Director: Quentin Tarantino
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Micheal Madsen, Chris Penn, Laurence Tierney, Quentin Tarantino, Eddie Bunker
Running Time: 94 minutes
Genre: Thriller, Crime
When a jewelry store robbery goes badly wrong, the surviving robbers retreat to their warehouse rendezvous. It soon becomes clear that one of them was an undercover cop. As suspicions and accusations pile up, the survivors are soon violently out of control.
This was the film that introduced the world, for better or worse, to Quentin Tarantino. While this was a moderate success upon it's initial US release, it was an absolute sensation in Britain, where it was very controversial due to it's violence. Denied a home video release in Britain until 1995, the film played pretty much constantly in late-night screenings for almost three years.
The film opens with a pre-credit sequence set in a diner where the characters banter and kvetch about Madonna and the ethics of tipping, and then you're pretty much thrown into the action. It takes place almost entirely in the aftermath of this botched heist, and unfolds in real time in this derelict warehouse, with flashbacks delineating the backstories of various characters and the events leading up to and immediately following the robbery (which crucially we never actually see). It's well-written with Tarantino's typically profane, pop-culture fueled dialogue, and well-performed by a talented cast of notable character actors. It's a violent, bloody film but not quite as violent as it's reputation suggests, the famous ear-slicing scene is never actually shown in all it's gory details.
It's a gritty, funny and genuinely exciting thriller. Tarantino has made better films, but none of them have the stripped-down, muscular grit of this one.
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