Release Year: 1992

Genre: Crime, Drama

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary

Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen

• Intense violence and excessive amounts of blood? Check. 
• Innumerable pop culture references? Check. 
• Brilliantly written, realistic dialogue? Check. 
• Crazy, nonlinear story line? Check. 
• Subversion of typical genre film? Check.
• Intense violence and excessive amounts of blood? Did we say that already? It's worth another check—there is so. much. gore.

It's official. We've entered the world of Quentin Tarantino.

And not just any world—we've entered the very first world. This is the world that took film director Tarantino from stocking shelves at a video store to being stocked on shelves at every video store.

Reservoir Dogs is about the aftermath of a heist gone awry. It's set at the rendezvous point for six strangers who pulled a job stealing diamonds. The heist was a total disaster. Some of them are dead, some of them are shot, and the ones who aren't dying are wondering one thing: who set them up? The movie's about how these guys relate to each other in the blood-soaked aftermath of the failed heist.

The movie stars Harvey Keitel as the oldest gangster, Mr. White; Steve Buscemi as the high-strung Mr. Pink; Tim Roth as the eternally bleeding Mr. Orange; and Michael Madsen as the man who makes psychopathy look cool, Mr. Blonde. Yep, they've got color-coded names—these guys aren't allowed to know anything about each other.

Reservoir Dogs was produced by LIVE Entertainment with a tiny budget of just $1.5 million. It debuted in 1992 at a variety of independent film festivals including Sundance, where it was the most talked-about film of the year. It was nominated for and won a number of awards during its run in independent festivals during '92 and '93 and was met with plenty of critical success. It broke box office records in the U.K., but did just okay in the U.S. 

Of course, when Tarantino released his second film, Pulp Fiction—which became a major success and cult classic—fans went back and realized just how worthy Reservoir Dogs was. And just like that, it joined the ranks of Tarantino hits.

What do you think of when you think Reservoir Dogs? Probably something along the lines of, "Oh God, not his ear!" Believe it or not, though, Reservoir Dogs is more than tons o'blood and a few f-bombs (okay, a ton of f-bombs) coming out of the mouths of a bunch of criminals.

It's not often that a directorial debut with an independent film has the same impact on the film industry as Reservoir Dogs. Many sources, including Empire Magazine, cited the film as one of, and in some cases, the greatest or most influential independent film of all time.

Reservoir Dogs brought attention not just to itself, but to all movies and filmmakers outside of the traditional Hollywood domain. Just as the movie borrows from so many other films and film genres, countless films have now borrowed from Reservoir Dogs: movies using similar storylines with mixed up fragments and character backgrounds, movies which mirror the quick back and forth dialogue and pop culture references, and the jarring violence.

Maybe you don't care so much about the past and future of movie making. That's okay: There's still important stuff in Reservoir Dogs. This bloodbath of a heist film deals with the problem of violence and psychopathic behavior, and it questions the morality of deceit during the pursuit of justice.

It shows us that even hardened criminals have certain principles… even if they're demented principles. It forces us to think about desperate measures and rash actions and false personas and exactly how long it would take to bleed out from a stomach wound. It's a lesson about how quickly things can get nasty between people when things don't go as planned. It forces us to think about movie violence and what the word "gratuitous" means.

Most importantly, it teaches us a few conspiracy theories about the true meaning of Madonna's "Like a Virgin."