Top Movies Of The 1990's: #12 Jackie Brown
Box Office: $39.7 Million Dollars
Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Robert Forster)
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 90/100
Available To Stream: Amazon Prime ($4)
It took years for Jackie Brown to get itself out of the giant Pulp Fiction shadow that swallowed it up. Anyone who liked movies was eagerly waiting to see how Quentin Tarantino would follow up his movie that not only changed Hollywood but was also wildly entertaining. When Jackie Brown came out three years later, it had expectations that no movie could live up to.
It never finished in the Top 4 of any weekend it was in movie theaters (the Nathan Lane comedy Mousehunt in its second week in release beat Jackie Brown in its opening weekend). The general reaction of people who did see the movie found it pretty boring.
Everyone was wrong. The audiences at the time. The Oscars (Tarentino didn't even get nominated for best screenplay yet the wildly overrated Wag The Dog did). The critics (except Roger Ebert who always loved this).
Jackie Brown isn't just the perfect follow up to Pulp Fiction, I can understand why someone would say it's a better film.
What was perceived as its biggest flaw is actually Jackie Brown's greatest strength: the quietness. Don't get me wrong. It's a movie with some wild characters, double crosses and cold blooded murders. But it's also a movie that allows these characters to breathe. Jackie Brown is still Tarentino's most mature movie. It's a movie that tells so much about what it means to be middle-aged and it was written and directed by a 34 year old.
Max Cherry is one of my favorite movie characters ever. I talk about him in this blog here.
This is a movie with many characters but it is ultimately about two people who take a similar risk for different reasons. Jackie is uncomfortable with aging and her future. Max seems content with his finances but is a lonely man who realizes it the second he sees Jackie for the first time. Max is brave and also smart enough to know he is being used. He's also calculated and knows himself well enough to be content with that.
I love how quietly Forster plays Max. There's a familiarity with the type of character Max is or how Forster is acting. In one scene, Max goes to the movies by himself at the mall and says he does it every week. Just his body movement walking out of the theater seems so realistic. Max Cherry is confident guy but is also very lonely and he is able to make that work and then show Max feeling the exact opposite way whenever he's around Jackie.
There are so many fantastic characters to talk about in this movie. Michael Keaton's Ray Nicolette and Bridget Fonda's Melanie are perfectly overly enthusiastic and/or selfishly stupid. But it's Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson that both really stand out for me. De Niro's Louis (or as Melanie says Lou-isssssssssss) is so believable as this idiot who just got off jail. Jackson's Ordell might be one of the scariest bad guys on film this decade. He seems capable of anything and no actor can speak Tarentino dialogue better than Jackson.
I have been saving Pam Grier for last here as Jackie Brown. You have to buy that she would both be scared shitless of Ordell but also brave enough to risk screwing him over for $500,000. Not many actresses could have pulled that off. I don't know if Grier is a great actress but she's great here. She flirty with Max Cherry to get what she wants but also respects him a great deal. She can see how she's used being flirtatious to get what she wants for decades but it's the respect for a man that is newer for her. She's spent so much time around scumbags that trusting someone truly is something that's exciting but also scary for her.
The best thing about Jackie Brown is those quiet moments like Max Cherry and Jackie Brown talking about aging. Max is so much more comfortable with it. It's easier for guys. Jackie knows using her sexuality to get ahead might be something she can't do forever. But, where Max and Jackie's bodies get older, they also are much wiser than they were before. It's that wisdom and trust that win in the end.
This is the Tarentino movie where the characters feel the most realistic and lived in. I love (almost all) Tarantino movies. This isn't my absolute favorite but there is no Tarantino movie where I care more about the people I'm watching.
12. Jackie Brown
13. A Few Good Men
14. The Fugitive
15. The Truman Show
16. Fargo
17. Swingers
18. Reservoir Dogs
19. There's Something About Mary
20. Sleepers
21. Schindler's List
22. Rushmore
23. Fight Club
24. Saving Private Ryan
25. True Romance
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerk