Reservoir Dogs Reservoir Dogs Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American black comedy heist film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and criminal-turned-author Edward Bunker, as diamond thieves whose planned heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong. The film depicts the events before and after the heist. Kirk Baltz, Randy Brooks and Steven Wright also play supporting roles. It incorporates many motifs that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling. The film is regarded as a classic
Reservoir Dogs noir. Caroline Jewers called "Reservoir Dogs" a "feudal epic" and paralleled the color pseudonyms to color names of medieval knights. Critics have observed parallels between "Reservoir Dogs" and other films. For its nonlinear storyline, "Reservoir Dogs" has often been compared to "Rashomon". Critic John Hartl compared the ear-cutting scene to the shower murder scene in "Psycho" and Tarantino to David Lynch. He furthermore explored parallels between "Reservoir Dogs" and "Glengarry Glen Ross". Todd McCarthy, who called the film "undeniably impressive", was of the opinion that it was influenced by "Mean Streets", "Goodfellas" and "The Killing". After this film, Tarantino himself