Quentin Tarantino
Jackie Brown

THE REVIEW

This is the first review I've written on Debaser, and for my debut, I've chosen the only film by my favorite director that had yet to be reviewed on the site: "Jackie Brown" by Quentin Tarantino.

The director from Knoxville comes off the enormous success of "Pulp Fiction," now a cult film and a symbol of 90s cinema. Expectations for the new work are huge, and Tarantino, from whom a sort of Pulp Fiction Part II is expected, decides to avoid the problem by changing tone and, thus, genre. This results in "Jackie Brown."

The story is adapted from Rum Punch, a tale by Elmore Leonard, and recounts the adventures of Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), a flight attendant for a Mexican airline and, most importantly, a key conduit for money smuggling by arms dealer Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson). Things don't go as planned: arrested by the police, she is forced to cooperate but according to her own rules, and with the help of lawyer Max Cherry (Robert Foster), she tries to recover the "dirty" money for herself.

Jackie Brown is not the "usual" Tarantino film and perhaps for this reason was a box office failure. Less pulp than the previous two masterpieces, more classic in its directorial style. This time Tarantino indulges in few stylistic exercises with the camera; for example, consider the screen division in De Palma style or the beautiful money exchange scene seen from three different perspectives. Of course, this is not a flaw; rather, Tarantino once again proves his adeptness at directing. For the first time, he tackles the adaptation of a non-original screenplay, and it's immediately noticeable: the delirious dialogues, albeit toned down compared to Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, are present here too, but the script fails to be "exaggerated" and break out of the mold as it had in the past. An excellent screenplay nonetheless, rich with twists and supported by a varied and absolutely apt cast: Pam Grier, the heroine of the blaxploitation films so loved by Tarantino, in the lead role; a menacing Sam Jackson supported by an irresistible Robert De Niro; Robert Foster (who received an Oscar nomination for this film) and the always talented Michael Keaton as the police officer trying to pin down Ordell. As in every respectable Tarantino work, an excellent soundtrack that evokes the "black" atmosphere permeating the entire film, with tracks ranging from blues to Johnny Cash's country.

For some critics, it's Tarantino's best film; for me, it's a great film that demonstrates the qualities of this director who had the courage not to endlessly repeat the same film, thus pursuing a safe success but knowing how to dare.