The Reservoir Dogs scene about Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” prompted the singer to send a message to Quentin Tarantino.
In the filmmaker’s 1992 directorial debut, which was released in the US 30 years ago this week, the opening scene sees the main characters engaging in a discussion about Madonna’s 1984 song “Like a Virgin”.
It’s the character of Mr Brown, played by Tarantino, who posits that the song is “about a girl who dares a guy with a big dick”.
He adds: “The entire song – it’s a metaphor for big dicks.”
Mr Blonde (Michael Madsen) disagrees with Mr Brown, and says he thinks the song is about a woman who has been hurt by several relationships, and who eventually finds a nice guy.
Two weeks after the film was released, Madonna released her fifth album, Erotica. It was around this time that Madonna reportedly shared her response to the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs in a message she wrote on an autographed copy of the record.
The singer is said to have given Tarantino the album after meeting him at a party while he was travelling in Europe for the film’s release overseas. Her message read: “To Quentin, it’s not about dick. It’s about love. Madonna.”
In 1987, years before Reservoir Dogs was released, Madonna spoke about the song in an interview with Rolling Stone, saying: “I was singing about how something made me feel a certain way – brand-new and fresh – and everyone else interpreted it as, ‘I don’t want to be a virgin anymore. F*** my brains out!’ That’s not what I sang at all.”
Reservoir Dogs grossed $2.9m (£2.5m) from a budget of $1.2m (£1m). The film co-stars Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi.
