Jackie Brown (United States, 1997)
January 30, 2025
Of the nine films credited to Quentin Tarantino as a director (combining Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2 into a single entity), Jackie Brown may be the one most deserving of a re-assessment. Released after a three-year break following the now-classic Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown faced the enormous hurdle of trying to live up to its predecessor and, for better or worse, it was often viewed through the Pulp Fiction lens rather than on its own terms. The passage of nearly 30 years has allowed distance (and the growth of the director’s filmography) to warrant a second look.
The weaknesses I identified in my contemporaneous review remain legitimate – the movie is too long and its multi-perspective approach to a key sequence is more extraneous than important – but the overall caper is stronger than I gave Tarantino credit for and Samuel L. Jackson’s performance is every bit as riveting as his work as Jules in Pulp Fiction. The dialogue crackles and Pam Grier’s introduction to the Tarantino-verse is a highlight. The movie isn’t as unique or unexpected as Pulp Fiction, but it has its own charm and Elmore Leonard (whose novel Rum Punch provided the skeleton upon which Tarantino built the screenplay) is on record as praising the movie as the best adaptation of one of his novels.
Grier plays the title character, a flight attendant who gets caught transporting drugs and money into the United States. She's working for gun dealer Ordell Robbie (Jackson), but she keeps her mouth shut under questioning, despite pressure from ATF Agent Ray Nicolet (Michael Keaton) and LAPD Detective Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen). No longer sure whether or not he can trust Jackie, Ordell arranges for a bail bondsman, Max Cherry (Robert Forster), to post the necessary $10,000, then plans to shoot Jackie if she proves disloyal. Jackie passes Ordell's test, however, and soon the two are soon plotting a way to smuggle $500,000 of Ordell's money into the United States without tipping off the Feds. It doesn’t take long before just about everyone is after that money, including Jackie, Max, Ray, Ordell's perpetually oversexed and drugged-out girlfriend, Melanie (Bridget Fonda), and his right-hand man, Louis (Robert De Niro).
It takes a while for the movie to get going but some of the
early scenes are among the best the movie has to offer, at least for those who
enjoy the way Tarantino crafts interplay among characters. Case-in-point:
There’s a captivating sequence featuring Ordell, Louis, and Melanie lounging
around in front of a TV. Ordell is giving Louis a run-down on his gun-running
business while Melanie is flexing her toes for the camera. This goes on for
about 10 minutes – Tarantino is in no hurry to move on – before the scene
switches. During the course of the conversation, Tarantino reveals a lot of
little, important details while providing dialogue worthy of the “Royale with
Cheese” discourse from Pulp Fiction.
While many of Tarantino’s films have been notable for their big moments, Jackie Brown is a smorgasbord of smaller pleasures. It’s evident from the development and evolution of the story that the director was consciously downshifting from Pulp Fiction. There are fewer characters, the storyline is linear, and the twists are less thunderous. The movie has all the serpentine curves one expects from a well-executed caper/heist film but avoids any turns that are so over-the-top that they tip the whole thing into self-parody.
From an acting standpoint, it’s all about Grier (always a
favorite of Tarantino’s), Forster (who earned an Oscar nomination for this
no-nonsense, unsentimental portrayal), and Jackson (who has done some of his
best work in the director’s films). The secondary cast includes Bridget Fonda,
who doesn’t do a whole lot beyond hanging around barefoot, thereby allowing
Tarantino to include a few of his trademark shots. Robert De Niro is underused;
his role is so anonymous that Louis could have been played by almost any
halfway competent tough guy. Michael Keaton has a few nice scenes but nothing
more. And Chris Tucker is around for such a short time that it’s possible to
miss him.
The explicit Grier/Foxy Brown connection goes beyond the surname similarity. The font used for the titles is the same one from Foxy Brown. The music from another Grier mainstay, Coffy, is sampled throughout. Tarantino doesn’t stop with referencing Greir’s filmography: IMDb lists some 42 “references” in Jackie Brown with homages as obvious as The Graduate (the opening shot with Jackie on the airport conveyor belt) to those as obscure as Truck Turner.
At the time of its release, Jackie Brown was the
subject of a controversy concerning its repeated use of the N-word. (According
to Wikipedia, it’s used 38 times.) Tarantino defended it thus: “The minute any
word has that much power, as far as I'm concerned, everyone on the planet
should scream it. No word deserves that much power.” Spike Lee, among others,
wasn’t buying it and it became a major talking point in discussions about the
movie in particular and cultural appropriation in general. Samuel L. Jackson,
whose character uttered many of those N-words, argued that the way Ordell spoke
is representative of the way someone in his position would talk and to tone it
down would be dishonest to the character. (According to Pam Grier in a 2022
interview, many of the instances of the N-word were added by Jackson to Tarantino’s
dialogue.)
Tarantino offered an interesting perspective in one of the Blu-Ray extra features, remarking that the film is better after multiple viewings. “It's a hangout movie. Jackie Brown is better the second time, and I think it's even better the third and the fourth time. Maybe even the first time we see it, we go, 'Why are we doing all this hanging out? Why can't we get to more of the plot?' But, now the second time you see it, and the third time you see it, you're not thinking about the plot anymore. You're waiting for the hangout scenes.” It’s hard to disagree with that comment. I enjoyed the movie more on a subsequent viewing and was more engaged by those “hangout” scenes than the first time around. In terms of Jackie Brown’s placement in Tarantino’s overall filmography, I’d still place it in the bottom half (which speaks highly of his output) but not near the very bottom (where Death Proof sadly resides). But, especially for those who haven’t seen it in a while, it’s worth a revisit.
Jackie Brown (United States, 1997)
Cast: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Robert De Niro, Michael Keaton, Michael Bowen, Chris Tucker
Home Release Date: 2025-01-30
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, based on “Rum Punch” by Elmore Leonard
Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro
Music:
U.S. Distributor: Miramax
U.S. Home Release Date: 2025-01-30
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Violence)
Genre: Thriller
Subtitles: none
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Jackie Brown (1997)
- (There are no more better movies of Pam Grier)
- Mars Attacks! (1996)
- Jawbreaker (1999)
- (There are no more worst movies of Pam Grier)
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
- (There are no more worst movies of Robert Forster)
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