Right OK time for a review on this blog as its been a wee while since the last one as I have been busy with my tennis blog because of the US Open, which finishes tonight so I thought I might as well do a post on here in the meantime. So this one is on another Quentin Tarantino movie, Jackie Brown, which was his 3rd feature film made back in 1997. So let's give this mother a look...
So the film begins with its main character, Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) who works for a small Mexican airline as a flight attendant. Jackie as a sideline also smuggles in money for a black market gun runner, Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) who lives in L.A. and is under close observation from the ATF. Ordell also learns that one of his couriers, Beaumont Livingston (Chris Tucker) has been arrested and organises for his bail by paying a visit to a bail bondsman, Max Cherry (Robert Forster). On Beaumont's release, Ordell pays him a visist and persuades him to go along for a ride as part of a business transaction and asks him to get in the boot of his car, which Beaumont reluctantly does, however not longer after Ordell stops the car, takes a gun, get's out and opens the boot and kills Beaumont. Not long after Ordell meets up with an old friend of his, Louis Gara (Robert De Niro) who was his former cellmate and shows him Beaumont's body in the boot and tells him it was a clear cut case of "him or me" in that he had to ensure Beaumont wouldn't become an informant for the ATF.
Meanwhile Jackie is under surveillance by the ATF as a result of some information Beaumont had given to them as they spot her in an underground car park at an airport, where an ATF agent, Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and LAPD police officer Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen) detain her and search her bag filled with Ordell's cash, only to find some cocaine as well. Jackie is then arrested on the charge of intent to selling cocaine after she refuses to cooperate and sent to jail. Ordell then visits Max again and arranges for her bail and when Max meets up with Jackie he becomes attracted to her when they go for a quick drink after her release. Jackie then goes back home only to find Ordell at her doorstep, who is intent on killing her in order that she doesn't talk, but Jackie having discreetly stolen Max's gun points it at Ordell's crotch and pushes him against the wall. After a heated exchange Jackie then decides to help Ordell smuggle the remainder of his money into the country, which is $550,000 worth so he can then retire afterward and she will in the meantime pretend to help the authorities. In order to carry out the plan, Ordell get's help from Melanie (Bridget Fonda) a surfer girl who lives with him and also from his friend Louis. However Jackie's real intentions are to steal $500,000 of the money herself and she offers Max a cut of the money as well if he agrees to help her. And from here this where the whole thing starts to get complicated as Jackie must try and find a way to outwit Ordell and at the same time no end up behind bars at the hands of the authorities.
It has to be said that in terms of Tarantino films, Jackie Brown is actually something of a breath of fresh air, as for starters it is a far more mature and restrained film than either Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and it is also considerably less violent as well. The film was also an adaptation of Leonard Elmore's book, Rum Punch, in which the main character is actually white, but Tarantino decided to change her to black and her name from Jackie Burke to Brown. Elmore himself was said to have been delighted with Tarantino's adaptation of his book and it also remains a faithful adaptation as well although Tarantino still throws in some of his typical touches as well as keeping the profanity pretty high throughout (but hey that is to be expected with him!).
Moving onto the performances, well there is where the film really excels as the cast are all largely top notch and Pam Grier is terrific in the lead role as Jackie Brown. Grier was a popular Blaxploitation actress back in the 1970s and from the start Tarantino was keen to get her for the role which is easy to see why as it would be hard to imagine anyone else play the character so well. And it has to be said that Jackie Brown is easily the strongest female character in any of Tarantino's films, apart from the Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill, but here Jackie is a more realistic character and not some near superhuman killer, but a middle aged woman who is worried about her future and trying to hold down a low paid job as a flight attendant for a small airline, who sees Ordell's money as a way out for herself. Grier herself has some good highlights in the film such as the scene where she arrives back home after being bailed out of jail only to find Ordell show up who proceeds to quietly question her as he intends to kill her, she presses a gun against Ordell's crotch and she says "Now take your hands off from around my throat, nigga!". Grier also shares a nice onscreen chemistry with Robert Forster as Jackie and Max eventually scheme together to steal Ordell's money and share a good scene where they meet at the mall and Jackie asks Max twice if he would take the money, the first time he says he would be tempted, and she says "I'm not sure you answered my question. If you had a chance, unemployed now, to walk off with half a million dollars, would you take it?". Grier also has some good moments Jackson where they argue and also with Keaton in the scene where he confronts her over the money run going awry. And in the scene Keaton's character, Nicolete angrily asks Jackie if she has any idea where the money went and Jackie says "No I don't even have any idea where the motherfuckin money is!" and Nicolete says if she will take a polygraph and she says "Yeah if it will make you motherfuckin happy! Put it right there, I'll do it!". And then there is the scene where Jackie reflects over her life as she talks with Max the day after her release from jail and says to him "And now with this arrest over my head, I'm scared. If I lose my job I gotta start all over again, but I got nothing to start over with. I'll be stuck with whatever I can get. And that shit is more scary than Ordell".
Samuel L Jackson is also great in the film as Ordell, the main antagonist, and he get's most of the film's best dialogue to say and in fine tradition it is largely all profane. Jackson however also makes Ordell somewhat charming aswell even though Ordell is essentially just a street hood who thinks he is smarter than he actually is. Jackson has plenty of highlights in the film and the first one that springs to mind is the scene where he shows off his knowledge of guns to his former cellmate, Louis and he shows him the clip of the AK-47. And Ordelll says "AK-47! The very best there is. When you absolutely, positively gotta kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes!". Also another funny moment is where he walks into a bar and meets with Jackie who is nicely scrubbed up and he says to her "Shit, Jackie. You come in this place every Saturday night I bet you need nigga repellant to keep motherfuckers off your ass!". Also there is the scene where Ordell goes to Jackie's apartment after she is released from jail and he puts his hands gently around her throat and she cocks Max's gun and aims it at his crotch and he says "Is that what I think it is?" and Jackie asks "What do you think it is?" and he says "I think its a gun pressed up against my dick!". Another hilarious moment Jackson has is when he hides at one of the girl's places he has set up and he looks around her filthy room and says "Damn girl, how can you live like this?!" and she says "Like what?" and he says "This! This is some repugnant shit!". Another one of Jackson's best scenes is also where Louis picks up Ordell after the money exchange and he finds out that Jackie has double crossed her and it dawns on him she did it. And he says "It was Jackie Brown" and Louis says "why?" and Ordell says "I'll ask her before I blow that bitch's brains out!". And when Louis inadvertently reveals he saw Max Cherry in the clothes store, Ordell quickly puts two and two together and chastises Louis for doing nothing about it and says to him "You gonna tell me reason you lost every goddamn cent I have in the world?! Let me tell you the reason, motherfucker! The reason is, your ass ain't worth a shit no more!" and he proceeds to shoot Louis in the stomach and says "What the fuck happened to you, man? Her ass use to be beautiful!" and he shoots him again at point blank range in the chest before ditching the car and walking away. And lastly one of my favourite lines from Sam is when Ordell arrives back at Melanie's apartment having taken Louis out to get some new clothes and Ordell says to him "Well I couldn't have Louis looking like no bum" and Louis meekly protests and Ordell says "Come on, man, you had that Salvation army thing goin on!".
Robert Forster is also excellent in his role as Max Cherry, the bail bondsman, who get's involved in Jackie's scam to steal the money as he falls for her. Forster who had been out of the limelight for years revived his career with this role and also received an academy award nomination for his performance. Forster has some good scenes as well in the film such as the scene where he meets with Ordell for the second time as Ordell wants to bail out Jackie. And in the scene Max wearily tells Ordell "Ordell this isn't a bar, you don't have a tab!" and as Ordell tries to make Max sympathise with him over Jackie's situation, Max says "Is white guilt suppose to make me forget that I run a business?". Forster's best moments in the film are generally in his scenes with Grier and the two of them share some good scenes together on screen. One of the best moments is where Max meets with Jackie at the mall and he tells her how he wants to get out of the bail business and he tells her when he decided, which was the night they both met. And he says to Jackie "Yeah that I went to pick up a guy. So I sneak into his house and wait for him. So I went to my office and took another gun and a stun gun and went to this guy's house in El monte and waited for him to come home" and Jackie asks what he would do when the guy came home and Max says "Shoot him with the stun gun. While he's incapacitated, cuff him and take him to county. He never came home. But I'm sitting on the couch in the dark, and the whole house smells of cat pee. So after a couple of hours I think "what am I doing here? Nineteen years of this shit?!" So I made up my mind. That's it."
As for the other cast members, Robert De Niro is quite good in his role as Louis Gara, although his performance is largely subdued until nearer the end when Louis grows tired and impatient with Melanie during the money exchange scene. But De Niro still has some good moments such as in the scene where Louis and Melanie chat with one another after Ordell has left and Melanie casually asks him "You wanna fuck?" and Louis, who is a little taken aback at first, simply says "Yeah". And it cuts to three minutes later, and we hear the grunts and groans of them having sex and as they finish, Melanie says "that was good" and Louis gasping says "Yeah that hit the spot!". Also later in the scene where Melanie winds up Louis to breaking point in the car park at the mall after they have got the bag he suddenly spins round to her and says "Don't say anything else, okay? I'm telling you, keep your mouth shut!" and as Melanie is about to continue he warns again and says "I mean it. Don't say one fuckin word!" and as Melanie says sarcastically "OK Louis" he takes out his gun and shoots her twice! And later Louis picks up Ordell who asks him where Melanie is and he says "Well that's what I gotta tell you. She bugged me the whole time and she got pissy with me because I wouldn't let her carry the bag. And I couldn't remember where I parked the car and she got on me about that "Is it this aisle, Lou-is??? Is that aisle, Lou-is??" Totally fucking with my nerves, man!" and he tells Ordell he shot her which leads into their last moment together in the film.
In other performances Bridget Fonda is also really good in her role as Melanie, Ordell's blonde haired surfer girl, who spends most of her time smoking pot and watching TV and bitches and complains alot throughout the film, which eventually becomes her own undoing. And her best scenes include when Melanie chats with Louis at her apartment and she says to her that she met a guy over in Japan and she shows him a photo of them and she says "I met this guy his name was Hirosh...Hiro something. But we didn't have much to say to each other, as his English was terrible, but what I was going to say as his English was better than my Japanese. Anyway I keep that because of all the time I spent there it was the only picture I got of me in Japan" and she points to the background behind her in the photo and says "That's Japan!". And later on when Melanie winds up Louis after the money exchange and they walk through the car park as Louis struggles to remember where he parked the car, she teases him by saying "Jesus but if you two aren't the biggest fucks up I've seen in my life.... how did you ever rob a bank?! When you robbed banks did you have to go look for your car then too?! No wonder you went to jail!". And she carries winding up Louis by saying "Is it THIS aisle Lou-iss? Is it this aisle or the next one over??? Lou-isssss???" right before she get's shot!
And lastly Michael Keaton puts in a pretty good performance also as Ray Nicolete, the ATF agent who surveillances Ordell and cuts a deal with Jackie to help them get Ordell in the act. Keaton's best scene comes when Nicolete angrily confronts Jackie after the exchange goes awry and he tells her "I sure hope you didn't do anything stupid, Jackie". And lastly lastly Michael Bowen is also good as the LAPD officer, Dargus who works with Nicolete and he gives Jackie a hard time on their first meeting and he says to her about her poor income "$16,000 plus benefits? You didn't exactly set the world on fire, did you, Jackie?!".
As for the direction Tarantino does a great job here with the film although he paces the film a little more leisurely then I personally would have liked he still keeps the story ticking along nicely and makes good use of visual sense and makes the odd nod to other filmmakers such as Brian De Palma in the scene where we see the split scan shot of Max check the glove compartment of his car to find his gun missing and Jackie click it against Ordell. The film's opening scene is also a strong nod to the beginning of The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman, as Jackie travels along a travelator. Tarantino's screenplay is also funny and even charming in places and is also very witty (not to mention foul mouthed as well) although he did come under fire from Spike Lee for the use of the word "nigga" in the film and accused him of providing the film with racist overtones and that as a white man he didn't have the right to write for black characters, which Tarantino strongly objected to as he said in the press "Spike Lee says I can't write black characters?? Fuck you, THAT'S racist!!".
The film's soundtrack is also excellent and Tarantino again expertly chooses some soul and R&B tracks which fit the film perfectly. The most notable tracks include Bobby Womack's "Across 110th street" which is used at the start and end of the film, The Brothers Johnson "Strawberry 23", The Delfonics "Didn't I (Blow you mind this time)" (although I'm not a big fan of that one!). Also there are some other good tracks such as "The lions and the cucumber" by The Vampires sound corporation, "Midnight confessions" by The Grass Roots and "Cissy Strut" by The Meters.
As for Jackie Brown's flaws...... well the film hasn't got too many to moan about apart from maybe as I hinted at the film at two and hours long is a bit on the long side and there are some scenes where are very drawn out. One such scene that springs to mind in that regard is when Ordell picks up Beaumont and spends forever getting him in the boot and driving him out in the middle of nowhere so he can shoot him or the money exchange scene itself which is told from the different perspectives of all those involved, which really drags things out. Another criticism that could be levelled at the film is there are still tinges of misogny in Tarantino's screenplay and this is evident with Melanie's character, who is an inccesant nag who get's killed as a result by Louis, purely because she didn't know when to shut up. And its Tarantino's inclusion of having Melanie killed that proves to be the one shocking violent moment in the film and the one bit of "Tarantino" action that we get in the film where he just has to have one surprise kill in there. And in the end you think why did Louis have to kill her and as Ordell says himself "couldn't you just hit her?" and he later himself laments that she was dead to Max "I told that fuckin Louis all he had to do was hit her in the mouth, but no he had to shoot her!". I guess Tarantino though likes to create nagging female characters such as Melanie in Jackie Brown or Jodie in Pulp Fiction to act as a direct contrast to the men to keep them in their place.
But that aside Jackie Brown is still one of Quentin Tarantino's most enjoyable films as well as his most mature one to date as he makes it all about the characters and less about the guns, blood and violence that usually is to be found in his movies and that in itself makes for a breath of fresh air.
And so I will leave it right there the now.
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