I always think of Resevoir Dogs as a Greek tragedy. If you ignore the flashbacks and flourishes, it certainly has the Aristotelian unities. Plus, lots of loyalty issues. And lots of blood.
All of these, definitely. Plus the Howard Hawks obsession with professionalism, and male codes of honor. Plus the first American dose of Hong Kong style action, with lots of bits lifted directly from (I think) City on Fire (with Chow Yun Fat). Also lots of texture from 70s American films, especially ones like
Straight Time
with Dustin Hoffman. The classic noir heist films: The Killing, Riffi, Asphalt Jungle. (Two with Sterling Hayden!) And of course, all of the Godard and French New Wave tics that QT rightly considers the motherlode of hipster cinema.
Given this bias, do you really think she would like it?
But she does enjoy comic-book films like Hellboy and Spiderman, which I view as on the same spectrum as SF films. She also geeks out over the original Star Wars trilogy, and enjoyed the LotR films as well. Oh, and she's a big Buffy and Angel fan, too (some Buffistas met her at the first F2F in Chicago).
For those of you who haven't seen City on Fire, here's a synopsis. It's pretty much Reservoir Dogs in plot:
In 1987, Hong Kong director Ringo (Full Contact) Lam made a film called City On Fire, starring Chow Yun-Fat as a heavily conflicted cop who goes undercover with a gang of thieves who plan to rob a jewelry exchange. Members are strictly forbidden to swap names or backgrounds, but Chow is befriended by career criminal Danny Lee, and suffers pangs of guilt over the fact that "doing his job" will mean betraying him.
The heist goes sour when another thief starts shooting hostages, and the cops appear out of nowhere. Chow, wounded in the stomach, reflexively kills his attacker -- a cop -- and is rescued by Lee, who stands in the path of an oncoming police truck, gun in either hand, and calmly riddles its occupants with bullets. After taking refuge in a deserted warehouse, the gang's boss decides there's a police informant among them: Chow. Lee comes to his buddy's defense, triggering a three-way stand-off that ends in a hail of bullets. As Lee holds the dying Chow in his arms, Chow tearfully admits he's a cop, then waits for Lee to finish him off.
Wow. That's exactly RD.
That's why there was a big stink by cult movie fans when Reservoir Dogs first came out. They felt QT should have at least acknowledged how much plot he took from City on Fire. Chris Gore at Film Threat made it a big issue.
Some of QTs more famous lines have been directly lifted from other movies too. For example, the line in Pulp Fiction by Marcellus: "I'm going to get a hard man with pliers and a blowtorch" comes directly from the 70s crime film
Charley Varrick.
But not the "get medieval on your ass" part.
Hi Teppy! Yes, I live.
How goes the living, out in the land of starlets and back lots?
It goes okay. Trying to find more work, as the work I have is not enough and also ending soon.
