He made, like, the coolest gangster films ever. like the films of Jean-Pierre Melville, Bob The Gambler, Le Doulos, which is my favorite screenplay of all time, with Jean-Paul Belmondo it's fantastic. Tarantino has cited Melville as an influence for the costumes in Reservoir Dogs and also said in an interview with Josh Becker: That said, Kubrick and Thompson did work together after The Killing. As per Robert Polito’s Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, Thompson “virtually had to be restrained in his seat from exploding” when he saw the credits. However, Kubrick credited himself with the screenplay and gave Thompson an ‘additional dialogue’ credit, almost causing the pair to fall out. It’s also worth noting that legendary crime author Jim Thompson allegedly wrote the majority of the screenplay for The Killing, adapted from Lionel White’s novel Clean Break. Like The Killing it stars Sterling Hayden, but in a 1992 interview with Paul Zimmerman, Tarantino was quick to state his preference for Kubrick’s film, “ Killing is almost a paraphrase remake of Jungle, but I think it’s a lot better.” I didn't go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my Killing, my take on that kind of heist.Īnother film, similar in tone and subject matter, that Reservoir Dogs has often been compared to is The Asphalt Jungle (1950). In an interview with the Seattle Times Tarantino said: Like Kubrick, Tarantino uses a number of flashbacks to form the narrative and show how the robbery was botched. Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 noir The Killing is another influence often cited when talking about Reservoir Dogs. 'The Killing' (1956) directed by Stanley Kubrick Tarantino often owns his influences, but has never (to the best of my knowledge) directly referenced City on Fire as inspiration, although he did once say in an interview with Film Threat, “I loved City on Fire, I got the poster framed in my house, so it's a great movie.” There’s an excellent article on Eastern Kicks that compares and contrasts Reservoir Dogs and City on Fire. Despite the likeness, Reservoir Dogs is uniquely its own. Check out Mike White’s 1995 short ‘ Who Do You Think You’re Fooling?’ which compares some of the key scenes from both movies. The similarities don’t end there, though. Orange, Chow Yun-fat’s Ko Chow finds himself at a moral crossroads, forcing him to choose between loyalty to his new friend and criminal justice.

It focuses on an undercover cop who infiltrates a gang of criminals and is involved in a heist gone wrong. Perhaps the most obvious influence on Reservoir Dogs is Ringo Lam’s 1987 Hong Kong crime thriller City on Fire. 'City on Fire' (1987) directed by Ringo Lam

Reservoir dogs box office