JACKIE BROWN (1997)

While getting to know my first girlfriend in high school, the subject of Quentin Tarantino came up. She was a big fan, and asked if I had seen PULP FICTION or RESERVOIR DOGS. Wanting to seem cool, I told her yes (I hadn't, but I should have). She then asked if I had seen JACKIE BROWN and I had told her no, having never even heard of it. She showed it to me, and it kickstarted my love of all things Tarantino.

While not as acclaimed as PULP FICTION or RESERVOIR DOGS, nor as succesful as Tarantino's latter day outings, JACKIE BROWN remains divisve among Tarantino fans, with some seeing as not quite Tarantino enough (it's based on an Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch) for their tastes.

Again, having never seen a Tarantino film when I first saw JACKIE BROWN, it felt fresh and hilarious and different. I noticed that where other directors cut to the chase, Tarantino took his time. Again, this being my introduction to Tarantino, I wasn't so used to extended dialogue sequences that don't serve to push the plot forward. Watching Sam Jackson's Ordell Robbie convince his friend (played by Chris Tucker) to get into the trunk of his car only to kill him after driving around the block was a pivotal scene for me. It exemplified Tarantino's ability to make you care about someone right before killing them off. 

Frankly, seeing Pam Grier and Robert Forster have a budding romance felt different from any other on-screen couple I had seen before. The film felt entirely fresh from top to bottom for my money.

Again coming at the film from a place of initial ignorance, I was unaware of Tarantino's affinity for blaxspolitation films of the 70's, as well as Elmore Leonard's stripped-down crime novels. This was different from anything I had seen before. It had charisma (as all of Tarantino's films do) and characters that you didn't have to necessary like in order to identify with them.

While not as ambitious as PULP FICTION or gloriously action-packed as DJANGO UNCHAINED, Tarantino's 3rd feature is, for my money, his most measured film. It feels like a challenge he gave to himself. Gone are the extended monologues and excessive blood. After so much success with his first two original feature films, it was wise of Tarantino to challenge himself with trying to step into someone else's world and make it his own. This is a greart crime film that still has most of the hallmarks of a Tarantino story, just slightly more subdued. I loved it when I was an impressionable youth and I love it now.