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FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW; Smarter Than She Is? Hah!

By Janet Maslin

• Dec. 24, 1997

Having rested extensively on his laurels, Quentin Tarantino returns to feature-film directing after ''Pulp Fiction'' with what might as well be two new crime tales, both called ''Jackie Brown.'' The better of these, halfway visible, is a quick and lean adaptation of Elmore Leonard's ''Rum Punch'' replete with pop asides, shrewd maneuvering and all the casually hip hallmarks of the Tarantino style. But you'll have to look hard to find it within the slower, talkier, more sluggish ''Jackie Brown'' that actually appears on screen.

Running nearly as long as ''Pulp Fiction'' even though its ambitions are more familiar and small, ''Jackie Brown'' has the makings of another, chattier ''Get Shorty'' with an added homage to Pam Grier, the Annie Oakley of 1970's blaxploitation. That could well have been enough, since Mr. Tarantino shows such obvious affection for his leading lady and for the cheerful, greedy lowlife in Mr. Leonard's stories.

But for all its enthusiasm, this film isn't sharp enough to afford all the time it wastes on small talk, long drives, trips to the mall and favorite songs played on car radios. And although Ms. Grier makes an enjoyable comeback, she isn't an actress well served by quiet stretches of doing nothing before the camera.

Ms. Grier plays the title role of a flight attendant caught in a trap between Federal authorities (with Michael Keaton as an overconfident Government agent) and a colossally wily gun dealer named Ordell Robbie. Among the best news about the film is that Samuel L. Jackson's role is even splashier than the one he had in ''Pulp Fiction'' and that his performance is even more of a treat. The film more than justifies its long, happy stretches of simply watching Ordell work his scams on the unsuspecting, whose number most certainly does not include Max Cherry.

Max (played by Robert Forster, a wonderfully strong presence here) is a bail bondsman who will eventually develop a soft spot for Jackie, which manifests itself as a taste for old Delfonics songs. But on the job, completely unruffled, Max gives the appearance of having seen everything, even an operator as cold-blooded as Ordell.

Ordell, whose look is priceless (slick ponytail, tiny needle-shaped goatee) even if his frequent racial references overwork the homeboy pretensions of Mr. Tarantino's screenplay, begins the story with a clear confidence in his ability to outsmart everyone, Jackie included. Then Ordell begins realizing he may be overmatched.

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Parents' guide to, jackie brown.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 5 Reviews
• Kids Say 14 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Mellower Tarantino still has sex, drugs, swearing, murder.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this crime drama has a quick, half-clad sex scene (only a bare bottom shown) and a handful of fatal shootings, though neither is as explicit as the colorful profanity in the script, which doesn't shy away from the N-word or "f--k." For what it's worth, the "good" characters do the least…

Why Age 16+?

Frequent language, including "f--k," the N-word, "s--t," "t-tty," "ass," "damn,"

Prodigious marijuana smoking via bong byless-than-admirable characters. Jackie s

Characters shot to death, in some cases with blood resulting, but the actual dee

Two characters have standing up, partially clothed, spur-of-the-moment sex. One

Chain-store names such as Banana Republic, Merle Norman, and Things Rememered on

Any Positive Content?

The movie asks if two people can really love and trust each other amidst a heavy

Potentially the most decent person is chivalrous bail bondsman Max, who ultimate

Frequent language, including "f--k," the N-word, "s--t," "t-tty," "ass," "damn," and "God" used as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Prodigious marijuana smoking via bong by less-than-admirable characters. Jackie smokes cigarettes (stating she'll gain weight if she quits). She is framed for cocaine possession.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Characters shot to death, in some cases with blood resulting, but the actual deed is either at a great distance or just offscreen. Automatic weapons fired at targets in a firearms-fan video.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two characters have standing up, partially clothed, spur-of-the-moment sex. One female bare-butt shot. Women in skimpy bikinis.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Chain-store names such as Banana Republic, Merle Norman, and Things Rememered on display in a shopping-mall setting. Plug for the R&B band The Delfonics. A soundtrack album exists, as does the Elmore Leonard source novel Rum Punch . Mention of car manufacturers -- and gun manufacturers. References to other movies, such as the Hong Kong action-shootout marathon The Killer .

Positive Messages

The movie asks if two people can really love and trust each other amidst a heavy cops-and-robbers atmosphere of criminal deceit (and a half a million bucks up for grabs). Secondary idea of how far Jackie will go to save herself and assure her future.

Positive Role Models

Potentially the most decent person is chivalrous bail bondsman Max, who ultimately seems to decide that romantic prospect Jackie is a little too sneaky for him. Strong, smart characters in this underworld milieu cut across gender and ethnic lines. Police, though not corrupt, are manipulative, bullying, and not the kind of people to confide in.

Parents need to know that this crime drama has a quick, half-clad sex scene (only a bare bottom shown) and a handful of fatal shootings, though neither is as explicit as the colorful profanity in the script, which doesn't shy away from the N-word or "f--k." For what it's worth, the "good" characters do the least swearing, though in the crime environment here it's up for debate who is "good" at all. Two characters avidly smoke marijuana, and Jackie Brown unapologetically smokes cigarettes. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (14)

Based on 5 parent reviews

A dialogue gem

What's the story.

In Quentin Tarantino's tribute to old-school (mostly 1970s) crime pictures, action-heroine Pam Grier plays Jackie Brown, a classy-looking flight attendant with a criminal conviction in her past, who earns a pitiful income with a seedy airline shuttling back and forth to Mexico. Jackie occasionally serves as a money courier for Ordell ( Samuel L. Jackson ), a dealer in arms and drugs, and when she's caught by police after a tipoff, she fears the ruthless Ordell will murder her, just as he killed the informant. In a series of double-crosses, Jackie tells Ordell she will retrieve his $500,000 fortune from Mexico right under the noses of cops. Meanwhile Jackie forms an alliance with her chivalrous bail bondsman Max ( Robert Forster ) to actually keep the cash, as a strong mutual attraction develops between the pair.

Is It Any Good?

JACKIE BROWN was Tarantino's much-anticipated follow-up after Pulp Fiction made him a superstar director, but fans expecting another hyper-violent, hyper-hip hyper-flick are in for disappointment. Adapting the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard, Taantino instead delivers a long, thoughtful, restrained, adult crime drama emphasizing emotion and relationships more than cool stunts or gore. It's also quite a career-salute to 1970s "blaxploitation" diva Pam Grier, only instead of having her burn down Watts ghettoes yet again Tarantino lets Grier strut her stuff and middle-aged allure in a nicely three-dimensional characterization (incidentally, in the source novel, Jackie was a white blonde). Hopefully parents can appreciate the seasoned ambiance that has this grooving to a mature, rhythm'n'blues beat, not MTV.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the morality (or lack of it) among the characters. Who is the most admirable? Is anyone really a "good guy" here?

Did the violence in this movie disturb you? Have you seen other Quentin Tarantino films with more violence? How does he use violence in a story? What would the story be like without it? And what would true life consequences of the violence seen in these movies be?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 25, 1997
• On DVD or streaming : July 17, 2000
• Cast : Pam Grier , Robert De Niro , Robert Forster , Samuel L. Jackson
• Director : Quentin Tarantino
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors, Black actors, Indigenous actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Miramax
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 154 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
• Last updated : September 12, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Best action movies for kids, courtroom dramas.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Jackie Brown

A flight attendant with a criminal past gets nabbed by the ATF for smuggling. Under pressure to become an informant against the illegal arms dealer she works for, she must find a way to secu... Read all A flight attendant with a criminal past gets nabbed by the ATF for smuggling. Under pressure to become an informant against the illegal arms dealer she works for, she must find a way to secure her future without getting killed. A flight attendant with a criminal past gets nabbed by the ATF for smuggling. Under pressure to become an informant against the illegal arms dealer she works for, she must find a way to secure her future without getting killed.

• Quentin Tarantino
• Elmore Leonard
• Samuel L. Jackson
• Robert Forster
• 656 User reviews
• 183 Critic reviews
• 62 Metascore
• 9 wins & 24 nominations total

Top cast 45

• Ordell Robbie

• Ray Nicolette

• Mark Dargus

• Beaumont Livingston

• (as Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr.)

• Amy, Billingsley Sales Girl
• Cockatoo Bartender
• (as Ellis E. Williams)

• Billingsley Sales Girl #2

• Raynelle, Ordell's Junkie Friend
• (as T'Keyah Crystal Keymah)
• Cabo Flight Attendant

• Anita Lopez
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Samuel L. Jackson Through the Years

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Did you know

• Trivia Quentin Tarantino met Robert Forster in a restaurant and handed him the script, saying "You're going to do this, and that's all there is to it". Forster was naturally thrilled, having had a major career slump. This film saw him come back in a big way, even landing an Oscar nomination.
• Goofs During the conversation between Melanie and Louis in which they are talking about stealing the money from Jackie and Ordell, director Quentin Tarantino can be heard coughing off screen.

Ordell Robbie : Here we go. AK-47. The very best there is. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes.

• Crazy credits A copyright notice appears under the title at the beginning of the movie--a common practice for low-budget movies in the 1960s and '70s but very uncommon for 1997.
• Extended scene with Jackie/Sheronda in the mall's food court.
• Extended scene with Jackie and Ray in the diner.
• A scene where Louis and Ordell walk into the Cockatoo.
• A scene where Jackie is discussing with Max how to set up Ordell.
• An alternate "for your eyes only" scene.
• Alternate opening credits sequence.
• Connections Edited into The Making of 'Kill Bill' (2003)
• Soundtracks Across 110th Street (1972) Music and Lyrics by Bobby Womack Performed by Bobby Womack Courtesy of EMI Records Under license from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets

User reviews 656

• ametaphysicalshark
• Jul 23, 2008
• How long is Jackie Brown? Powered by Alexa
• Does Quentin Tarantino have a cameo?
• Is this movie connected to the film Out of Sight?
• December 25, 1997 (United States)
• United States
• Jackie Brown: La estafa
• Sam's Hofbrau Strip Club - 1751 E. Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA
• A Band Apart
• Lawrence Bender Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $12,000,000 (estimated)
• $39,673,162
• Dec 28, 1997
• $39,693,845

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 34 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• 1.85 : 1 (original ratio)

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Jackie Brown (1997)

T here’s a generation of people who adore Pulp Fiction (1994) because it practically blew the tops of their heads off—its brash energy counts for a lot. But Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino’s great picture of the 1990s. It’s less showy than the earlier film, but filled to the brim with feeling, a movie that brings the past into the present and reminds us to be careful about what we throw away—starting with the casting. Pam Grier , a goddess of ’70s grindhouse films who, by the ’90s, wasn’t exactly seeing the plum roles pour in, plays the Jackie of the title, a flight attendant for a low-rent airline who makes a little scratch on the side by smuggling money for her firearms-dealer boss ( Samuel L. Jackson ). She gets busted; bailbondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster, another actor who’d practically been forgotten at the time) gets her out of jail and instantly falls in love with her. The story, adapted from Elmore Leonard’s 1992 novel Rum Punch , involves multiple double-crossings and a not-insignificant number of nasty murders. Yet the movie is filled with love, chiefly Tarantino’s love for Forster and Grier, two actors he was nuts about as a kid, and they’re glorious here. Jackie Brown is Tarantino’s warmest movie, a love letter to the second chance. Everybody deserves one.

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The Godfather Part II (1974)

Jaws (1975), e.t. the extra-terrestrial (1982), the empire strikes back (1980), little women (2019).

'Jackie Brown' at 20: Revisiting Quentin Tarantino's Best And Most Underrated Movie

Pulp Fiction ('94) changed the face of cinema forever. Though that's become something of a clichéd declaration amongst cinephiles, the statement nonetheless contains an immeasurable volume of truth. While Quentin Tarantino 's first completed feature, Reservoir Dogs ('92), underperformed in the United States – its foulmouthed, hyper-violent tendencies contributing to a notorious reputation and cult following on VHS – the Sundance darling was a gigantic hit in Europe, with London and Paris theatrical engagements running for months at a time. When Pulp Fiction landed at the Cannes Film Festival, it did so with the impact of an atomic bomb, blowing critics' minds and making a rock star out of its video store clerk turned geek chic co-writer/director. Pulp Fiction was produced for a cool $8 million, going on to gross over $200 million worldwide. It caused a ruckus at Cannes, winning the festival's highest honor while one onlooker screamed "scandal!" from the back row, flipping its director the bird. Miramax Films was instantly dubbed "the house that Tarantino built,"  as the indie label now had the clout (not to mention the capital) to start chasing Oscar contenders it became notorious for representing throughout the rest of its Weinstein-headed existence. A wave of imitators flooded in – just look at something like 2 Days In the Valley ('96) for the most shameless example – and everyone wondered what Tarantino would do to follow up his self-aware filmic pop amalgamation.

The answer wasn't as simple as everyone thought when Jackie Brown ('97) premiered on Christmas Day three years later.

Just as he'd drawn from the art and exploitation films he began watching at eight years of age – when (legend has it) his parents took him to see Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge ('71), then a double bill of Deliverance ('72) and The Wild Bunch ('69) the next year – to write his own Pulp Fiction by hand, he looked to the collaborations of Jack Hill and Pam Grier (whom he'd recruit to star as the titular aging flight attendant) as inspiration. Blaxploitation pictures like Foxy Brown ('74) were fused with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon ('50); a synthesis of high and low-brow that he grafted onto the laid-back prose of crime author Elmore Leonard, whose Rum Punch became the source for what still stands as QT's most human, emotionally affecting work.

Originally published in '92, Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch is another of his Florida hang out noirs. Set in Miami, Florida, the novel follows a 44-year-old black stewardess, working on a puddle jumper airline, flying into and out of Jamaica. The job acts as a cover to smuggle money for gunrunner Ordell Robbie; yet on her latest trip, Jackie gets busted by local cops, working a sting on Robbie with the aid of ATF Agent Ray Nicolette. After getting bailed out by Ordell, she tries to dig herself out of the hole by participating in a score to get the rest of the crook's money back into the U.S. Only Jackie conspires with bail bondsman Max Cherry to try and swindle Robbie out of the money, so she can stop living this bottom rung life she's been stuck in for seemingly forever.

The only adaptation on Tarantino's resume to date, Jackie Brown was the middle movie in a '90s Leonard revival that saw his baked pulp transmuted into cinematic Maui Wowie. Two years earlier, John Travolta parlayed the "comeback" role Tarantino had gifted him in Pulp Fiction – dancing hitman Vincent Vega – into another silly lug in Barry Sonnenfeld's big screen iteration of Get Shorty ('95). The year after Jackie Brown , Steven Soderbergh recruited George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez into his own cool comedy, Out of Sight ('98), which also featured Michael Keaton reprising his QT role of Ray Nicolette (while screenwriter Scott Frank penned both Shorty and Sight ). It was a high-water mark in terms of the medium showing Leonard's words the respect they deserve, as the only reworkings of his novels that could even be included in the qualitative conversation with these three up to this point were Abel Ferrara's Cat Chaser ('89) and John Frankenheimer's 52 Pick-Up ('86).

The bulk of Rum Punch remains intact on screen, only Tarantino transplants all the action from Leonard's Miami beaches to Compton and the San Fernando Valley stomping grounds of Pulp Fiction (not to mention Ordell's banks from Jamaica to Mexico). With the aid of cinematographer Guillermo Navarro – who shot From Dusk Till Dawn ('96) for QT's filmic brother, Robert Rodriguez (which also featured Tarantino in a prominent role) – and trusty editor Sally Menke (who cut all of his films up until her death in '09), Leonard's text was easily transported into Quentin's universe. For all the audience knew, Jackie could've been pulling the heist of her life right down the street from Marcellus Wallace's joint, where Red Apple cigarettes are sold behind the bar.

Yet it's Tarantino's usual fast-talking attitude – not to mention his personally curated collection of obscure soul hits from the '70s – that truly sells us on Jackie Brown being another one of his singular works. From the moment the title streaks across the screen, with Jackie magically floating through the airport as Bobby Womack wails the theme song to Blax staple Across 110 th Street ('72), we know we're safely in the master's hands, all while he subtly conveys the themes of the movie without anyone spitting a line of his trademark dialogue. Here's a working girl who goes from walking to running, just to make her plane. Because if she misses it, that's one paycheck she can't cash, and another day lost in this unfair rat race. When relief hits Jackie's face as she reaches the gate, we're just as happy as she is, because Tarantino and Grier have already told us so much about this strong, struggling black woman, and there's still one hundred and fifty blissful minutes to go.

Ordell Robbie and the Miracle of Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino are one of the more underrated actor/director pairings in the history of cinema. Starting with his Oscar nominated turn as Jheri -curled, scripture quoting man of violence Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction , Jackson found a consummate collaborator in QT that he'd been lacking up to this point in his already lengthy career. For certain, the '90s had already been kind to Jackson – appearing in Jurassic Park ('93), Die Hard With A Vengeance ('95), and The Long Kiss Goodnight ('96) – but nobody had really tapped into Jackson's movie star potential quite like Tarantino. Until Jules, he'd mostly been an "everyman" character actor, able to play Jack Ryan's best buddy in Patriot Games ('92), and an alcoholic, speed-chess champion father in Fresh ('94) with equal ease.

However, as iconic as Jackson was, screaming about "great vengeance and furious anger" before blowing Brett's head off in Pulp Fiction , Ordell Robbie may be the more complicated of the two roles to pull off. Sporting an array of Kangol caps, a ponytail, and radiating smoldering menace while still being obnoxiously charming (often in the same scene), Tarantino's script calls for us to hang out with Robbie for a good deal of the picture, even though we're scared of him. As he watches girls in bikinis shoot AK-47s with his right-hand homie Louis (Robert De Niro – in what may be the last great performance of his career), and stoner surfer gal mistress, Melanie (Bridget Fonda), Jackson makes damn sure we don't miss a moment of the character's charisma, commenting in his first scene about how a Tech Nine actually advertises that it's "the most popular gun in American crime." ( Can you believe that shit? )

Fascinating is the fact that, before Jackson started landing higher profile roles in big budget genre pictures, he mostly worked in Spike Lee movies (including Lee's landmarks Do the Right Thing ['89] and Jungle Fever ['91]). Lee was hyper-critical of Tarantino leading up to the release of Jackie Brown , railing against the iconoclastic writer/director's use racial slurs   in his numerous screenplays. Pointing out that the epithet is used thirty-eight times in Jackie Brown , Lee told Variety in '97 , "I'm not against the word, and I use it, but not excessively. And some people speak that way. But, Quentin is infatuated with that word. What does he want to be made – an honorary black man?"

Lee's usual rabble rousing struck a chord with Jackson, who stuck up for Tarantino in the press. "Black artists think they are the only ones allowed to use the word,"   Jackson told Jet Magazine at the time . "Well, that's bull. This film is a wonderful homage to Black exploitation films (of the '70s). This is a good film. And Spike hasn't made one of those in a few years." Jackson stopped working with Lee due to the beef, until the two reunited on the director's '13 remake of the Korean thriller, Oldboy ('03). Not that it matters, but one can't help but wonder if the topic of Django Unchained ('12) – Tarantino's Black Western – ever came up between the two, let alone the fact that Tarantino has since publicly labeled Lee a "racist."  Probably not, as Jackson – being a steadfast professional – is perhaps happy to simply lend his exceptional persona and talents to two of America's greatest filmmakers.

Seven Million Miles

At its core, Jackie Brown isn't about heists, or criminals, or getting stoned. Those elements are all just window dressing for what Tarantino is truly interested in: how Jackie and Max Cherry (Robert Forster, in a role that'd rightfully earn him a Best Supporting Actor nod at the Oscars) approach getting old. For Max, there isn't much to stress about. Sure, he'd worried about losing his hair at one point, but once it began to fall out, he "did something about it" , and now feels good about himself again. When Cherry looks in the mirror, it's still the same guy who's written fifteen thousand bail bonds (and that's plenty).

But Jackie's had a bit of a rougher road than Max. A former offender who was put on probation after getting caught carrying drugs for her ex-husband, she's started over more times than she can count. Now, she's forty-four, flying the shittiest little airline who will still hire her, and if she loses this job, Jackie has no idea what the hell she'd do with herself. She can't start over again. It's too late for anything like that. The cash she's going to swipe from Ordell seems like the easiest answer to her problems; a score that'd finally allow her to take a load off and retire in the sun she's slaved so hard over the years to comfortably deliver other folks to.

There's a tenderness to the way Tarantino approaches Jackie and Max's relationship that's certainly reared its head in his other work – the final conversations between Bill (David Carradine) and Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) during the ultimate chapter of Kill Bill ('03) come to mind – but never in such a crystalized fashion. His camera loves both characters, and when they share the frame together, we're merely a fly on the wall, quietly observing a growing tension that's obviously been absent for several years in both of their lives. As Jackie first emerges from the darkness when Max comes to bail her out of jail on Ordell's bond, she's like an angel he didn't know could still exist, approaching like a Jacques Tourneur femme fatale. Ditto his acts of absolute kindness and concern for Jackie, who doesn't seem like she's had a man genuinely listen to her gripes about aging with such compassion in a long, long time.

When the two collaborate on the heist, there's a shorthand that develops between them that the actors convey with brief glimpses and slight body language (which are emphasized by Tarantino's fractured, omni-perspective narrative approach). They're intimate partners without ever touching one another's bodies; sharing a wavelength only they're operating on together. Maybe this is because, like starting over, at their age there aren't many chances for true love like there were in their 20s and 30s – when Grier sported that afro in Coffy ('73) and Forster that tight black tee in Medium Cool ('69). It's the heartbreaking truth of having more sunsets behind you than there are in front of you: the opportunities to love, be loved, and share love lessen by the day, and you must grab ahold of them when they present themselves, because you never know if that spark you feel will be the last of your life once it fades away.

Across 110th Street

In the end, Jackie Brown is a nothing less than a love letter to Grier, who delivers the turn of her life – going from harried working girl, to purring sex kitten, to gun-toting badass, sometimes all in the same scene. Nevertheless, we never lose sight of the fact that Jackie feels over the hill, and the bags under her eyes can't be rubbed away with a little bit of lotion. Grier's a woman of experience, packaging an entire filmography's worth of tough, weathered gorgeousness into that gaudy blue flight attendant's uniform, and we're all the better for it.

During the last reel of Jackie Brown , the greatest – or, at the very least, this writer's personal favorite – shot of Tarantino's career occurs. After everything's said and done – the money (not to mention a now dead Ordell's car) is hers, the cops are shook, and only the horizon remains – Jackie arrives at Max's office, and the two share a kiss hot enough to scorch the celluloid as it runs through the projector. Max interrupts their final moment by answering his business' phone, and Jackie flashes him one last perfect smile before walking through that front door and out of his life forever. Cherry asks the caller to dial back in a minute, and walks to the back of the room, raising his hands over his head in agony as Navarro slowly lets the frame go out of focus. Suddenly, we're inside Max's headspace, feeling the pain as he does – he just let possibly the last love of his life vanish, mouthing the lyrics to "Across 110 th Street" , a beautiful, hard-nosed legend in both his and our minds.

There are no sequels to your twilight years, and Max Cherry's wise enough to realize that.

Jackie Brown

Facing the daunting task of making a third feature that could measure up to "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," not to mention one that would disarm the detractors ready to pounce on him no matter what, Quentin Tarantino treads turf that is both familiar and fresh in "Jackie Brown."

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

• Remember Me 15 years ago
• Shutter Island 15 years ago
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Facing the daunting task of making a third feature that could measure up to “ Reservoir Dogs ” and “ Pulp Fiction ,” not to mention one that would disarm the detractors ready to pounce on him no matter what, Quentin Tarantino treads turf that is both familiar and fresh in “ Jackie Brown.” Unquestionably too long, and lacking the snap and audaciousness of the pictures that made him the talk of the town, this narratively faithful but conceptually imaginative adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel “Rum Punch” nonetheless offers an abundance of pleasures, especially in the realm of characterization and atmosphere. Down-and-dirty pic looks to find its most ardent fans among cinephiles and black viewers, with mainstream critics and audiences more likely to harp on its obvious indulgences. B.O. prospects are OK in urban areas, less so elsewhere.

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Enshrined as Hollywood’s golden bad boy after “Pulp Fiction,” Tarantino was clearly in a position to do anything he wanted as his next film and took more than three years to do it. Superficially sticking to his roots in violent crime stories and paying homage to ’70s blaxploitation pics through his offbeat casting of Pam Grier in the title role, writer-director also uses the occasion to promisingly expand his range in more emotional and nuanced directions. This development may be lost on genre fans expecting heavy mayhem and gunplay, of which there is some, but it augurs well for Tarantino one day venturing into other types of stories.

As it is, “ Jackie Brown ” is an arguably too fulsome examination of deceit, treachery, cunning, stupidity, mistrust, risk and daring among a group of small-timers. Transferring the action from Leonard’s Miami to his own South Bay area of L.A. and changing the leading character from white to black, Tarantino has adhered closely to the plot of the celebrated author’s 1995 bestseller but has given it a distinctive tang through his patented touch with contempo street dialogue and highly personal use of source music and pop culture artifacts.

Film takes its own sweet time setting its gears in motion, with the emphasis on sweet when it comes to amusingly establishing its characters, but to the detriment of pace. Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) is a very smooth and lethal arms dealer operating out of a Hermosa Beach pad he shares with blond and always stoned surfer girl Melanie (Bridget Fonda). Hanging out with his longtime partner, Louis Gara (Robert De Niro), who has just been released from the slammer after serving four years for bank robbery, Ordell critiques the various assault weapons he can deliver while announcing that he intends to get out of the illicit gun business after stashing away another 500 grand down in Mexico.

However, Ordell, whose nearly every phrase contains the n-word, must first deal with an errant associate, Beaumont (Chris Tucker), a fast-talking hustler who has violated his parole. In a sequence that typifies Tarantino’s taste for combining outrageous comedy with startling violence, Ordell sweet-talks his manic friend into climbing into his car trunk in order to surprise an adversary, then, in a boldly pro-tracted long shot, casually shoots him when they arrive at a vacant lot.

More trouble lands on Ordell’s doorstep when stewardess Jackie Brown (Grier) is busted at LAX by ATF agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and cop Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen) while smuggling $50,000 into the country for him. Facing a prison term and meager future prospects upon her release, the sharp-looking lady in her mid-40s knows she’ll get off easy if she helps the authorities nail Ordell, who bails Jackie out but is thwarted in his attempt to do to her what he did to Beaumont.

In a story featuring several relationships in which trust and mutual suspicion perform a continual balancing act, the most significant is the one carrying the least narrative weight. Bail bondsman Max Cherry ( Robert Forster ), a resolutely solid, middle-class and middle-aged man whom Ordell uses to spring his friends, picks Jackie up at jail and offers her a ride home. His function in the plot would end there except that, in a moment con-veyed with great wit through the music, he falls hard for Jackie the moment he sees her, takes her for a relaxing drink and eventually sets this woman with few options on a path that will see her bravely playing the authorities and Ordell against each other.

The quasi-romance between these two unlikely partners, both of whom are at midlife cross-roads, provides a quiet emotional undercurrent beneath the yarn’s otherwise more extreme erup-tions. Laying low for awhile, Louis takes the flaky Melanie up on her invitation to have sex, then berates Ordell for trusting her. Admitting to Ordell how she’s had to cooperate with the cops, Jackie convinces him that she’s going to put one over on them by staging an intricate money exchange in which she’ll actually return to Ordell nearly all of his $500,000.

In a mild, but nonetheless highly effective, echo of his “Pulp Fiction” structural experimentation, Tarantino, in a 20-minute setpiece, stages this ex-change three times from different points of view, each one revealing key aspects of the daredevil maneuver. As the main participants urgently pursue their interests in the bloody aftermath, half of the major characters bite the dust , leading to a mutedly upbeat finale.

The action indisputably flags during the long midsection, but the film’s longueurs are inseparable from its strengths in that they stem from the same fact: Tarantino works his scenes for all they are worth, extracting from them the maximum values of drama, humor, color and character. For him, there are no small or insignificant sequences, nothing to be thrown away.

The results of this approach are scenes that, individually, play wonderfully well but, when laid end to end, tend to flatten out. Pic suffers, not only from overlength, but from a lack of dramatic peaks and valleys, of punctuation, something that was alleviated in the equally long “Pulp Fiction” by the audacious dovetailing structure and more outrageous incidents.

Ultimately, despite the flavorsome aspects of all the elements, it can be argued that a genre piece of this kind has trouble supporting such extended treatment, even when the characters and situations are deepened as far as Tarantino takes them. In this light, the director’s courage in scouting the outer reaches of this sort of material can be regarded very sympathetically, even if the approach ultimately reveals the form’s limitations.

Tarantino’s knack for imaginative casting and extracting unusual, unexpected notes from actors is in full flower here. A true icon of the ’70s, Grier, who has aged beautifully, may not have the widest range, but her tremendous poise, visible at once in the opening shots of her arriving at LAX, serves her exceedingly well, and she does have two or three big moments to sink her teeth into.

Jackson, sporting a flowing hairdo and stringed chin hair, is superb as the charming, loquacious, ultimately malevolent gunrunner who uses people as pawns for his own ends. Forster, another thesp Tarantino has resurrected, lends a wonderfully lived-in quality to the bail bondsman who’s seen it all and has a special appreciation for what Jackie is going through.

Fonda brings an irreverent spunkiness to her amoral beach girl, and Keaton manages to inject some honest emotion into his efficient federal agent. De Niro plays a seedy, relatively uninteresting sideline character for most of the way, only to erupt in the late going in ways that are both insanely violent and touchingly honest and loyal.

Enormously entertaining soundtrack is loaded with soul and funk hits, some from vintage blaxploitation hits. Technically, film is evocative of mostly dingy locales where the characters live and operate, and pointedly avoids a slick look.

• Production: A Miramax release of an A Band Apart production. Produced by Lawrence Bender. Executive producers, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Richard N. Gladstein, Elmore Leonard. Co-producer, Paul Hellerman. Directed, written by Quentin Tarantino, based on the novel "Rum Punch" by Elmore Leonard.
• Crew: Camera (CFI color), Guillermo Navarro; editor, Sally Menke; production design, David Wasco; art direction, Daniel Bradford; set design, Mariko Braswell; set decoration, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco; costume design, Mary Claire Hannan; sound (Dolby digi-tal/SDDS), Mark Ulano; assistant director, William Paul Clark; casting, Jaki Brown, Robyn M. Mitchell. Reviewed at the Avco Cinema, L.A., Dec. 12, 1997. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 155 min.
• With: Jackie Brown - Pam Grier Ordell Robbie - Samuel L. Jackson Max Cherry - Robert Forster Melanie - Bridget Fonda Ray Nicolette - Michael Keaton Louis Gara - Robert De Niro Mark Dargus - Michael Bowen Beaumont Livingston - Chris Tucker Sheronda - Lisa Gay Hamilton Winston - Tommy (Tiny) Lister Jr. Simone - Hattie Winston Amy Billingsley, Sales Girl - Aimee Graham

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