‘Reservoir Dogs’ Smallest, Most Mysterious Role Hides a Fascinating True Story

Over thirty years after its release, it’s undeniable that Reservoir Dogs is still one of the best installments Quentin Tarantino has ever made, and one of its best aspects is the mysterious but memorable cast of characters who help guide the plot. None is more intriguing than Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker), who is by far the most obscure in the group, and the most fascinating thing about the character might be the man who played him. Being a former criminal, Edward Bunker was perfectly suited for the role and had a small but notable film career by the time he starred in the project. Despite his skepticism from both angles, he eventually came to appreciate Reservoir Dogs for what it was, and his inclusion provides a small amount of authenticity to a film that never tries to rely upon it.

Edward Bunker Had Experience With a Life of Crime

Almost from the beginning, Edward Bunker had ties to both Hollywood and the criminal lifestyle. Born outside LA and becoming a juvenile delinquent at the age of 17, Bunker was inspired by portrayals of gangsters in cinema and openly used them to amplify his image as a bank robber. Among the biggest personal influences for him were James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, who embodied the gangster trend during his childhood. Of course, culture changes with time, and he later noted in a BrooklynRail interview that the figures who inspire criminals today have vastly changed:

“If you’re going to be a criminal, you gotta know what kind of criminal, how you’re going to act. You have to have a style. And they had a code. You killed a dirty rat, with one shot. Nowadays they just open up with a machine gun. Just like then, life still seems to imitate art, and so now kids just spray and pray. They mimic Pacino’s Scarface, not Paul Muni’s.”

After being released from San Quentin, Bunker began a career in Hollywood, initially as a consultant. In the late 70s, he contributed to the opening prison scene in Straight Time and even gave advice to Dustin Hoffman about the proper mannerisms for his character. Years later, he played a major role in the production of Runaway Train, even making some changes to the movie as its primary writer. According to Bunker, the team wanted to have Jon Voight’s character kill his wife, but he vetoed the idea because doing so would render him a social pariah in prison, contradicting his legendary reputation. There have been many great gangster films in history, but his consulting efforts seem to have paid off since the film proved popular with other convicts. “I got convicts up north who bought the film just for the scene where I stick the guy who is trying to kill Voight,” Bunker later noted. This would not be the last time he worked with Jon Voight either, serving as an inspiration for his character in Heat, if his words are to be believed.

In ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ Edward Bunker Was Both Actor and Consultant

Perhaps the most notable role Bunker had in his career was his small role as Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs, which feels particularly ironic when one considers the size of the role. Out of the six gang members, Mr. Blue is the criminal who viewers know the least about, since he is killed off-screen and has only a few lines in the opening scene, where viewers got their first taste of Tarantino, both on screen and behind the script. According to him, Bunker met Tarantino when the director analyzed Straight Times for a project at the Sundance Institute and kept the former criminal in mind when he wanted someone who looked like a bank robber for the part in his first film.

Today, Tarantino is best known for his witty dialogue and excessive violence, but Bunker was not a fan of it, either as a criminal or a writer. With time, though, he came to understand why it worked so well in Reservoir Dogs, especially with its unique tone: “But when I got the script, and it started with eight pages of dialogue, I was like, ‘Man, what the hell is this?’ … But then when I saw the movie, I realized it was not supposed to be real. It’s really a ‘dark as you can get’ comedy, and it worked.”

Love him or hate him, Tarantino is famous for his exaggerated style, and his first film can feel both like a thriller or black comedy, sometimes in the same scene. To that end, it’s ironic but fitting that a screenwriter would learn to appreciate Tarantino and his writing style far later than most. As a real criminal, Bunker would know first-hand how they speak, but also understand, as a writer, how to make dialogue compelling. For a man who focuses many of his films on crime and revenge, such praise from Bunker might be the best compliment he could ever have asked for.

Reservoir Dogs is currently available to rent on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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