Quentin Tarantino

Reservoir Dogs -1992

Tarantino Facts1963-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/producer Quentin Tarantino was perhaps the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the early '90s.

• 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/113658/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”

• 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 • 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.

• 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.

• Dramatic Irony – the audience learns who

the cop is before the characters.

• Each character has code name, for example; Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, etc.

Triviawww.imdb.com

• 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.

• The film contains 272 uses of the F word.

• Aside from the opening credits, the film never refers to any of the characters as a "Reservoir Dog".

• 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”• 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.]

• This movie has no orchestral score. All the music you hear are prerecorded tracks.

• 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.

• Quentin Tarantino wrote the first draft in three and a half weeks.

• 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

• 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?• 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.

•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 little-known 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!

• 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