Why is it called Reservoir Dogs?

See title.

If you swim around in Sebastian’s excellent website really hard
 I’m sure you can find the answer.

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Haha I almost clicked on that :stuck_out_tongue:



I think there was some French movie called Au Reservoir or something and
OK maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about

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The theory Ive always believed is that RESERVOIR DOGS is a hybrid of The French New Wave film and the 70s American Exploitation film. The “Reservoir” represents the French New Wave crime films and the “Dogs” is from Straw Dogs the violent Sam Peckinpah film.



But we’ll never know for sure.

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[quote]The theory Ive always believed is that RESERVOIR DOGS is a hybrid of The French New Wave film and  the 70s American Exploitation film. The “Reservoir” represents the French New Wave crime films and the “Dogs” is from Straw Dogs the violent Sam Peckinpah film.



But we’ll never know for sure.[/quote]

YOu got it Vic! Give this man a prize. That is straight from Tarantino’s mouth

The title refers to a customer whom Tarantino served while working as a video shop assistant. When Tarantino suggested hiring a French film Au revoir les enfants (1987), the customer apparently replied, “I don’t want no Reservoir Dogs!” The director decided this would be a good title for his script.



Was on IMDB, so I’ll go with that.

When QT worked in a video store, he referred to the French film ‘Au Revoir Les Enfants’ as ‘the reservoir film’ because he couldn’t pronounce the title. He combined this with ‘Straw Dogs’, a Sam Peckinpah film from 1971, to produce the title ‘Reservoir Dogs’.

The funny thing is that I’m pretty positive in Italy it’s called “Le Iene”, meaning “The Hyenas”. I wonder how other countries translated the name “Reservoir Dogs”.

[quote]The funny thing is that I’m pretty positive in Italy it’s called “Le Iene”, meaning “The Hyenas”. I wonder how other countries translated the name “Reservoir Dogs”.[/quote]

The german title is Wilde Hunde - wild dogs.

But to be honest, I never ever heart someone who used this name. Everyone said ResDog.

But why did Tarantino call the movie Reservoir Dogs? There has to be some meaning.



I always found it interesting that he was originally supposed to be Mr. Pink, but he had to change to Mr. Brown once the movie had enough cash to hire a real actor.



Or that the “Like a Virgin” speech was originally written for Mr. Pink, then switched to Mr. Brown.



Or that it went at the same time that Joe was trying to figure out the Chinese name of Toby from his black book.



Or that Mr. Brown said the word ‘d!ck’ so many times that it prompted another member of the octet to say 'How many dncks is that?'



Or that, if you count, that was eight d!cks.



Or that, Mr. Brown’s explanation of ‘Like a Virgin’ was so off. It’s about a girl that has had so much sex that now she feels pain because this guy is so good? Madonna herself has said it’s about love, about a girl that is experiencing sex on the emotional level for the first time. It doesn’t matter that her pnssy has been penetrated, she’s like a virgin because she’s never experienced emotional sex.



Or that, as soon as Mr. Brown finished his explanation of “LaV”, Joe realized Toby’s name. “Wong” he shouted.



Or that, Mr. White cared so much for Mr. Orange. You’d think after all the jobs he has pulled, he wouldn’t feel this way anymore. What did Mr. Orange do that caused Mr White to feel so much pain. And why was Mr White, probably the most experienced of the group, given the color White? A color that is ususally ‘shiny and new’?



Or that a reservoir is generally a man made body of water that has been damed up. I’ve even head the term, a reservoir of emotion.



Or that cats are sometimes referred to as pnssy cats. And a dog is the opposite of a cat.



Anyway, when I figure all this stuff out, maybe I’ll get around to figuring what the title means.

i heard that thing about it being about the french new wave crime films and straw dogs, but QT also said it might have something to do with the fact that there is a rat in the house and that a rat is kind of like a reservoir dog.



you dig?

yeah i had always heard and read ‘reservoir dog’ was slang for ‘rat’ and that relates to the movie too, obviously.

Why is it called Reservoir Dogs?



There are actually multiple reasons why
not just one, all of which have been mentioned here.

[quote]The funny thing is that I’m pretty positive in Italy it’s called “Le Iene”, meaning “The Hyenas”. I wonder how other countries translated the name “Reservoir Dogs”.[/quote]

In Sweden the movie is called “De hĂƒÆ’Ă‚Â€nsynslĂƒÆ’Ă‚Â¶sa” which means “The Reckless” or something like that 


Here in Holland it wasn’t translated at all. It was just called Reservoir Dogs. Guess no-one here in Holland wondered what it meant anyway.

I think that it shouldn’t be translated, like in Holland, because the title doesn’t mean anything.

There was a famous french film called “Au revoir les enfants”, but QT couldn’t pronounce anything in French, so he called it “That reservoir movie”. Reservoir Dogs is a lot like a film called Straw Dogs (according to my mother). So, he combined the two. At least, that’s the most prominant theory.

yeh, I think it involved his days at Video Archives in which he would call it the “reservoir movie” to the customers, something like that anyway


The guys in the movie are given the mission to get something for their boss




like dogs who have to retrieve something for their owner, when he throws something in the water
they jump in the water and get it
reservoir dogs



But like IMDB says, he probably liked the mix up
joked around with his buddies in the video store about it and so it kinda becomes a reference to those days
like he put other references in his movies to his collegeus/buddies at the video store




plus it kinda fits the discription of what the guys need to do: get something for their boss


[quote=“Scarface is on strike”]
The funny thing is that I’m pretty positive in Italy it’s called “Le Iene”, meaning “The Hyenas”. I wonder how other countries translated the name “Reservoir Dogs”.
[/quote]

yeah I don’t like how they changed the title!