"Half a million dollars will always be missed."
Jackie Brown (1997) is a crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino and based on the book Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. The film is Tarantino's tribute to blaxploitation films of the 70s. It follows a 47-year old flight attendant named Jackie Brown who is caught bringing cash into the country for a gun dealer named Ordell Robbie and the many different parties that would like to run off with Ordell's half a million dollars.
This film has an absolutely amazing cast. There's nothing better than a film with a character-driven story where every character has a great actor behind it. It's no surprise that this film revitalized Pam Grier's career because she is really great in this film. The only character I didn't really care for is Robert De Niro as Louis Gara, a bankrobber recently released from prison. He's not bad in it, but this is a pretty minor role and I kind of feel like its kind of a waste for Robert De Niro's talent.
A majority of this film uses actual lighting, in a world where every movie has fake "Hollywood lighting" this really stands out to me. Not just in mall scenes where it would have been hard to affect the lighting, but I love how Tarantino uses the very dark lighting inside apartments to it's full effect. This is such a simple way to increase the suspense and intensity in a film, but I'm completely blown away by its use in this film.
The plot in this film is too convoluted and complicated for my taste. It took me a couple viewings before I really appreciated how much is actually going on. But with so many characters and so many different plans and plots I just feel it could have been a lot simpler.
The film also seems incredibly long winded. I'm not sure if this is just because we effectively watch a money heist/exchange four different times or what. Also the structure is unusual to this film in that it takes almost an entire hour to set up all the different characters and their separate plans.
Also the cinematography seems a lot less meaningful and more random in this film than most other Tarantino films. For example this film has a lot of random close ups for seemingly no reason.
This film does a thing where it shows a money exchange three different times. Each takes place at the same time, nothing actually changes in the exchange, but each is shown with a different perspective and each gives the viewer more insight into what actually happened. It's kind of like Rashomon (1950) except the events don't actually change from each character perspective, it just takes advantage of the fact that not every character is going to see the same thing because they all enter and leave at different times. This is something that must have taken a long time to plan, but its masterfully executed really seamless and surprisingly easy to follow and figure out while you're watching.
And if for no other reason you see this film, I recommend you see it just for Samuel L. Jackson's character Ordell Robbie. Samuel L. Jackson hit's all the major ranges of emotion with this one character. I love how funny and humorous (and even dumb) he can be in one scene and yet completely menacing and sinister in another. He's really a treat to watch and makes a really convincing antagonist for the story.
Jackie Brown (1997) is probably Quentin Tarantino's least "flashy" film, but its a very solid film and has a great cast and amazing characters. 4.5/5 Stars.
Happy watching!
Want more Tarantino goodness? Check back all month for my Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained.
Go back to Tarantino's first film with Reservoir Dogs (1992), check out the first script he wrote (but didn't direct) True Romance (1993), The smash hit that really put him on the map Pulp Fiction (1994), or another film written by him but in the hands of another director From Dusk till Dawn (1996).
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