What does the ‘Reservoir Dogs’ title mean?
An often-overlooked strength of Quentin Tarantino’s writing is his skill at picking titles for his movies. Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are all such fantastic, catchy names.
This isn’t a knack that extends to his first – and arguably his best – film, though. Reservoir Dogs might be a great movie, but its title is undeniably odd – albeit catchy – and, unlike Tarantino’s other work, feels largely irrelevant to the film itself. So, how did the director land on the title?
In actuality, nobody knows for sure. Save, that is, for Tarantino himself, but he’s never publicly commented on his reason for giving his debut this name. There are, however, a number of theories that have been suggested over the years. It’s been said that, back when Tarantino worked in a video store, either he or his girlfriend recommended the French film Au Revoir Les Enfants, and a customer misheard this as “reservoir dogs”. It’s also been suggested that the title is a reference to Straw Dogs.
Many of Tarantino’s titles are references to other films. Inglorious Basterds references a 1978 Italian war film with an almost identical title, Django Unchained is a clear reference to the 1966 spaghetti western Django (the theme song of that film is used in the opening of Unchained), The Hateful Eight is a clear parody of The Magnificent Seven, and as for Tarantino’s most recent film, several well-known movie titles have included the phrase Once Upon a Time in…, including two films by Sergio Leone. Therefore, given Tarantino’s track record, this theory makes a little more sense but still isn’t confirmed.
The closest thing Tarantino’s ever given resembling an explanation is that the title popped into his head when he visited a production company. The company was full of unmade scripts and they were jokingly described as ‘reservoir dogs’ – as in, dogs trapped in a reservoir tank and fighting for attention.
Tarantino hadn’t planned the film out properly at the time, but this seems like the most probable explanation out of the ones offered. The movie does revolve around a group of very violent individuals fighting it out in a claustrophobic space, after all.
The title could also be a reference to one of the film’s best lines. “Are you going to bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite?” This line is spoken by Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), easily the film’s most evil character, when taunting Mr. White (Harvey Keitel).
It remains to be seen as to whether or not Tarantino will ever explain the film’s title. He does quite enjoy leaving things a mystery – most notably, he never told his fans what was in that briefcase in Pulp Fiction – so perhaps he’ll reveal where the title came from, or perhaps he’ll just kick back and continue enjoying the fan theories.
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