Reservoir Dogsis a modern crime classic, following the before-and-after of a jewel heist gone wrong. The movie was the first feature byQuentin Tarantino, and features an ensemble cast includingHarvey Keitel,Tim Roth,Michael Madsen, andSteve Buscemi. The crew of robbers, who are identified only by color-coordinated code names, are professional thieves on the run after their attempted getaway turns into a police shootout.
One of the supporting members of the crew is Mr. Blue, portrayed byEdward Bunker. Mr. Blue has limited screentime in the movie, as he goes off on his own after the heist and is not seen again, but his actor has a criminal past of his own that has turned into one of the most fascinating Hollywood success stories in recent history. Bunker’s inclusion in the film adds a touch of realism, and serves as an homage to the 1970s crime stories that Bunker wrote.
Edward Bunker Plays Mr. Blue in ‘Reservoir Dogs’
Decades before he was inReservoir Dogs, Bunker had a storied criminal past. Bunker served multiple prison sentences from the 1950s to the 1970s for crimes ranging from bank robberies to drug dealing and extortion. Bunker even becamethe youngest prisoner to ever serve time at San Quentin, at the age of 17. His final stint in prison came afterhe avoided a 20-year-sentence for drug pushing. He ended up serving five years. Bunker was released in 1975, after spending a cumulative 18 years of his life in and out of various criminal facilities. It would be the last time he engaged in any criminal activity. During his time in prison, Bunker began reading a lot, and eventually began writing as well. His life experience bled into his work, which often revolved around convicts assimilating into a non-criminal lifestyle. Bunker’s writing led to his eventual Hollywood success story.
Before ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ Edward Bunker Wrote a Movie Starring Dustin Hoffman
While Bunker was incarcerated for the last time in the early 1970s, he wrote a novel calledNo Beast So Fierce, which went on to beadapted into a screenplay by Bunker and a few other writers, includingMichael Mann(uncredited, and just a few years before he would release his own debut,Thief). The film adaptation,Straight Time, starredDustin Hoffmanas a criminal struggling to adjust to society after a six-year prison sentence.
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Bunker wrote a few more novels and screenplays, acted in a variety of projects, such asThe Running ManandTango & Cash. His personal experience as a criminal who had lived through many years in prison gave him a particular insight into writing crime fiction. This is how Bunker also landed a more production-oriented role on Mann’s 1995 crime epic,Heat, where heserved as a technical consultantand the basis forJon Voight’s character, Nate. All of these industry connections built up over the ’70s and ’80s left Bunker with a surprisingly prolific filmography.Reservoir Dogsnow stands out as the most popular movie that Bunker appeared in, but he had larger roles and far greater involvement in a wealth of movies leading up to working on Tarantino’s debut.
Quentin Tarantino’s Approach Taught Edward Bunker That Authenticity Isn’t Always the Goal
Compared to Bunker’s experience as a technical advisor onHeata few years later, he found that Tarantino took a completely different approach to realism.Reservoir Dogsis not a work that is intended to accurately portray the intricacies of a criminal conspiracy or heist.Choices are made in an effort to look interesting and to move characters into place for dynamic, exciting action or riveting dialogue sequences. It is a movie with a heightened approach in terms of writing, direction, and performance.
Inan interview promoting another film Bunker wrote,The Animal Factory, in 2000, he recalled offering Tarantino some technical notes.Bunker felt that the script was not realistic, citing things such as all the criminals meeting before the heist in matching outfits. His thinking was that this would result in a high likelihood that they’d be easily caught and identified if they managed to all get away clean. Of course, Bunker would be right about that in real life, but these guys were never going to get away clean, and the iconography of their costuming speaks for itself. Bunker also tried and failed to change some of his character’s dialogue, but eventually understood Tarantino’s vision after seeing the final film, saying, “So now from Quentin I’ve learned to be looser with my dialogue, to throw in the off-beat stuff.”
Tarantino’s media fixations have always bled through in his work.Kill Billis a recollection of martial arts cinemathat he loved.Once Upon a Time in Hollywooddepicts his affinity for many types of older Hollywood stories, but especially the Westerns that Rick Dalton works on. Such is the case forReservoir Dogs,a movie that modernized and stylized the archetypes and tropes of the gritty crime thrillers that came before it. Edward Bunker’s inclusion saw a living piece of crime cinema history leaving his mark on Tarantino’s debut. Mr. Blue doesn’t make it through much of the film, butReservoir Dogsis all the more authentic because of him.
Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogsis available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.
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