Besides, among my fellow film bloggers, and me, it matters little as Quentin Tarantino managed to make them his own, even if cribbing some of director-writer Ringo Lam’s original premise and execution.

Even if comparisons to the HK crime film, City on Fire (1987), cramp many. Tarantino has said he 'found that the music was a terrific counterpoint to the action on screen.' While most composers and directors try to fit the tone of the score to the tone of the narrative and action of the film, Tarantino breaks the rule to create violence that draws attention to itself in an unnerving way.Īs the credits roll, right after that bloodbath of a standoff, we get perhaps the lightest, most whimsical track yet, Harry Nilsson's ' Coconut.' It almost feels like a palate cleanser, but in some ways it mocks the audience's ability to dismiss all the chaos and violence they witnessed and immediately walk out of the theater to resume their daily lives as if nothing happened.Opening Titles and Song: Reservoir Dogs (1992)Īs a certain auteur’s film debut approaches its twenty-fifth anniversary, easy to see why in the two-and-a-half decades since Reservoir Dogs‘ release 1, it maintains an influence that’s only grown. Blonde goes from dancing and singing along to slicing the cop's ear off.

Suddenly, the sweet 70s sounds are paired with some ugly violence.which is unsettling.Īnd then, when Blonde is left alone with the cop, the track ' Stuck in the Middle with You' by Steelers Wheel starts playing. Joe Tex's ' I Gotcha' plays as our protagonists violently kick a tied policeman at the warehouse. With tracks like ' Little Green Bag' by The George Barker Selection to officially introduce our main characters as they walk together in suits, or Blue Swede's ' Hooked on a Feeling,' which gives us some great 'hooga-chakkas' as we ride along first with cops and then the criminal gang to the meeting, we know we're in for a good time. The audience and characters alike vibe with K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies weekend. The delightfully 'Dylan-esque, pop, bubblegum' music (as K-Billy's calls it) that was so popular in the 70s gives the film its atmosphere. Whether this was an aesthetic choice made by Tarantino or a consequence of a tiny budget (or perhaps both), the tracks used in Reservoir Dogs certainly give it a unique feel. Not a single orchestral track-and there is a very limited number of original songs performed by the band Bedlam for the film.

Reservoir dogs soundtrack