Mania Grade: A-
Disc Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: R
Stars: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forester, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert DeNiro, Chris Tucker
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Distributor: Miramax Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 1997
Retail Price: $29.99
Extras: two-disc set; widescreen anamorphic; 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS; Tarantino introduction; essays; alternate and deleted footage; trailers, TV and radio spots; documentaries; interviews; reviews & articles; text commentary; gallery; DVD-ROM features; filmographies; French language track; English and Spanish subtitles

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JACKIE BROWN

Quentin Tarantino's junior effort didn't bring in the box office like PULP FICTION, nor did it spawn an insufferable movement of incessant quoting that had many a film hipster getting a well-deserved punch in the face, but it did provoke a declaration from the film critic hive/colony that the man had matured. Why is this? Well, the film clocks in at 2 hours 24 minutes, features more distinctly mature performers (sure, we all know John Travolta is actually 106 years old, but he looked a chunky 35 in PULP FICTION), doesn't fall back as much on the Tarantino (and Kevin Smith for that matter) reliance on petty bickering about pop culture trivia (which is the rhythmic equivalent of hearing the exact same song with different lyrics), and allows the story to gracefully unfold at its own pace without cramming the package with unnecessary dialogue and lopsided humor pieces.

Since mature equals geriatric in today's cinematic climate, perhaps more "assured" would be a better word. The film is tighter than PULP FICTION and Reservoir DOGS; it doesn't wear the filmmaker's insecurity on its sleeve by relying too much on "comic" pieces (really, did anyone find the Christopher Walken "watch up the ass" bit in PULP FICTION to be anything other than using scatological humor to grab a cheap one from the back row?); and its characters come across as fleshed out "human beings" rather than well dressed ciphers existing only to do profanity laced variations on Monty Python's "The Argument Clinic" sketch.

Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is an airline stewardess making $16,000 a year which, by the way, means that if she works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, she's only making $7.70 dollars an hour. Girl has got to get her ass to McDonalds (they start at $8.00). She gets busted by the ATF for running money and, surprise, surprise, surprise, drugs. The ATF doesn't want Jackie; they want the guy she works for, Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson), but Jackie knows better than to rat out that "kills brothers in the trunk of his car crazy mother f*#&er," that is until she gets a bad case of the Lady MacBeths brought on by her knowledge of Ordell's half million dollars that he needs brought into the country. Circumstance provides assistance and a potential love interest in Max Cherry (Robert Forester), her bail bondsman. Together, the two concoct a scheme that in order to work will have to result in several deaths. (Hey, that's half a million dollars, and life isn't worth a bucket to piss in in some quarters - a bucket to piss in, I assume, has no value.)

After RESERVOIR DOGS, I thought Quentin Tarantino was going to be the biggest thing to hit cinema since Tommy Lee Wallace. Then when TRUE ROMANCE came out I thought, "Man, this is like the re-mix version of RESERVOIR DOGS," and when PULP FICTION hit, I bailed - it was just too much of the same thing. Like him or love him, Tarantino's work on those three films (and FROM DUSK TILL DAWN for that matter) has such a distinctive style that it caves in on itself, with the support of new inspiration long since worn away. His films, to me, felt like the guy at a party who every few minutes comes up to you to tell you another one about "the Polack, the Jew, and the Irishman." Sure, the punchline may be slightly different each time, but in essence it's the same joke. JACKIE BROWN is for the first 10 minutes the typical Tarantino, enamored with his same old/same old wordplay, but then suddenly the gears shift when Robert Forester shows up. Suddenly there exists the straight man to defuse the B.S. vocals with silent dismissal. (It feels like Tarantino decided to give the people 10 minutes of what they wanted and then got on with the new groove... shame that 10 minutes was heavily featured in the trailer, perhaps I would have seen it in the theater otherwise.) After that the movie becomes rock solid entertainment that is confident enough of its story to give it to us straight up; perhaps the solid Elmore Leonard base was all Tarantino needed to get off his tangents.

Biased about Tarantino's work or not, I have to say that JACKIE BROWN is one of the finest films I've seen in the last few months (excluding BOB LE FLAMBEUR, JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, RED BEARD and that AIR BUD sequel where the dog plays football) and I was awestruck from the first appearance of Robert Forester to the end after watching it the first time I went back again and again. (It's really a great film, up there with COUNTRY HOOKER and THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP.)

Now, of all the reasons I enjoyed this film, and they're too numerous to mention, the one that stands out as the most enjoyable/cathartic on a fan level is the powerhouse performance of Pam Grier. Mr. Tarantino knows his Pam, and for a guy like me who grew up on her films (there was a pile of them buried under our house) I was delighted to see her talents utilized to their fullest potential. No simpering vigilante that is COFFY here, this is Pam full strength, kicking ass and showing off her full star power (the woman reduces Samuel L. Jackson to dork level). It's too bad her subsequent work hasn't been this good.

Miramax has released JACKIE BROWN in a collector's edition, so best get it fast cause they wouldn't say it was a collector's edition if they printed up more than 10 or 15 of them.

The set consists of two extras packed discs. The first disc includes the film proper, released in 2.35:1 widescreen ratio with a variety of sound options (DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Surround Sound, French) and captions (English, Spanish... guess the French can't read). There is a special Tarantino introduction to the film and for additional special features there are the DVD-ROM extras (games, screenplay), soundtrack chapters and, making up for the lack of a commentary track, the enhanced trivia track.

This trivia track is particularly avoidable, considering that on my copy it's not even synched up with the film, directly referencing scenes that haven't happened yet. The track spends a lot of time digressing into the truly trivial aspects of Tarantino the cult figure, addressing minute film preferences that will satisfy his stalker only. On top of all this, the track often attempts to read into the film, and poorly. (At one point it refers to Pam Grier's wearing of jeans as demonstrating her first moment of comfort via comfortable cloths... I guess those jean coveralls she had on earlier were really constricting.)

Of special note to potential buyers of this disc, I had a glitch at around the one hour 46-minute mark, chapter 17, during the bag exchange between Jackie and Melanie. The film freezes up and then starts again four seconds further into the film; no matter how I tried I couldn't get to those four locked-out seconds so be on the lookout for a possible mastering problem.

Disc two contains the "JACKIE BROWN: How It Went Down" documentary that's a nice onetime viewing. Quentin Tarantino talks for an hour about JACKIE BROWN in "A Look Back at JACKIE BROWN" and let's just say he's not very critical of his work. The full "Chicks with Guns" video is finally available in full, so the nation can now sleep. Because we as viewers can't judge how awesome JACKIE BROWN is on our own, the disc has supplied a clip from SISKEL & EBERT AT THE MOVIES in which Roger "I gave THE KARATE KID and SIXTEEN CANDLES four stars each" Ebert and Gene "No, I am not back from the grave idiot, this is prerecorded video" Siskel gush shamelessly about the film. Need even more positive critical evaluation of the film? Well, don't you worry your pretty head; if you hated JACKIE BROWN, you can find out just how stupid and insignificant you are by reading the reviews and articles gallery. Hate MTV? Tough, a few clips from MTV's promotion of the film can be viewed in "JACKIE BROWN on MTV." (Are those VJs humorless pod people or what?) Theatrical trailers and TV spots for JACKIE BROWN can be found here along with trailers for Pam Grier and Robert Forester films. (The Pam Grier stuff holds up well, but did we really need to see clips from such Forester classics as HOLLYWOOD HARRY and JUSTINE? The guy's just too cool to be dissed like that.) Pam Grier radio spots, stills galleries, and filmographies round out the extras.