Tagarchief: Michael Madsen

08. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Quentin Tarantino’s sledgehammer arrival in cinemaland is a terrific crime thriller. The screenplay is the stuff of dreams with too many memorable dialogues and scenes to mention. And the non-linear storytelling is absolutely brilliant.

The video clerk turned filmmaker Tarantino managed to assemble an exceptional cast for his project: Harvey Keitel is solid as a rock, Steve Buscemi is funny as hell and Tim Roth is seriously convincing as the tormented Mr. Orange.

Then there are two actors portraying very realistic ánd very scary psychopaths: Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde and Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie. The scene in which the terrible Mr. Blonde tortures a police officer is still extremely hard to stomach.

What is so special about Reservoir Dogs is that it is a very clever homage to heist films, but outclasses many of the films it pays homage to (while they are really good films).

At the same time, it has the impact of an extremely hard hitting horror film. Without a doubt, the most sensational debut ever in Hollywood. If it wasn’t for Michael Mann’s Heat, this would be the top heist film on the list.

18. Donnie Brasco (1997)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Mike Newell
Writers: Paul Attanasio (screenplay), Joseph D. Pistone (book), Richard Woodley (book)
Stars: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Donnie Brasco opens with New York wiseguy Lefty (Pacino) meeting Don the Jeweller (Depp) in a bar. He wants him to sell a diamond on his behalf, but Donnie turns him down because the stone is a fugazi, a fake, an artificial specimen. We soon learn that Donnie is a fugazi himself. He is an undercover FBI agent acting like a potential Mafia associate.

Lefty likes him a lot and introduces him to his dangerous crew that is part of the Bonanno crime family. Now Donnie is in and he’s assigned to take down Lefty’s boss Sonny Black (Madsen) and his whole crew with him if possible. Pretty soon tension for Donnie reaches a boiling point both in the mob and in his private life with his estranged wife and children.

Donnie Brasco is based on the incredible true story of FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone told in the 1988 book ‘Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Maffia’. You must admire the balls it takes to infiltrate this gang of sociopathic murderers.

The casting agency who did this movie deserves an Oscar. The mob world it takes place in feels 100% authentic and the lead cast is sensational. It is especially enjoyable to watch Pacino, normally a boss in mob movies, play an uncertain, low level, nickel and dime foot soldier.

In the undercover cop genre, Donnie Brasco is up there with the very best, like State of Grace and The Departed. It’s an excellent movie with some very powerful scenes, such as Donnie being forced to help cut up the bodies of slain enemies.

It is also the number one guide to learn how to behave as a wiseguy. There is a whole scene explaining how to use the term fuhgeddaboudit which is both hilarious and unforgettable.

“Forget about it is, like, if you agree with someone, you know, like ‘Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass. Forget about it!’ But then, if you disagree, like ‘A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it!’ You know? But then, it’s also like if something’s the greatest thing in the world, like, ‘Minghia! Those peppers! Forget about it!’ But it’s also like saying ‘Go to hell!’ too. Like, you know, like ‘Hey Paulie, you got a one-inch pecker?’ and Paulie says ‘Forget about it!’ Sometimes it just means ‘Forget about it’.”

Dungeon Classics #35: Sin City

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Sin City (2005, USA)

Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba
Running Time: 124 mins.

The cinematic masterpiece Sin City weaves together three interconnected hard-boiled mysteries filled with sex, blood, and violence, all set in the criminal haven of Basin City. With its noir-inspired silhouettes of men in long coats, gravelly voiceovers revealing inner thoughts, and splashes of color that contrast with the shadowy streets, every frame of this film is a visual feast. Each of the three stories revolves around tough, beautiful women with big hearts who find themselves in serious danger, aided by male loners. Bruce Willis plays Hartigan, an aging cop with a bad heart who is determined to protect young Nancy from a sadistic, murderous pedophile. Mickey Rourke portrays Marv, a psychopathic brute made of concrete, who fights on the side of good as he seeks revenge on the men who killed Goldie, a prostitute who gave him the night of his life. Clive Owen is Dwight, a mysterious figure who helps the women of Old Town cover up the murder of a corrupt cop, staving off a potentially bloody conflict. Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s iconic comic series is one of the most successful graphic novel-to-screen translations in cinematic history. Shot and edited by Rodriguez himself, it’s a remarkable technical achievement. But the film’s brilliance doesn’t stop at the visuals, its cast and screenplay are equally stellar. Miller’s sharp, punchy dialogue, already compelling on the page, is brought to life perfectly by an ensemble of outstanding actors: Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Rutger Hauer, Alexis Bledel, Elijah Wood, Michael Madsen, Brittany Murphy, and Clive Owen. The performances elevate the material into something extraordinary. Without a doubt, Sin City is Rodriguez’s finest work to date. It’s a true work of cinematic art.

QT8: The First Eight

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

I was 13 years old when I saw the video Reservoir Dogs at my local video store. There were – for me at the time – not many familiar actors in it. But the cover looked pretty cool with guys in suits with guns. Plus there was a lot of praise on it from critics, so I decided to give it a shot. I had no idea what to expect, but Jesus Christ was it a good movie! Ridiculously great filmmaking. One of the best movies I had seen at that point and to this day still.

It is funny to hear all these actors in the documentary QT8: The First Eight basically relate to the exact same experience. Tim Roth, shown while being carried in the warehouse by Harvey Keitel, remembers talking to Keitel about what they had just shot and saying: “Man, this is going to be a really great movie!” Keitel agreed.

Reservoir Dogs premiered on Cannes in 1992, very prestigious for a debut, and it was a great success. Everybody wanted to meet Quentin there and he became a movie making star overnight. Everybody said: “Can you believe this guy? He can write and direct and it’s sensational stuff.”

For a long time I was jealous of Tarantino. And when I watch this documentary I still am. I mean, wouldn’t it be something to be able to write screenplays like this guy? And this is also a shared emotion by many people interviewed for this doc. Talent like this is rare. Many people, including me, tried to write scripts like him. But to no avail.

His first screenplays – True Romance and Natural Born Killers – he had to sell to pay the rent. True Romance was originally told in non-chronological order Tarantino-style. Oh and the pop culture loving Clarence, basically Quentin’s alter ego – died at the end. Luckily Tony Scott changed that. At least I for one liked the happy ending.

Tarantino wanted to become a director, so he wrote a script that he could do on a low budget: Reservoir Dogs. Harvey Weinstein distributed the film. After that everybody in Hollywood wanted to work with him, but the Weinstein’s got to produce all his movies up until The Hateful Eight. Then the scandal broke out, and Tarantino – who according to Michael Madsen had known about Weinstein’s misconduct for some time (read Tarantino’s confession-story here) – switched to Sony for his ninth movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

And this Weinstein-business is the only major stain on Tarantino’s career. That, and pushing Uma Thurman to do a car stunt in Kill Bill, which went wrong causing permanent physical problems for her. No good, Mr. Quentin. But there is a lot to balance it out. He is described by everyone in the doc as a very nice guy who enjoys life, and appears to be a great friend for his many cronies.

Pulp Fiction, that followed Reservoir Dogs, is one of the masterpieces of the past 50 years. Michael Madsen, for whom the part of Vincent Vega was originally written, was committed to Wyatt Earp at that time. Nightmare! He takes it well, commenting on the extremely successful casting of John Travolta. “It is one of main reasons the movie worked.” Plus Travolta can dance and Madsen – who did a dance scene in Reservoir Dogs – can’t, at least in his own opinion. “They would have had to change the script into that they don’t win the dance contest.”

How do you follow up a masterpiece like Pulp? You don’t. Just make a very good genre film instead starring Pam Grier, queen of the blaxploitation movies Quentin went to see during his childhood. Jackie Brown is a beautiful film about people trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Then he made another genre film with a strong female lead, a mash-up between Hong Kong cinema and a spaghetti western. Kill Bill is an astonishing accomplishment. Bit of trivia: The razor the Bride uses to escape from the coffin in Vol. 2 is the same used by Mr. Blonde in the torture scene in Dogs. Everything is related in the Tarantino universe.

Then he went on to make another feministic movie with powerful girls in it. Death Proof is a clever slasher flick / carploitation movie shot by the maestro himself. With an unforgettable Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike. After that came his war movie effort. Inglourious Basterds is unlike any war film ever done before. It is storytelling at his best. Django Unchained is another historic film and it’s brutal. It might just be a little too funny for a film about slavery. But Tarantino likes to hand out justice to his characters. Hitler gets machine gunned to death in Basterds and in Django, the black hero – after having killed a ton of slavers – rides off into the sunset with his girl, an image you won’t find in many westerns.

The Hateful Eight, the final movie treated in this doc, is in a way Reservoir Dogs redone as western. Everything comes full circle. Even Weinstein’s story. Apparently John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth (played by Kurt Russell) is based on the monstrous Weinstein. He gets a big fat lesson in the film. Tarantino said many times that he wants to quit at ten movies, because otherwise he fears the quality will go down and people will say: ‘This one is not so good, but this guy used to make great movies’. Let’s hope he will break his word and continue to make movies forever. His style and voice are unique and irreplaceable in Hollywood. Whatever happens, currently nine films are in the can. And I will certainly keep enjoying his work till the end of my days and share it with friends. When you absolutely, positively, want to blow away everybody motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes.