trying to roll with it themselves.
Take out/coffee/etc: tip 10-15% based on your relationship to the business and price. If I’m going to a pricier coffee place, I may tip less because I do have a upper limit on what I’ll tip for anything paltry (a buck or two for a latte and a muffin).
Moving guys/tradesmen: May slip em a ten if the job was a pain or they were real punctual.
The milestones (from the source code):
//<10 seconds 'A single frame of a film': 100ms, 'It would take light to go around the Earth': 133ms, 'A blink of an eye': 400ms, 'The time it takes light to reach Earth from the moon': 1255ms, 'The fastest Formula 1 pit stop': 1820ms, 'The fastest 1/4 mile drag race time': 3580ms, 'The fastest Rubik\'s cube solve': 4221ms, 'The fastest 40-yard time at the NFL Combine': 4240ms, 'The fastest 1 liter beer chug': 4370ms, 'A skippable Youtube ad': 5000ms, 'A full bull ride': 8000ms, 'The fastest 100m sprint': 9580ms, //10 Seconds 'The Wright Brothers first flight': 12000ms, 'The fastest 200m sprint': 19190ms, 'The fastest 50m freestyle swim lap': 21300ms, 'The Westminster Kennel Club dog agility record': 28440ms, 'A typical television ad': 30000ms, 'The fastest NASCAR lap at Daytona': 40364ms, 'The fastest 400m sprint': 43030ms, 'The fastest NASCAR lap at Talladega': 44270ms, 'The fastest 100m freestyle swim lap': 47050ms, //1 Minute '"Just a minute"': 60000ms, 'The fastest Formula 1 lap at Monaco': 74260ms, 'The fastest Formula 1 lap at Monza': 81046ms, 'The fastest 800m sprint': 100910ms, 'The fastest 200m freestyle swim lap': 102960ms, 'The fastest Kentucky Derby time': 119400ms, 'An NHL penalty box time for slashing, tripping, or holding': 120000ms, 'How long it takes to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge (without traffic)': 135000ms, 'The duration of the "Millenium Force" roller coaster': 140000ms, 'The longest Super Bowl national anthem': 156000ms, 'One round of a boxing match': 180000ms, 'The average song length on Spotify': 183000ms, 'The fastest 1,500m run': 206000ms, 'The song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley': 215000ms, 'The fastest 400m freestyle swim lap': 220140ms, 'The fastest 1 mile run': 223130ms, 'The duration of the "Steel Dragon" roller coaster': 240000ms, 'The duration of "The Beast" roller coaster': 250000ms, 'The song "4:33" by John Cage': 273000ms, 'The longest sky diving freefall': 276000ms, 'The Any% speedrun of Super Mario Bros for NES': 294948ms, //5 Minutes 'An NHL penalty box time for fighting': 300000ms, 'The average duration of a typical sky dive': 330000ms, 'The average time for a drive-thru order': 356800ms, 'The time it takes Jeff Bezos to make $1 million': 402000ms, 'The fastest race car lap around the Nurburgring': 403300ms, 'The time it takes light to reach Earth from the sun': 500000ms, 'The time it takes a rocket ship to reach outer space': 510000ms, 'A typical marching band show': 515000ms, //10 Minutes 'The length of the first space walk': 600000ms, 'The longest a human has held their breath (non-oxygen assisted)': 695000ms, 'The average duration of popular Youtube videos': 702000ms, 'The time it takes an average human to walk 1km': 710000ms, 'The fastest 5K run': 757350ms, 'The average time to bake a pizza': 810000ms, '1% of the entire day': 864000ms, //15 Minutes 'A typical commute in the United States': 960000ms, 'The fastest superbike lap of the Isle of Man TT': 1002778ms, "MLK's \"I Have A Dream\" Speech": 1020000ms, 'An average baseball inning': 1200000ms, 'The song "2112" by Rush': 1233000ms, 'The first angels to appear in the movie "Angels in the Outfield" (1994)': 1275000ms, 'An episode of The Office, Seinfeld, or Rick & Morty': 1320000ms, 'The time it takes to drive the entire Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel': 1380000ms, 'The song "Octavarium" by Dream Theater': 1440000ms, 'A typical Super Bowl halftime show': 1500000ms, 'The fastest 10K run': 1584000ms, 'It takes for Bobby Boucher to get his first game snap in the movie "The Waterboy" (1998)': 1719000ms, //30 Minutes 'The average time to bake a cake': 1950000ms, 'The time it takes until the launch in the movie Apollo 13 (1995)': 2081000ms, 'It takes WALL-E to arrive at the Axiom in the movie "WALL-E" (2008)': 2164000ms, 'The shortest war in history (Anglo-Zanzibar War)': 2280000ms, 'It takes Harry Potter to arrive at Hogwarts in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer\'s Stone" (2001)': 2381000ms, 'The album "Thriller" by Michael Jackson': 2539000ms, 'The album "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd': 2589000ms, 'An episode of Breaking Bad, House, or Firefly': 2640000ms, 'The boot camp sequence in the movie "Full Metal Jacket" (1987)': 2730000ms, 'The album "Abbey Road" by The Beatles': 2823000ms, 'It takes Simba to become an adult in the movie "The Lion King" (1994)': 2849000ms, '10% of a typical work day in the United States': 2880000ms, 'The album "Kid A" by Radiohead': 2996000ms, 'The time limit for the essay portion of the SATs': 3000000ms, 'The time it takes a standard ice cube to melt at room temperature': 3150000ms, '0.01% of an entire year': 3155692ms, 'The album "Fearless" by Taylor Swift': 3221000ms, 'The time it takes for the basketball game to start in the movie "Space Jam"': 3222000ms, 'An episode of Game of Thrones, True Detective, or The Sopranos': 3300000ms, 'It takes Harry and Lloyd arrive in Aspen in the movie "Dumb and Dumber" (1994)': 3394000ms, 'The album "Jagged Little Pill" by Alanis Morissette': 3443000ms, 'The fastest half-marathon': 3451000ms, //1 Hour 'An episode of Top Gear': 3600000ms, 'The inception of Robert Fischer begins in the movie "Inception" (2010)': 3847000ms, 'Riding the longest subway line in NYC from Queens to Inwood': 3900000ms, 'The time it takes Jeff Bezos to make $10 million': 4017600ms, 'It takes before Sean Connery says "Welcome to the Rock" in the movie "The Rock" (1996)': 4022000ms, 'A flight from Syracuse to New York City': 4140000ms, '5% of the entire day': 4320000ms, 'The album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John': 4580000ms, 'The album "Scenes From A Memory" by Dream Theater': 4626000ms, 'The movie "Primer" (2004)': 4740000ms, 'It takes to fully charge a Tesla (at 440V)': 4788000ms, 'The ferry duration from Long Island, NY to New London, CT': 4800000ms, 'The movie "Toy Story" (1995)': 4860000ms, 'A drive from Syracuse, NY to Rochester, NY (87.5 miles)': 4920000ms, 'The movie "The Lion King" (1994)': 5280000ms, 'The longest State of the Union address': 5280000, //Duplicate time... //1.5 Hours 'The movie "Mony Python and the Holy Grail" (1975)': 5460000ms, 'The movie "Monsters, Inc." (2001)': 5520000ms, 'An average duration of a soccer game': 5700000ms, 'The movie "Reservoir Dogs" (1992)': 5940000ms, 'The longest Innaugural address': 6300000ms, 'A drive from Orlando, FL to Tampa, FL (84.6 miles)': 6660000ms, 'An SR-71 flight from New York City to London': 6896400ms, 'The movie "Alien" (1979)': 7020000ms, //2 Hours //'25% of a typical work day in the United States': 7200000ms, 'The average duration of an NCAA basketball game': 7200000ms, 'The movie "Star Wars: A New Hope" (1977)': 7260000ms, 'The fastest marathon time ever ran': 7299000ms, 'The time it takes to listen to every studio album by Nirvana': 7667000ms, 'The movie "Dogma" (1999)': 7680000ms, 'The average duration of an NBA basketball game': 7860000ms, 'The movie "The Matrix" (1999)': 8160000ms, 'The movie "Fight Club" (1999)': 8340000ms, 'The movie "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)': 8520000ms, 'The movie "Forrest Gump" (1994)': 8520000ms, 'A drive from New York City to Philadelphia (94.6 miles)': 8520000ms, '10% of the entire day': 8640000ms, 'The movie "Inception" (2010)': 8880000ms, 'The movie "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018)': 8940000ms, 'The movie "Pulp Fiction" (1994)': 9240000ms, 'It takes Voyager 1 to travel 100,000 miles': 9360000ms, 'The movie "Avatar" (2009)': 9720000ms, 'The average duration of an NHL hockey game': 9750000ms, 'The movie "Saving Private Ryan" (1998)': 10140000ms, 'The movie "The Godfather" (1972)': 10500000ms, 'The movie "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001)': 10680000ms, //3 Hours 'The average duration of an NFL football game': 10800000ms, 'The total time limit of the SATs': 10800000ms, 'The movie "Avengers: Endgame" (2019)': 10860000ms, 'The average duration of an MLB baseball game': 11280000ms, 'The time it takes for a standard ice cube to freeze in a freezer': 11700000ms, 'The movie "Titanic" (1997)': 12600000ms, 'A drive from Boston to New York City (215.9 miles)': 13560000ms, 'Alex Honnold\'s free solo climb of El Capitan': 14160000ms, //4 Hours 'Half of a typical work day in the United States': 14400000ms, 'The flight time from New York City to Los Angeles': 19800000ms, 'The time limit of one session of the Bar exam': 21600000ms, 'It takes Voyager 1 to travel 250,000 miles': 23400000ms, 'The fastest swimmer to cross the English Channel': 24900000ms, //>8 Hours 'A full typical work day in the United States': 28800000ms, '0.1% of an entire year': 31536000ms, 'The time it takes Jeff Bezos to make $100 million': 40173000ms, 'The time it takes to assemble a car': 57600000ms, '1% of an entire year': 315360000ms, 'It takes for the Lōʻihi volcano to rise above the surface of the ocean becoming a new Hawaiian island': Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER //285,616 years
Tarantino uh, borrowed the idea of the criminals calling each other pseudonyms from the 1974 version for his film Reservoir Dogs
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with your list, even though some of those are mediocre at best, but yeah I did mean per year, and limited to Hollywood (Parasite for instance not counting). And no, ok, I will also straight up disagree with the second Knives out Movie which I thought was absolute trash. A perfect example of poor storytelling and the form over substance of modern cinema.
But just taking say 1992 you have Last of the Mohicans, The Unforgiven, My Cousin Vinny, Malcolm X, Bad Lieutenant, Scent of a Woman, Reservoir Dogs, Dracula, Chaplin.
And then a bunch of fun schlomp like Arizona Dream, Basic Instinct, Sister Act, Army of Darkness, Home Alone 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Mighty Ducks, Wayne’s World.
These are all undoubtedly great movies.
And then another huge bunch of watchable stuff easily comparable to some of your mentions like Watcher or High Life.
And 1992 is not an outlier.
In 1993 you have Jurrasic Park, Groundhog Day, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, Scindlers List, Meanace 2 Society, Alive, Dazed and Confused, Falling Down, In The Name of The Father, True Romance, Demolition Man, Carlitos Way, The Secret Garden, Philadelphia, A Perfect Workd, Cool Runnings, Short Cuts.
In 1991 Silence of The Lambs, Ternimator 2, JFK, Point Break, Thelma and Louise, Boyz in the Hood, The Doors, My Own Private Idaho, Barton Fink, The Fisher King, Naked Lunch.
In 1990 Goodfellas, Hunt for Red October, Total Recall, Edward Scissorhands, Home Alone, Godfather 3, Dances with Wolves, Tremors, Back to the Future 3, Awakenings, The Witches, Wild at Heart, Jacobs Ladder, Nikita, Slacker, Millers Crossing.
And the quality difference is massive too, not just somewhat better. Like just Millers Crossing is miles better than anything that has been made in the last 5 years, and I’m picking at random.
In 1994 Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Lion King, Speed, Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, Stargate, Natural Born Killers, The Crow, Clercs, Maverick, Ed Wood, In the Mouth of Madness, Interview With The Vampire.
I could go on.
And this is not even talking about how the 80s is a better decade for cinema, or how the 70s is the peak of the power of the author with far more experimental, artistic, and substantial productions.
Has quality declined? Yes. Massively. Humongously. Stupendously.
Tarantino mentioned Godard as an influence at the beginning of the Reservoir Dogs script (Here he is talking about it: https://youtu.be/F4DkfxEv7ZU). He says that the seminal moment when he recognized his key aesthetic as a director, was when he read Pauline Kael's review of a Godard film (A band apart), where Kael says in her review: "It was as if a bunch of movie mad young frenchmen had taken up a banal American crime novel and translated the poetry that they had read between the lines". Tarantino says that when he read that he knew that this was his aesthetic -- this is what he wanted to do as a director.
Tarantino called his production company "A Band Apart" (in my opinion) for that reason.
(Tarantino's comment: https://youtu.be/vb7oUEVjFjo)
I work in the industry. Look at Heat and the opening of Dark Knight Rises and you'll see a partial direct remake of many shots.
People take shots from other films all the time. The only weird thing about this is how close the two films were chronologically. Usually people steal from older films. But this is far from a big deal. Tarantino has talked about how Reservoir Dogs is basically a segment of one of his favourite Honk Kong films made into a whole feature. This is literally the way a lot of films get made, people are inspired, sometimes they see a scene that's quite tough or they can't quite crack it so they take from some other film. Doesn't mean they're hacks.
>Notice the color differences. Every movie now takes place as if it were in The Matrix, appearing in deep greens or blues or in gray shades, like the complex colors of the world have been bleached out.
Could this reflect that we as a society have progressed towards a more advanced state? Maybe we have reached a more 'real' reality, a bit like Quentin Tarantino movie characters. As a consequence, the movies that we are watching now look different.
>There's the realer than real universe, alright, and all the characters inhabit that one. But then there's this movie universe. And so From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill, they all take place in this special movie universe. So basically when the characters of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies, Kill Bill is what they go to see. From Dusk Till Dawn is what they see. [1]
[1] https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/news/a41379/quentin-tarantino-movies-connected/
> if by phone you mean iPhone , I just checked and it works fine for me in the music app. under search there are 2 tabs, radio, local. local searches local only for me. iOS 15.1
When I use Siri and instruct it to "play xxx", where "xxx" is a locally present song, it often randomly does not play the song but instead searches for it. An example from yesterday or the day before: I have a "Reservoir Dogs" soundtrack ripped from CD. If I instruct my iPhone to "play Little Green Bag", it no longer just plays the song it lists in Music.app, as it always did when it was called iTunes. It offers me the purchase and download of George Baker Selection CD which originally lists this song included in Tarantino's movie.
I currently have iOS 15.02 installed and I do not have nor had Apple Music subscription.
Thanks for that perspective! I think about this all the time, and though my tastes are different I think you're exactly right.
I think of narrative as a combination of several elements: character, plot, world-building, execution (word choice, visual choices and performance for film or games), concepts and ideas. I tend to be drawn to strong characters first, but not always. Some examples off the top of my head:
Clerks: strong characters, mediocre almost everything else
Reservoir Dogs: strong characters, strong execution, minimal plot and world-building
Portal: strong characters, plot, world building, concepts, and execution
Brazil (the Terry Gilliam movie): strong world-building and execution, weak characters and plot
Lolita (the book): strong execution and characters
Harry Potter: strong characters, world-building, and concepts, goofy plot and execution
Primer: mind-bending concepts, good execution, weak characters and plot
Don’t know why, but I could go on and on thinking about it.
Edit: this list would imply I have pretty narrow tastes but really I like a little bit of everything; these are just some notable examples that came to mind as being particularly strong or weak in certain areas.
Consensual non-consensual (CNC) and even "rapekink" is a thing. There is nothing wrong with videos having "rape", "forced", or "brutal" in it as long as everyone performing is doing so out of their own free will.
This is a bit akin to saying that a film like reservoir dogs encourages theft, torture, and murder.
You may not like it personally, and that's perfectly reasonable, but a lot of people – men and women alike – do.
I play a game with google search: I take something very mainstream like a movie title, let's say 'Reservoir Dogs' And change something in it, to say 'Reservoir Cats' for example.
Google search 'reservoir cats' and it will completely ignore what you actually search for in favor of the mainstream result. The effect is basically that you can't sesrch for 'reservoir cats'!
Even putting something opposite or unrelated to the highly mainstream result will have no effect.
Its completely entirely ridiculous and makes the search engine seem like a facade.
Not sure the source but there is a rule in fiction that everything has a purpose, as opposed to reality. If the camera stops in an axe, you can be sure someone is going to wield it later.
There is no purpose in those alternate realities, other than being a sadistic fantasy, as another comment points to. Tarantino's universe is very familiar to me. It's based on the series B (or worse) films that we watched as teens.
There is an interesting exploration in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill of the obsessive thoughts that old movies raised presenting extreme situations.
I do enjoy goofy details like Uma Thurman in the plane with a katana in the hand luggage. But this is part of the assumed over-the-top tone. Like you said, it's clearly delineated and presented as fiction. The others not so much. A counterfactual historic movie? Now it seems I'm supposed to learn about the plot before watching the movie, or just avoid Tarantino, because I've had enough of that bs.
Roughly 40% of the lyrics are dialogue from two of his movies or describing scenes from those movies (Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs), so a 40% cut of the songwriters' share of royalties is appropriate.
I actually developed my own understanding of art after seeing a Pollock painting in person. Like the statue of David, the painting was huge, which surprised me.
I then realized art isn't just about whether you could have done something, but would you have done it. Whenever I look at art now I ask myself both questions: Could I have painted like Rembrandt? No. Would I ever have thought to drip paint onto a massive canvas and call it art? No. Both are equally as a valid. This applies to music and books and movies, etc. Would I ever have thought of the plot to Reservoir Dogs? Never.
Art, in my opinion, still has to evoke emotion, and be the result of a creative effort. So a music piece generated by a computer doesn't really count, but the code written to program it definitely does.
Of course art is art and everyone has their opinion about it, this is just my way of looking at it.
>That's a pretty good B-movie plot.
It can be good... in the right hands.
We're all debating various complex semantics when the only thing that ultimately really matters is talent... who ultimately is in control of these building blocks. Talent with the director, talent with the screenplay, talent with the acting, etc.
There has been plenty of dumb plots, stories, concepts, etc that have been turned into great movies by talented people. Reservoir Dogs, Clerks 1, Napoleon Dynamite, The Abyss, etc would all sound dumb, boring, or cliche on paper, but were made highly watchable by talented film makers working in their prime.
Just like startups, the only thing that matters is people, not how clever your original idea is. You could have the perfect movie idea, which many big budget have had (which translate well into trailers and per-release marketing), but turn out to be awful once it's turned into the 1.5hr+ long final product.
It seems customary enough in the US that in the movie Reservoir Dogs hardened criminals berated one of their own because he "didn't believe in tipping" the waitress. This brilliant scene is on Youtube, in case anyone needs Steve Buscemi's take on iLoch's comment as a relief from this subthread.
Here's a brief clip from the 90s movie, Reservoir Dogs, that could shed some light: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4sbYy0WdGQ>
And of these 31 remaining almost half are missing in the Swedish Netflix:
5. Back to the Future 6. Gladiator 7. Sunset Boulevard 8. Cinema Paradiso 9. Django Unchained 12. Reservoir Dogs 13. Braveheart 17. Amadeus 21. Trainspotting 24. There Will Be Blood 25. Spotlight 26. The Princess Bride 27. Zootopia 29. Jaws 31. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
And yet Netflix want the same monthly cost for less of a service. Why?
Reminds me of the film Reservoir Dogs.
Each gang member is given a nickname (Mr. Blue, Mr Pink etc) for each job. Only the leadership picks the names, the nicknames change with each job\event.
Members do not share real names or personally identifiable info.
The benefits include: Plausible deniability about duration of membership. Plausible deniability about which jobs\events member was party to. Compartmentalization of the enterprise.
I'm struggling to find a legal use case where this could be applied. Although political dissidents (with recent events in Turkey in mind) may have to break the law in any case.
No, but death in most action movies are much more effective. Meaning they "feel" more real and killed people are more real. Plus, they are often framed in real world like story and often as positive action did by good hero.
Killed guys in COD are just pictures - they have no personality or story. The action is in context of warfare and no one there is believably "good" and "bad". Only better at shooting.
I do not think you can judge violence in such simple way. To use analogy, the movie reservoir dogs has scene with ear cutting where nobody dies. That scene is way more violent and disturbing then dozens of killed enemies by James Bond.
A few of my personal favorites:
Joint Security Area and Old Boy - two movies of totally different style from brilliant Korean director Park Chan-wook
A Separation - an excellent Iranian family drama, great actors, a surprising script, my personal favorite from the last few years
Reservoir Dogs - and almost all Tarantino movies
Gran Torino - Clint's beautiful farewell
The Celebration - Dark comedy/drama, the highpoint of Danish Dogme 95 movement for me
Aw. Was hoping to discover a decent older movie.
EDIT: That's more like it... the next TechCrunch article uses a screenshot from Reservoir Dogs, which was a pretty awesome movie IMO. ( http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/reservoir-dogs-fig-5.jpeg?w=288 )
You'll also get a version where Hamlet says to Ophelia "Get thee to a bunnery", and she becomes a baker, and they all live happily ever after.
One where he says "Get thee to a funnery", where they invent aeroplanes and go to Coney Island, where a bad corn dog leads Hamlet to declare "Something is rotten in the State of New York."
The one where he tells his mother "Methinks the lady both protest too much", which eventually turns into an Oliver Sacks-esque exploration of split personality.
And one where Rosencrantz & Guildenstern aren't actually dead, meaning Tim Roth never gets a film career and Reservoir Dogs is never created. In that story, the infinite monkeys eventually write Pulp Fiction so normality is restored.
I haven't seen American Pie action figures, but it is interesting to note that there are action figures for some decidedly non-SF/fantasy/horror movies. There are Reservoir Dogs action figures, for instance, covering all the major characters, and including sets for scenes like the ear scene (including removable bloody ear).