Jackie Brown (1997)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.
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Tarantino completes his laid-back vibe (deceptively laid-back, of course, as this is a crime film of considerable urgency) with his soundtrack selections, including Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street" (the theme to an earlier film of the same name) and songs by The Delfonics and The Meters.
I was also pleased at Tarantino's homage to Grier and the '70s, as he plays some Delphonics soundtracks and introduces Pam's appearance in the film with a '70s soundtrack of Bobby Womack singing "Across 110th Street".
Tarantino actually teaches you how to watch “Jackie Brown” during the opening credits, which are initially content to regard former Blaxploitation movie goddess Pam Grier as the title character, gliding along the LAX people-mover made famous by “The Graduate” (and recently on “Mad Men”) to the tune of Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street.”
Pam Grier, dolled up for her job as a stewardess for Cabo Air, glides into the right edge of the frame, while Bobby Womack's creamily desperate anthem "Across 110th Street" sets a pristine, hummable stage for both the character and the movie.
In the opening sequence, the camera caresses her as she travels through an airport, and the movie caresses us with the great, lost Bobby Womack song ''Across 110th Street,'' with its ghetto lament about ''doing whatever I had to do to survive.''
Some of the best moments in "Jackie Brown" are when he simply allows his camera to watch her, as she's carried along a moving airport sidewalk while Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street" plays on the soundtrack or simply as she's sitting enjoying a cigarette.
Find here, too, explication of Tarantino's casting choices, from Willis for his spiritual resemblance to Ralph Meeker's asshole hero of Kiss Me Deadly to Travolta for his quality of winsomeness, largely unseen since at least Blow Out if not Saturday Night Fever .
Find here, too, explication of Tarantino's casting choices, from Willis for his spiritual resemblance to Ralph Meeker's asshole hero of Kiss Me Deadly to Travolta for his quality of winsomeness, largely unseen since at least Blow Out if not Saturday Night Fever .
With an airport escalator title sequence that apes "The Graduate," Quentin Tarantino announces his return to the director's chair with a trademark pop culture reference.
Tarantino actually teaches you how to watch “Jackie Brown” during the opening credits, which are initially content to regard former Blaxploitation movie goddess Pam Grier as the title character, gliding along the LAX people-mover made famous by “The Graduate” (and recently on “Mad Men”) to the tune of Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street.”
From the film’s opening shot—a quote from The Graduate overlaid with early seventies movie lettering and set to a Motown tune—we know we’re in Tarantino territory.
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It involves Jackie's bail bondsman, the weary Max Cherry (Robert Forster in an authoritative comeback performance that equals Grier's), and an elaborate scam that Tarantino, in a nod to The Killing, shows us three times from various viewpoints.
Meticulous attention to detail, tongue-in-cheek establishing cards, a recurring time clock, even a (gratuitous) split screen recalls such caper classics as The Killing, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Twilight’s Last Gleaming.
This decision gives "Jackie Brown" a poignant feeling at times, especially in a closing close-up of Grier's face that is in an unnerving way reminiscent of the celebrated shot of Garbo at the end of "Queen Christina."
Travolta is the first interviewee here, recalling his initial encounter with Tarantino and how Tarantino explained to him that Travolta was his favourite actor as a child because of "Welcome Back Kotter" and films like Saturday Night Fever , Grease, and Blow Out .
Travolta is the first interviewee here, recalling his initial encounter with Tarantino and how Tarantino explained to him that Travolta was his favourite actor as a child because of "Welcome Back Kotter" and films like Saturday Night Fever , Grease, and Blow Out .
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This isn't exactly an original technique â?? it has been done numerous times before, most famously in Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon and most recently in Edward Zwick's Courage Under Fire .
It was a nice little Rashomon bit (or a Clue: the Movie bit for the cynical among you) that drew out the tension of the scene and gave the whole sequence some extra weight.
Meticulous attention to detail, tongue-in-cheek establishing cards, a recurring time clock, even a (gratuitous) split screen recalls such caper classics as The Killing, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Twilight’s Last Gleaming.