Jackie Brown (1997)
Director: Quentin Tarantino Cast: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro, Chris Tucker Rated R: Profanity, sex, drugs, violence
by Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
Only Quentin Tarantino can make violence, drugs, lust, and bad people this appealing. There's something so witty and downright fun about these evil people and the horrible things they do. They way they talk to each other in profanity-laden inner-city dialect, the way they can't even manage a sentence without some kind of mind-altering chemical running through their veins, the way murder and sex are used as thoughtless tools--these elements, though completely unpleasant in theory, always manage to make themselves likable in a film by Tarantino. Jackie Brown obviously is no exception to this observation. It's a two and a half our character study on a bunch of people that, for the most part, are rather despicable.
First, there's Ordell, a drug-pushing criminal who kills people in his sleep. Played by Samuel L. Jackson with that kind of volatile hilarity that only Jackson can manage successfully, we laugh at Ordell even though he's a psychopathic monster. Every bit of concern and consideration he shows is ultimately for his own good--he cares for no one.
Ordell's partner in crime is Louis (Robert De Niro). Louis is slow, probably because he takes in more marijuana smoke than air. Louis is also a murderous psycho, but only out of instinct. The flashes of violence he shows are clearly beyond his control, although he can't express this disability of his because he has basically no control over the English language.
Ordell's "surfer girl" is Melanie (Bridget Fonda) whose existence is limited mostly to smoking, watching TV, and having sex with whomever is nearby. She also likes to make people mad by patronizing them, and she has no loyalty to anyone.
There are some nice people, though. Pam Grier plays the title character, a luckless flight attendant who gets nailed by a couple of cops (Michael Keaton and Michael Bowen) with $50,000 in her bag. She has the money because she's a carrier for Ordell; she makes very little money as a flight attendant, but Ordell pays her well. The cops try to cut her a deal, but she resists. Ordell, of course, thinks she's going to rat him out, so he tries to kill her and fails.
From this point on, the characters engage in a twisted sort of tag, in which everyone is out to get a certain sum of money from Ordell. Jackie enlists the help of the other nice character in the film, Max Cherry (Robert Forster, in the film's best performance), who is Ordell's bail bondsman and an ex-cop, and they manage to play everyone else.
This film is so entertaining and energetic that I found myself completely submerged in its reality through the entire running time. The characters all have such strong chemistry among one another that watching them interact in this conniving, back-stabbing manor is embarrassingly fun. The relationship between Max and Jackie is especially well-done, and surprisingly moving towards the end. Tarantino's characterizations are right on, and he never misses a beat with his calculated direction.
I've heard some people say this film is boring; others talk about the fact that it centers around immorality and that none of the characters have any redeeming qualities. If you find this film dull and overlong, then there's not much I can say--you must have some kind of resistance to well-written and fleshed-out characters. If you don't like these people and despise their actions, then that's even more of a reason to see this film. In the last ten minutes, Tarantino makes it perfectly clear that he doesn't condone the actions of these people. I felt pretty safe in his hands knowing that the people in the film that I liked would come out of the situation unscathed.
>From 0-10: 8 Grade: B+
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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