Jackie Brown (1999, VHS)

What makes Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" work so well could be summed up simply as transparency. This seems unlikely from an individual known for preceding himself with his own reputation, but with this film Tarantino proves that his patience and self-control in filmmaking is diametric to his habit of laying it on thick in verbal arenas. I feel what makes Tarantino's style stand out these days is that it is more akin to older styles of filmmaking which had yet to depart from the theatrical roots of drama as opposed to the overwhelmingly "cinemaphotographed" and aggressively and complicatedly edited movies of today.

Tarantino really seems to know actors and their craft at a level which belies his relatively young age. One can almost picture his whole process of developing a story idea, then a script, in his head while simultaneously calculating every element of how the ideas will be injected into actual personalities in the form of actors. I've only seen this movie and "Pulp Fiction", but in both cases what struck me most was how much the actors merged with the story, how they achieved "symbiosis" with it, rather than simply delivering it. "Jackie Brown" carries this on beautifully, as here, in the case of each character, I tended to forget I was watching actors. Instead, Tarantino and the cast presented a fascinating roll of "identities", and it was through this depth of texture that the intensity of the drama and suspense emerged.

The basic story is straghtforward Elmore Leonard territory, defined by the convolutions and complications of life in the hard-bitten world of the streetwise. The cast is essentially an ensemble falling into two groups. The antagonists are career criminal/gun smuggler Ordell Robbie, played by Samuel L. Jackson, and his ex-con sidekick, played by Robert DeNiro. The protagonists, together, form an unlikely triangle of mutual support consisting of stewardess/smuggling subcontractee Jackie Brown, played by the surprisingly impressive Pam Grier, unassuming, mild mannered bounty hunter Max Cherry, played by veteran character actor Robert Forester, and a motivated ATF agent played proficiently by Michael Keaton (in a decidedly non-comedic role).

The tale unfolds to reveal a tangle of double and triple crosses, as Jackie Brown, heading into middle age, looks to corner a cash prize for herself before she bolts from her criminal associations for good. The problem is that destructive egomaniacs like Ordell aren't in the habit of offering pensions, so she has to devise a brilliant way of stealing it. Thus is set the stage for an intricate web of risk, deceit, and "playing both sides against the middle", as Jackie relies on the trust and involvement of a number of interests, none of whom trust one another.
Tarantino's eye for transparently establishing the flow of the plot, while subtly generating atmosphere with highly charged personalities fits this kind of storyline to a tee.

Jackson and DeNiro really flesh their parts out well, both coming across as convincing thugs; relaxed and jovial when things go their way, brooding and violent when they don't. Jackson is the gregarious one, DeNiro the man of few words, and both are ingeniously written and directed to punctuate the suspense in the story by maintaining seething interiors and exploding unpredictably with destructive intensity. Grier is excellent as the crafty and complex Brown, grappling with both the emotional upheaval of mid-life and the gnawing uncertainty of criminal collusion. And both Forester and Keaton support the story well as highly interested third parties.

All in all, "Jackie Brown" is a piece of high-calibur filmmaking in the edgy, crime-drama genre, sort of like Scorsese on leave from Little Italy. Not nearly as gory as some of Tarantino's other work, this film relies more on the pressures placed on the viewer by cycles of tension and release, rather than simply shock value. It's a good story with great acting and direction and I highly recommend it.