Reservoir Dogs: Ten Years--Special Edition

Writer-director-star Quentin Tarantino's 1992 debut opens with a bunch of hoodlums engaged in semiotic discussion of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" (a mock-academic dissection that would later become a staple of films in the '90s), before flash-forwarding to the present where, in the wake of a failed diamond heist, Harvey Keitel (Mr. White--all of the characters have color code names) drags a gutshot Tim Roth to the rendezvous site (an abandoned warehouse), meeting with Steve Buscemi, who tells Keitel that he smells a rat. Shortly thereafter, the man who botched the job, Mr. Blue (Michael Madsen), strolls in, and the quartet eyeball one another, very suspicious. As the film cuts back and forth between past and present, revealing how each man became involved in the stick-up, the audience learns things about the men that the others don't know (this is the interesting part). But a solid psychological puzzler is too tame for Tarantino, who wants to up the black comedy ante just a hair, so we're forced to sit through a now-legendary, brutal scene in which a police officer has his ear cut off while his torturer dances to the '70s hit "Stuck In the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel. Disturbing, thought-provoking, always interesting, but not always fun to watch, Reservoir Dogs ushered in a whole new cinematic lexicon, which would find fuller expression in Tarantino's follow-up, Pulp Fiction. While the transfer is solid if unexceptional, Artisan has gone all-out on the special features for this 10th anniversary double-disc edition: presented in both widescreen and full screen versions with DTS or Dolby Digital (5.1 or 2.0) sound options, with a commentary track featuring Tarantino, producer Lawrence Bender, actors Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn, among others (though not recorded together), the first disc also includes an hour's worth of interview segments, and 12 minutes of deleted or alternate scenes. The second disc serves up three critic commentaries by Amy Taubin, Village Voice, Peter Travers, Rolling Stone, and Emanuel Levy, Variety, a 29-minute "Class of '92" documentary featuring interviews with Tarantino and other indie directors hitting Sundance that year; 52 minutes worth of dedications and tributes, and much more. Sure to be popular, this loaded double-disc set is recommended. (R. Pitman)[DVD Review—Dec 26, 2006—Lionsgate, 2 discs, 100 min., R, $19.98—Making its third appearance on DVD, 1992's Reservoir Dogs (15th Anniversary) sports a greatly improved transfer with DVD extras new to this set including a 16-minute “Playing It Fast and Loose” production featurette, a “Profiling the Reservoir Dogs” featurette on the characters (7 min.), “Reservoir Dogs: The Game” (4 min.), a “Reservoir Dolls” featurette which reenacts the famed ear sequence with dolls (2 min.), and a “Tipping Guide” on proper tipping etiquette (missing here, however, are the interviews from the last set along with a few featurettes). Bottom line: the improved image make this edition worth picking up if you don't already own the 10th anniversary edition.]