Hi all, I’m new here, but have been an avid reader of the Straight Dope for almost 10 years. Being a wealth of usless trivia myself, I’ve never really had a need to ask a question until now. This has been bothering me for some time now, and I have researched extensively and come up with zilch. I am hoping that someone here knows the answer. It’s driving me mad.
I am a big Quentin Tarantino fan (and no, this isn’t about the briefcase), and I know just about everything about his movies except one thing. Where does the name Reservoir Dogs come from? There are neither dogs, nor a reservoir even mentioned in the movie. The only thing I can think of is that I know when Tarantino originally planned to make this movie, it was going to be done with a few close friends with an extremely small budget, and perhaps it was going to be filmed by an old reservoir for the hideout scenes. Just a guess though.
Does anyone know the answer…or at least have an educated guess?
Apparently its a slang synonym for “rats.” Or at least so my Resevoir Dogs-crazed high school boyfriend claimed.
I heard that as a video rental clerk, QT heard someone ask for “Au revoir les enfants” as “Reservoir Dogs”.
My understanding was that Tarantino’s girlfriend at one point asked him if he wanted to rent “Au Revior les enfants,” and he responded, “I don’t wanna see no Reservoir Dogs.” It struck him as funny, and made a neat title for the movie. In any case, his story is that it’s a bastardization of the French title.
IIRC, the “Reservoir” part came about as previously mentioned, and the “Dogs” was taken from another film, “Straw Dogs”.