Reservoir Dogs

A crime boss named Joe Cabot assembles six experienced criminals, none of whom know each other, to rob a jewellery store. From the outset the plan falls apart, and the robbery turns into a bloody shootout.

This twelve-minute short is a proof of concept made with the support of the Sundance Institute, and it laid the groundwork for the feature that followed. Quentin Tarantino directed and wrote it, and it stands as the first of sixteen films he has directed in chronological order, ahead of the 1992 feature of the same name. David Jensen plays Joe Cabot, with Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink and Tarantino himself as Mr. White.

The short has a modest audience footprint, with ratings of 6.3 out of 10 on IMDb from around 1,200 votes and 7.5 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 216 votes. A critics' rating of 8.9 out of 10 from eighty-two reviews places it noticeably higher than either audience score, suggesting that reviewers responded to it more strongly than general viewers did. It remains a compact, early demonstration of the style its director would develop at greater length.