Let me paint you a picture: it's a quiet Sunday afternoon, the sun is streaming through the windows and making your head feel fuzzy. Your main goal for the day is to stay as horizontal as possible, you've got some Fairlee fruit punch, ranch Crispers and chocolate cookies, and a comfy couch. What movie's playing?
For me, it's JACKIE BROWN, Tarantino's ode to '70s blaxploitation films. It's my favourite lazy day movie, a film that seems to be tailored to a specific mood for me. The film's languid pace and focus on characters just appeals directly to a part of my brain that turns on when my muscles refuse to move.
Let's start with the soundtrack: Tarantino always gets tremendous respect for his music choices, but I'd argue he's never had a finer touch with pop music than he does here. "Across 110th Street" has become synonymous with this film in pop culture, a perfect theme for the character of Jackie. I wouldn't be surprised if Tarantino based her entire character on the song. The Delfonics are mentioned several times, and the way Tarantino plays the song "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time" in two different scenes is in turns funny, tense, ironic, and unforgettable. Even songs that aren't featured as heavily (or obviously), like Bill Withers' "Who Is He (And What Is He To You)" comment on the characters and scenes in interesting ways (although the best use of a Bill Withers song in cinema has to be "Use Me" in ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, right?)
The cast is also one of the best in Tarantino's brief directorial history. The characters here are wonderfully diverse, a fascinating cross-section of cops and criminals, and the grey area in between. I think a fair criticism of Tarantino's work is that much of it tends to deal with similar characters: RESERVOIR DOGS, KILL BILL, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, and even PULP FICTION to some extent deal with very similar characters: professional thieves, murderers, warriors, etc. Here, the Elmore Leonard source material adds some nice variety: stoners, stewardesses, and bail bondsmen along with our more traditional Tarantino drug dealers, enforcers, and cops.
Pam Grier is playing the role of her life as Jackie Brown, and it's clear she knows it, pouring a world-weariness and sexiness that isn't necessarily on the page into every moment. If you'll allow me to get a little romantic and pretentious, Grier has absolutely haunting eyes that burn into your consciousness and force you to empathize with her plight. She brings a soul to the two-time loser trying desperately not to make her third mistake. Robert Forster absolutely nails Max Cherry, a streetwise bail bondsman placed in an eternally morally questionable world. Robert DeNiro is doing some really interesting work here as well, playing a sort of sad loser ex-con version of Jake LaMotta. And in a nice nod to Elmore Leonard continuity, Michael Keaton reprises his role as the hilariously overly-eager federal agent Ray Nicolette from Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT (also based on a Leonard novel).
Samuel L. Jackson, though, steals this show. It's unbelievable work from an actor who's almost become a parody of himself in recent years in things like SNAKES ON A PLANE and THE SPIRIT, but here he's bringing charm and menace to a character ten times more interesting than Jules, his crisis-of-faith hitman in PULP FICTION. His Ordell Robbie is a fascinating villian, one who would be laughable if he wasn't so menacing, pitiable if he wasn't so smart. There's a cold calculation behind Jackson's eyes in every scene of this film, even when he's just hanging out.
A lot of film profs like to talk about the perspective and chronology shifts in the third act, and while that is interesting, to me the most interesting stuff is right at the front of the film, which is all about setting up Ordell as a viable threat. Tarantino allows the film to slowly play out and gradually come to Jackie Brown, instead first setting up Ordell as a charming, sinister, and finally ruthless criminal who will stop at nothing to protect himself and his business. It has to be one of the longest character introductions in history, taking a full twenty minutes from the moment "Chicks With Guns" comes on screen to the murder of Beaumont. Of course, the film is doing other things, introducing us to DeNiro and Forster as well, but it's principally concerned with Jackson, as he smoothly talks his way into murdering Beaumont. It's beautifully done, and shows a remarkable amount of confidence in the audience to allow the story to develop.
I think that's why JACKIE BROWN is such a lazy favourite of mine - the film just tells you to sit back and trust it. It's like a bedtime story that your crazy Uncle Quentin is telling you before you go to sleep. Oh, and he's sneaking you some ranch Crispers, too.
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