Jackie Brown

UK Release Date. 10 April 1998

Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 34 mins
Director. Quentin Tarantino,
Cast. Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, Robert Forster, Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton.
Rating. 87%

Review.

In 1992, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs exploded onto the screen and ripped up the rulebook of American crime. Pulp Fiction was next and deservedly is regarded by many as Tarantino's finest film. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 are undoubtedly the director's eulogy to the Hong Kong action genre. Even Death Proof is respected as a grindhouse tribute and a homage to the 1970s car chase (Race With The Devil, Joyride To Nowhere and Thunder And Lightning). But in the middle of these films, Quentin Tarantino released his third film, perhaps his most underrated of all, Jackie Brown - a homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, films such as Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Shaft and Super Fly. 

Jackie Brown is based on Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch, and Tarantino, by and large, adhered to the original plot. However, he relocated the story from Miami to Los Angeles, switched the leading character's surname (from Burke to Brown) and changed the leading character's race. Nonetheless, despite the adapted source material, Jackie Brown very much remains a Quentin Tarantino film, with its patented contemporary dialogue and trademark delicious soundtrack, featuring soul and funk gems, from the likes of Bobby Womack, Bill Withers and Randy Crawford. But it is 'Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time' by The Delfonics that serves as the film's heartbeat.

Jackie Brown is set in an environment of deception, treachery and mistrust amongst six interconnected characters. The film is in no rush to introduce these protagonists and as a consequence, the characters are richer and more defined. We're introduced to,

• Michael Keaton as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent, Ray Nicolette.
• Samuel L. Jackson as the charming, erudite, loquacious and ultimately malicious Ordell Robbie, an illegal dealer in firearms. Jackson is near perfect, combining charm and menace with ease.
• Robert De Niro as Ordell's inept associate, Louis Gara.
• Bridget Fonda in a surprising role as a drug-addicted surfer girl, Melanie Ralston. 
• Robert Forster as bail bondsman, Max Cherry. Forster brings a comfortable, lived-in quality to the role of the experienced professional who has seen it all before. A gentle, unassuming and capacious soul.
• And finally, Pam Grier, a genuine icon of 1970s blaxploitation films such as Black Mama, White Mama, Coffy and Foxy Brown, as the eponymous Jackie Brown, a flight attendant with a budget Mexican airline. Pam Grier has aged beautifully and is sensational in the lead role, exuding confidence, cunning and poise.

In a storyline that features several relationships in which trust and mutual suspicion are two sides of the same coin, the most significant, and endearing, relationship is between Max and Jackie. As her bail bondsman, Max meets Jackie as she is released from prison and offers her a ride home. His function in the plot could end there, except, in that moment he falls for Jackie and the strength of the film resides in this unlikely romance. Max is afraid to commit, which gives Forster's scenes with Grier a heartbreaking intensity. Tarantino has established a well-earned reputation for imaginative casting and Jackie Brown resurrected the careers of Pam Grier and Robert Forster. Tarantino obviously delights in reviving the careers of these two 1970s B-movie stars. 

As you would expect from a Quentin Tarantino film the dialogue is tight. Few do dialogue as well as Tarantino. There's a definite rhythm to the exchanges, as characters, Ordell in particular, appear to savour their selection of vocabulary. 

There's an organic flow to Jackie Brown. As a result, Jackie Brown is a revelation and the film demonstrated to audiences that Tarantino could venture beyond the confines of 1990s zeitgeist - Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. The subdued romance between these two unlikely midlife protagonists provides a sweet, quiet undercurrent to the film's overt aggressive extremes. More emotional and nuanced, Tarantino constructs a believable romance which leads to a mutedly upbeat conclusion. In my opinion, Jackie Brown is Tarantino's most mature, accomplished and soulful offering. Potentially his finest film and certainly my favourite.