I keep cutting it close on the Tarantino Blogathon, but once
again I buckled down and watched Jackie Brown. Jackie Brown is probably
the most different of Quentin Tarantino’s films but as always it is shear gold,
with an interesting story, great cast and just a taste of violence. It doesn’t
scream Tarantino as much as some of his other works, but there is definitely no
mistaking his influence and style, no matter how subtle it might be.
Jackie Brown is a
movie dedicated and constructed just for the lead actress, Pam Grier whom
Tarantino and the rest of us know from her days of blaxploitation. Pam Grier
started her career in the 70’s and was the star of a number of exploitation and
blaxploitation movies like Coffy, The Big Bird Cage and Foxy Brown. In case you haven’t noticed Tarantino is
heavily influenced by the styles of exploitation movies, and he grew up
watching Pam Grier in some them. Unfortunately, Pam Grier never seemed to catch a
break, and Tarantino decided to make an entire movie in which to cast her as a
star. But it wasn’t going to be an ultra-violent exploitation movie, but a more
conventional movie, or well, as conventional as Tarantino gets.
Which it turns out is pretty standard. Jackie Brown is a
story of an airline stewardess who smuggles money into the country for an arms
dealer. When she is ratted out and busted, she agrees to work with the ATF to
catch Ordell redhanded and get off the hook. However, games begin to unfold and
schemes are hatched in what becomes quite an elaborate plan. However, the most
interesting thing is that while we might not know the exact details, we are
mostly aware of everything that is going to happen. We don’t just get snippets
of discussion and then have ourselves turned around again and again as we watch
some insane scheme unfold. Tarantino, a big fan of conversations spend about
the length of a decent movie just setting everything up. This way we know the
players, and all of the different games they are playing.
There must be a actor wanted section solely for big, imposing yet friendly black guys. |
However, when the plan finally goes into action we aren’t
bored or uninterested at all. Instead, we know enough about what is happening
to know if something goes wrong, and we also know enough about all the
character to know how things might possibly unravel. Impressively, even after
Tarantino has literally drawn out a complex map of the plan, and taught us all
about the players, we are still curious to see how things unravel. But, I
wouldn’t say things necessarily unravel at all, and the only big surprise
occurs rather suddenly in a parking lot. I have got to say, the first time I
saw this movie, that surprised the shit out of me.
As much as this is a crime movie, we do not see an abundance
of violence or crime as you might expect from a Tarantino movie when it was
released in 1997. Jackie Brown sits rather firmly in the category of crime drama thriller
genre, with more dialogue than you can shake a script at. Now, after Pulp
Fiction, everyone knows that Tarantino is the master of dialogue, and while we
don’t get the small talk conversations we do in Pulp Fiction we do get something
out of every one. I think it is safe to say that every conversation in Jackie
Brown contain one important piece of info or another. Either about how the plan
will play out, or it will reveal an important fact about a character.
I don't think Louis was a man who really enjoyed following orders. |
Once again Tarantino crafts some interesting characters and
fills them with a stellar cast, which is amazing because he doesn’t tend to
repeatedly use to many people. Yes, a couple of people might show up in a few
of his movies, but the main characters are usually rotated out. I think that
Samuel L. Jackson is one of a few who have played such large roles in more than
one movie, asides from Uma Therman and Christoph Waltz. Eitherway, Jackson once
again performs brilliantly, even if he has the craziest hair I’ve ever seen on
him. Then there is my favourite performance by Robert De Niro ever as Louis. He is
not some genius or detective like he tends to be in all of his other movies. He
is drug using ex-convict, and henchman, not any kind of mastermind, he is
actually rather out of it for most of the movie as things unfold around him. We
also have Robert Forester who plays our bail bondsman, Max Cherry, but where
you put him on the good guy/bad guy scale
is a little difficult. The other familiar face is Sid Haig, who does a small
cameo as a judge. While he is of newfound fame in the horror genre, he was
acting originally alongside Pam Grier in such things as Foxy Brown.
This movie also features the crowning on screen moment of Samuel L. Jackon's hair. |
Jackie Brown is easily the least violent of Tarantino’s
films, with a total body count of merely 4. I find this strange as this movie
was significantly influenced by the exploitation movies of which Pam Grier used
to star in. However, having seen Foxy Brown, the general plot concept seems
like something that may have been used in such a movie, just with more
complexity and less violence. I don’t think that it is going to shock anyone
with a plot twist but I do promise it never loses interest, which I honestly thought
it might on my second watch seeing it is a two and a half hour movie.
Overall, Jackie Brown may not be my favourite Tarantino
movie, but it is easily Tarantino grade. For those who aren’t such big fans of
Tarantino’s style, I would most likely recommend Jackie Brown as part of my
plan to coax you to join me in my love of Tarantino. For those of us who are
already fans, Jackie Brown makes a great piece to freshen up and change the
pace a bit if you just so happen to be doing a Tarantino marathon or perhaps
blogathon. I’m not sure what is up next, but whatever it is, I know I’ll be
game, and hopefully get around to it a little earlier. Remember to keep tuned
to The Smoking Pen’s Tarantino blogathon as we count down the months till
Django Unchained.
Link:
Excellent review, as always! I love the point you made about how Tarantino lays out the entire crime plan, and yet we're still excited to watch it all unfold. No doubt partially do to his not-entirely-linear storytelling. Genius!
ReplyDelete