Jackie Brown
After capturing the attention of critics and audiences with 1992’s Reservoir Dogs and then (according to some people) completely changing the face of the film industry with 1994’s Pulp Fiction, there was little doubt that Quentin Tarantino’s eagerly awaited next film in 1997 had a hell of a lot to live up to, with the hype machine going through the roof especially after the principal cast was announced. Interestingly, Tarantino chose to adapt another writer’s work (the Elmore Leonard crime novel Rum Punch) and even went so far as to change the race of the main title female character to being a black woman so that he could work with one of his cinematic idols: Pam Grier, the sexy and sultry star of various 70s blaxpoitation action films where she would always play a female action hero who would kick ass and take names on those who had done her wrong. Grier would see her career output dwindle down to next to nothing in the 80s before Tarantino cast her at 48 years of age (playing a 44 year old) as Jackie Brown, a broken down, defeated in life stewardess reduced to working for the lowliest airline with the lowest pay while using her flight attendant status to run guns and money for a two bit gunrunner whom she herself despised. As played by Samuel L. Jackson (a holdover from Pulp Fiction), Ordell Robbie is the type of guy who has his immediate environment around him set up well from his illegal business, but despite having his mouth constantly running in a desperate attempt to impress others, he is ultimately shown as just not being SMART enough to eventually last too long as a major criminal. One problem is in his choice of people whom he chooses to either work with or for him, as Jackie Brown jumps at the first opportunity to betray him and his “little live in beach bunny” (Bridget Fonda) constantly talks in sneering tones about him behind his back to others, telling them (correctly so) that he really has little to no idea of how to properly run guns or money but always talks as if he was a really big deal. Then there’s another employee named Beaumont (Chris Tucker) who has been picked up by the cops for drunk driving while in possession of a weapon and is looking at 10 years in prison for probation violation, a problem that Ordell has to personally deal with himself by putting a bullet in Beaumont’s head since he obviously has no one else to do the dirty work for him. Watching Jackson (who in Pulp established himself well as one of cinema’s all time premier shit talkers) playing a guy who talks big but unlike his Jules Winnfield, is constantly paranoid and insecure (not to mention obviously being downright frightened by the end) along with having constant problems due to the unreliable nature of the people he chooses to associate with is a fascinating thing to see with the actor’s very own persona turned inside out here. This can be seen when he first walks into the office of a bail bondsman (Robert Forster, another seemingly has been actor whom Tarantino resurrected from the dead and who earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination in the process) who has seen it all when it comes to lowlife criminal scumbags (especially their fears) and puts on a grand little show about how big and bad he is which not only leaves Forster thoroughly unimpressed, but also shows his ignorance when he not only does not know the full name of the person whom he’s bailing out, but also that person’s full criminal history which leaves him realizing that he’s at serious risk of being snitched out. In fact, Jackson’s actual lack of sophistication while in Forster’s office makes it appear as if he’s never even dealt with a bail bondsman before, almost making him appear to be an immature child in Forster’s regular guy eyes. When Grier is picked up after making a run to Mexico for some of Jackson’s money (and some coke for Fonda), Forster is sent to bail her out and that’s when something just clicks inside of him when he sees her, run down, worn out, but nonetheless REAL, a woman facing a tough, hard situation with no easy solution and Forster winds up becoming her true best friend and confidante for a scheme she devises where she not only plans to play off Jackson but also the ATF agent who busted her (Michael Keaton in a role he would reprise in the non Tarantino directed Elmore Leonard film Out Of Sight) in order to get for herself Jackson’s money in the full amount of $500,000 all while charming the pants off of Keaton (a hotshot type who himself is a master at playing good cop / bad cop) and essentially throwing Jackson either under the bus or to the wolves, whichever comes first (having every female in the film who’s associated with Jackson’s wanna be ladies’ man actually secretly having absolutely no respect for him whatsoever is a running theme in the film) as well as having the smitten Forster (of whose infatuation she is well aware of while also knowing that he is a good, clean, honest guy) be her true partner in crime in order to pull this caper off. As for Jackson, besides his bevy of sketchy, drug addled female friends, the only real backup he has is in the form of a recently released ex con buddy of his played by Robert DeNiro, perhaps the most fascinating casting choice in the film because he’s playing a role that could very easily have been played by any one of a number of character actors rather than by one of the best to ever live, but DeNiro wearily takes on the challenge of playing dumb and appearing bemused to everything he sees, falling prey to the charms of Fonda and her weed smoking habit before making an incredibly stupid mistake at a critical moment and paying the price for it with the irony being that watching a simpleminded, pot smoking, understated Robert DeNiro character in some Tarantino fan circles resulted in him becoming the most popular character in the movie (or at least the most likable) which is something that really only DeNiro could have pulled off with this type of material. Some viewers might be taken aback at Tarantino’s casual pacing here which results in a bloated running time of 2 hours and 34 minutes (when truthfully there was probably only about 1 hour and 45 minutes worth of story), and which was something that Pulp Fiction got away with due to having three separate, distinct stories which intertwined (did Quentin have a length quota to meet here?) but at least it allows the characters to have plenty of breathing room and development (except for Keaton who only comes onscreen whenever the story requires him to) even though the plot itself is really nothing too special (or original) in the end, as Grier tells the other major players different things about how everything is going to go down with the money drop at a large shopping mall (with Forster being kept close to the vest as to what’s really going on) before the dangerous plan is put into action with several people being killed and Jackson holed up at a heroin junkie female’s house before the final screws are put to him in what is actually (considering the buildup) one of the most unspectacular finales in movie history (Kill Bill Vol. 2 this is most definitely not) which only underscores the point that Jackson was purposely meant to be a rather unspectacular villain mainly because of the way he conducted his business and who he conducted it with. Truth be told, he never stood a chance and he never had a trump card up his sleeve because he just simply wasn’t smart enough and certainly no true, real match for the conniving, anything to survive mindset of Grier, who along with Forster, scored major comeback points in the film industry for their top notch turns (Forster’s average, everyday guy who effortlessly shows no fear of Jackson being the overall acting highlight) and Jackson playing a big old badass who wasn’t really all that (plus Bridget Fonda looking hot, smoking weed, and teasing Robert DeNiro with her feet), thus making this into a film that some Tarantino fans find to be their favorite while others find it to be merely okay, and even as it might go down as being one of his lesser efforts, it’s still better than most other movies that come out almost every other day of the week…
8/10