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It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years, but now we have a Tenth Anniversary Edition of Reservoir Dogs, one that gives us a chance to revisit a big-chinned, mile-a-minute chatterbox who would later bring "independent" filmmaking to the masses with the ridiculously successful Pulp Fiction. I still champion Dogs as his best work. It's not as ambitious as Fiction nor as accomplished as Jackie Brown, but there's an energy to Dogs that even Pulp can't rival. Tim Roth's voice as he groans and grimaces, the bloodied-up back seat of a white-upholstered Cadillac, or Steve Buscemi's smarmy reasoning for not tipping a waitress - these are moments that still ring loud and true.

But, just like my dad's reaction to it, Reservoir Dogs still remains a love-it-or-hate it postmodern proposition. In a lot of ways, it's a movie about nothing - a film of infinite self-reflexive possibility and pop culture smarts, but without any singular narrative sense of purpose. Sure, there's a story here, but it is almost superfluous; Tarantino's work in general drives so many viewers crazy because it's all about the excitement of the act of storytelling, not the story itself, that's most privileged.

So, what's the film actually about? Does it have anything to say? Yes, the plot revolves around a jewel heist, but who the hell cares? The banter among the characters is way more interesting to Tarantino, and he seems to love to investigate just how exciting it can be to tell visceral stories about nothing in particular. If you aren't bored shitless by the meandering dialogue ten minutes in, stick around; everyone else, don't bother. Today, Dogs is a fascinating curio, a way to pinpoint almost the exact birthdate of referential, super-bloody filmmaking that is still being mined today at multiplexes across America. Who would have guessed?

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and minted from a new high-def master, there has already been plenty of controversy surrounding this new DVD release, most of it negative. Direct comparisons between this new version and the previous, now- discontinued non-anamorphic widescreen DVD release do illustrate obvious differences between the two in terms of composition. This new transfer has been "opened up" on all sides, with noticeable extra image area on the top, bottom, left and right. While most sources indicate that the film was composed using the Super 35 process, it is worth mentioning that Quentin Tarantino states in a new interview produced for this DVD that the film was actually shot in Scope. Along with director of photography Andrzej Sekula's numerous comments throughout the new audio commentary as well, it seems to indicate that both at least signed off on this new master.

Alas, however great that original master may look, this actual DVD transfer has its share of problems. The most glaring are poor black levels and flat contrast. Blacks are not black at all, but rather dark gray, which does give the transfer a clear, almost antiseptic look, yet it is far too washed out. Sekula states he intended the film to have a bright, stark, contrasty look, which certainly comes across here, but somehow I doubt he intended it to be this bright?

As far as the actual print, it's in fine shape with few instances of blemishes, dirt or grain, and with the pumped-up blacks, shadow delineation is improved over the previous DVD. Colors are also nicely saturated (especially the reds), but too pale in this overly- bright transfer (the blood now looks like paint!). Compression artifacts are apparent, especially during some transitions, and I also noticed some ringing around sharply contrasted objects. Given that the original master is probably in quite nice shape, it's a shame this transfer fares as badly as it does. A real disappointment.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Featuring new Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, admittedly there is not much happening here sonically to get excited about. A low-budget film and dialogue intensive, the majority of the film sounds largely re- recorded and fake, and neither the Dolby Digital nor the DTS tracks can do much to help improve dynamic range. Both the music and some zippy stereo sound effects do enliven the proceedings, but as this is such a dialogue-driven film, the mix still sounds front heavy and less-than-enveloping.

Surround use is occasionally employed but only for the effects, with a few instances of true discrete rear pans, which sound a bit out of place when they do pop in. Due to the dedicated .1 LFE channel, low end is more pronounced than on the previous DVD, but still a bit less deep than most modern soundtracks. Comparing three scenes - the opening "Like a Virgin" lunch, the capture of the cop and the infamous "ear scene," differences in the DTS and Dolby tracks are minimal at best. Front and rear pans sound a bit more transparent on the DTS, but the remainder of the mix sounds almost identical. It's always nice to have a DTS option, but in this case there isn't much in the way of improvements to distinguish it.

Also included is the film's original English 2.0 stereo mix, Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Ten years, two full discs later, here's a ton of stuff that will likely make any Dog- hound wag their tail with glee. There's so much here that it's hard to catalog it all. Artisan certainly went all-out rounding up the not- quite-so-usual suspects to document the film's influences, going far beyond the mere "making of" the movie.

Let's start with disc one and the audio commentary, which is actually a collection of interviews with most of the major participants. All have been recorded separately, including Tarantino, producer Lawrence Bender, executive producer Monte Hellman, cinematographer Andrezj Sekla, editor Sally Menke, and cast members Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Michael Madsen, and even "ear man" Kirk Baltz. Alas, the quality of some of these recordings is poor (Tarantino's is filled with background distractions such as wind and noise) but it's certainly informative and well edited. An unnamed narrator introduces us to who's talking, and you gotta love the ever-energetic Tarantino, who has a few choice words for his critics. The rather jovial nature of the infamous ear scene is also refreshing, as it makes it now a bit easier to watch, knowing that no actual ear was harmed during the making of this movie...

Up next are a collection of six interviews from which most of the commentary was culled: Quentin Tarantino (15 min.), Chris Penn (7 min.), Tim Roth (9 min.), Michael Madsen (12 min.), producer Lawrence Bender (6 min.) and ear guy Kirk Baltz (7 min.) Presented in anamorphic widescreen, these clips try desperately to be hip in terms of their editing and odd graphical introductions, and questions range from the pithy to the fairly substantial. The highlight is probably Madsen, seen at home with the kids and the pets, which belies his image as being every bit the psycho as the characters he plays. Would you believe that he actually laments at one point that he's "not going to be remembered for Free Willy, but Reservoir Dogs"!?

Speaking of lobes, disc one also includes a collection of five deleted scenes - "Background Check," "No Protection" and "Doing My Job," plus two alternate, more graphic versions of the ear scene. (The close-up take is particularly gruesome, but because it looks rather fake, is actually the easiest to watch.) Running 12 minutes total, all the scenes are presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and in fairly good shape. No optional commentary is offered. Rounding out disc one is the film's original theatrical trailer in anamorphic widescreen and 2.0.

The above extras alone would probably be worth the price of admission for most fans, but we still have a whole second disc to get through. In addition to the full screen version of the flick, we have a collection of Critics Commentaries, which are actually over 50 minutes of sequences from the film, with often breathless commentary from Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, Film Comment's Amy Taubin, and Emanuel Levy, author of Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film. These are actually quite insightful and thought-provoking, so it is surprising Artisan didn't simply edit them all together as an actual second audio commentary instead of encoding this as a separate video stream. Definitely worth a listen if you're into more heady critical discourse.

More interviews can be found in Class of '92, which while not specifically about Reservoir Dogs, does offer 45 minutes of new interviews with Tarantino and filmmakers Katt Shea Rubin, Alex Rockwell, Chris Munch and Tom Kalin. All offer sometimes funny, sometimes bitter reminisces on their experience back at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, where Dogs made major waves and many claim the (re)birth of modern American independent cinema really began. Also included is the Sundance Institute's Filmmaker's Lab, with 14 minutes of footage shot in 1991 by Tarantino with actor Steve Buscemi to prepare for the film. Hard to slog through in its entirety, it does offer a bit of interest on the collaborative process, and how a scene can change substantially on its way to the final cut.

More featurettes abound in Tribute and Dedications, 24 more minutes of Reservoir Dogs plugs from Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, Pam Grier and Roger Corman, plus affectionate nods towards the late Lawrence Tierney and Eddie Bunker. All feature new interviews presented in anamorphic widescreen. Last but not least is Securing the Shot: Location Scouting with Billy Fox, a 5-minute magical mystery tour of film's minimalist if effective locations. A collection of stills with narration, this is rather dull, although it's hard not to be impressed with what Fox was able to do on a budget as limited as $20,000...

From the oddities file comes the amusing 5-minute Small Dogs, a chat session with Reservoir Dogs action figures creator Chris Carrington. Insubstantial and sick, but funny. More head scratchers are the 1- minute Reservoir Dogs Style Guide, a series of title cards which doesn't make much sense, if any. And K-Billy Radio also went a bit over my head, a series of four audio segments including radio excerpts from the film and outtakes with the alway-droll Steven Wright. I'm sure fans in the know will appreciate this more than I did?

Rounding it out is a poster "gallery" with all of three stills, and The Film Noir Web, which contains nearly 20 minutes of new interviews with acclaimed filmmakers Mike Hodges, Robert Polito, John Boorman, Donald Westlake and Stephen Frears, waxing philosophical on the art and application of film noir. Also included here is the text-based Noir Files: "Dave's Handy Pocket Guide to the Big Three" and "How to handle a Gun." Who is Dave? Why is he a Noir expert? Got me...but these are fairly informative if meager starters for the uninitiated.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts