MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 500 titles—from the silent era through the ’90s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.
Reservoir Dogs (1992, 100 minutes)
Quentin Tarantino hit it out of the yard with his low-budget debut, Reservoir Dogs, something he’d been planning since his days of working in a Manhattan Beach, Calif., video shop. The title, never mentioned in the movie, comes from a customer mangling the name of a film Tarantino recommended, Au Revoir Les Enfants.
Eight well-dressed men are having breakfast in an L.A. diner, even though most of them sound like they have East Coast, working-class origins. Six of them have been hired for a diamond heist by grizzled racketeer Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) who’s assigned each of them a color as an alias for the job. The less you know about everyone else, the safer we’ll all be, he reckons. Cabot’s son Eddie (Chris Penn), in a brightly patterned shirt, is the project’s trouble-shooter.
After Mr. Brown (Tarantino) offers up some half-baked explanation of Madonna’s song “Like A Virgin,” Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) snatches Joe’s thin book of names and addresses from the table and says, “Gimme that fuckin’ thing.” Astounded, Joe replies, “What the hell do you think you’re doin’? Gimme my book back!” Working on his toothpick, Mr. White says, “For the past 15 minutes you’ve been jawing on about names. ‘Toby, Toby, Toby Wong, Toby Chung, fuckin’ Charlie Chan.’ I’ve got Madonna’s big dick comin’ outta my left ear and Toby the Jap, I don’t know what, comin’ outta my right.” “Hey, Joe,” smiles Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) making a gun with his right hand. “Want me to shoot this guy?” Mr. White chuckles, “You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.”
“All right, I’ll take care of the check,” growls Joe, heading for the cash register. “You guys can get the tip, about a buck apiece. And you, when I come back I want my book,” he points at White. Eddie smiles, “Everybody cough up some green for the young lady.” As the others reach for their wallets, Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) strokes his goatee contentedly. “Come on, throw in a buck,” says Eddie. “Unh unh, I don’t believe in it,” says Mr. Pink. “You know what these chicks make? They make shit!” snarls Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker). “Don’t give me that,” says Mr. Pink. “If she doesn’t make enough money, she can quit.”
“You don’t have any idea what you’re talkin’ about,” says Mr. White, pointing a spoon at Pink. “These people bust their ass.” Mr. Pink counters with a well-rehearsed argument. “You don’t tip the guys at McDonald’s, do ya? They’re servin’ ya food. Society says, ‘Tip these guys, but don’t tip these guys.’ That’s bullshit.” Joe returns and learns that Pink won’t shell out. “You cheap bastard, I paid for your breakfast!” he says. “All right,” says Mr. Pink, “but normally I would never do this.”
