Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs (Rezervuar Köpekleri in Türkiye) is the 1992 feature debut of Quentin Tarantino, who wrote and directed it. It is regarded as a classic of independent cinema and a cult film; Empire magazine named it the greatest independent film of all time. It screened at Sundance on 18 January 1992.

The narrative builds around the events before and after a diamond heist, which is never shown. Thieves who do not know one another's real names, and use colour-coded aliases, gather in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the city after it goes wrong and try to work out who tipped off the police. Harvey Keitel (Mr. White), Tim Roth (Mr. Orange), Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde), Chris Penn (Nice Guy Eddie), Steve Buscemi and Lawrence Tierney star, with Tarantino as Mr. Brown. Most of it plays out in one location as the tension turns psychological.

Tarantino first planned to shoot it on 16 mm for about 30,000 dollars; when Keitel read the script and agreed to act and co-produce, the budget grew to 1.2 million. Violent crime, pop culture references, profanity and a nonlinear structure became his hallmarks. Controversial at first but generally well received, it earned 2.8 million dollars in the United States and grew more popular after Pulp Fiction (1994).