Retrospective: Reservoir Dogs

I didn't expect to write about Tarantino this much, but Michael Madsen died and I had to do something.

Michael Madsen's Mr. Blonde is frequently labeled a psychopath by other characters in Reservoir Dogs and members of the audience. But he lacks the propensity for gratuitous violence generally associated with psychopathy. Mr. Blonde exhibits loyalty to Nice Guy Eddie and Joe. He always has a clear justification for his violence beyond "killing is fun, ain't it?" Carving a cop's ear off isn't just sadism to him — it's justice for his years of torment in prison. He's looking at a sick world and trying to cure it with leechcraft.

What makes Madsen's portrayal of Mr. Blonde so unsettling is how subdued he acts. Madsen plays Mr. Blonde not as a violent psychopath but as an extreme moral simpleton. It's not that Mr. Blonde simply likes violence — he treats it as a natural, unromantic part of his job. He's just never considered not killing people.

Like all of Tarantino's early movies, Reservoir Dogs gives its cast of scumbags an ethical and practical quandary to overcome and sees who comes out the most unscathed. Tarantino's universe is one of scumbag morality where the hero is whoever lets themself be the noblest scumbag, the hero in a context where heroism is impossible. In Reservoir Dogs, weirdly, Mr. White, clearly the noblest of the gang, is undone by his better nature — his loyalty to Mr. Orange leads him to betray everything he stands for. The slimy Mr. Pink is the one who seems to get away. Is it a moral lecture? Of course not. It's Michael Madsen waving an ear in your face. God bless this movie.