What does the title "Reservoir Dogs" mean?

What does the title "Reservoir Dogs" mean? - From above chalkboard with THERE COMES A TIME WHEN SILENCE IS BETRAYAL inscription on black background

Aside from speculations of the title coming from Tarantino's mispronunciation of the French film name, what meaning does Reservoir Dogs have in context of the actual story line?



Best Answer

According to Urban Dictionary:

A rat. Slang term for one who snitches to the police, or is an undercover police officer themselves. Origin comes from the great size of rats living in and around reservoirs.

Near the end of the movie, the survivors come to a dramatic conclusion, one of them is a snitch or a cop. The title is actually a very good title, a reservoir is something that holds stuff inside (no get out) and dogs (criminals) see the diamond as a bone.

This is just my point of view, Tarantino himself bragged how cool it is for people to come up with their own significations, I don't think there is one set in concrete.

I don't want to sound rude or anything, but OP clearly stated that he wanted another answer than the one IMDb states with Quentin's French words being messed up.




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What does Reservoir Dogs title mean?

The title for the film first came to Quentin Tarantino while visiting a production company and noticing that they had a pile of unsolicited scripts under the label "Reservoir dogs". All those scripts were fighting with each other for attention as dogs trapped in a reservoir tank. The name got stuck in his mind.

What is the message of Reservoir Dogs?

Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fictions are stories about memory and meaning, and how fleeting the human understanding of a chaotic world can be. They are stories about the breakdown of social order, and of trying to find some way to navigate increasingly turbulent and unstable times.

Why is it called Reservoir?

In one version, Tarantino recommends it to a Video Archives customer who mishears him and says something along the lines of, "I don't want to see no reservoir dogs!" In another version, it was Quentin himself that had trouble pronouncing the title of the French film and resorted to calling it "the reservoir movie." He ...

Did people walk out of Reservoir Dogs?

But on one fateful showing of Quentin Tarantino's 1992 debut crime drama Reservoir Dogs at Spain's Sitges Film Festival, Tarantino saw five people walk out of the theatre during the iconic torture scene, including the horror genius Craven himself.



Reservoir Dogs - Movie Endings Explained




More answers regarding what does the title "Reservoir Dogs" mean?

Answer 2

From IMDb:

What does the title mean?

Tarantino doesn't typically answer this question directly, saying that he likes it when people come up with their own definitions for the phrase. He has called it "more of a mood title than anything else." One popular and oft-told story about the origin of the title is that former video store employee Tarantino used to mangle the title of the French film Au revoir les enfants, and his mispronounciation gave birth to the phrase "Reservoir dogs." Lawrence Tierney (who plays Joe Cabot) reportedly told a German reporter that Reservoir dogs was "a very famous expression in America for dogs who hang around a reservoir.

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