Less Guts, Over-The-Top Violence and Quirkyness But No Less Stunning

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2010)

Most Tarantino fans agree that Pulp Fiction is Tarantino's greatest work, due to its wackiness and over the top violence and humour. I won't disagree there, but Jackie Brown another of Tarantino's films is just as good personally. Yes it is lacking some things in Pulp Fiction, more in order to make space for a more entwining storyline and also to interlink characters more. Jackie Brown is about a 44 year old stewardess Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) who is caught by the ATF and law enforcement ferrying cash for a Los Angeles based gun dealer Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) who is making a killing in profits selling all kinds of guns to very sour and dangerous people.
She is given a choice; help the authorities nail Ordell or face hard serious jail-time and here begins her story. She chooses to nail Ordell for the cops, in exchange for no prison time and immunity. Beginning her sting, to let the cops catch Ordell with his hands on the money she begins to hatch her own plan of taking Ordell's $500,000 dollars for herself. Alike to Pulp Fiction we see the spanning storyline from different perspectives and viewpoints of those of Jackie, Ordell, and even the lower characters of the world including a Bail-Bondsman and a newly released con friend of Ordell's.
Tarantino makes us in the end root for Jackie Brown to get her hands on Ordell's money, as we being to like her and understand her predicament due to Ordell's activities. We see him as a cowardly brutal businessman who in the end would rather shoot one of his people dead, than allow them to live and risk prison. Tarantino shoots Jackie Brown alike to how he shot Pulp Fiction, with very gritty environments and set-pieces, moving from one to another to piece in another character's story.
The violence isn't regular, but when it comes along its just right to get across the scene like when Ordell shoots dead one of his own people when they risk a big prison sentence, or when Robert De Niro's character flips out shooting dead Ordell's annoying girlfriend. These scenes are quickly shot, and you are taken to another character's point of view.
Maybe Jackie Brown to some hardcore die-hard Tarantino fans is not his best work but to some its one of his best, alongside Pulp Fiction. The cast is great, with searing performances from Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson and even Robert De Niro in supporting roles, however one that even surprised me was Robert Forster's performance as the bail bondsman who gets close to Jackie Brown and helps her swindle the $500,000 from under Ordell's nose. His performance was quite good, and at a point almost stole the show from Samuel L. Jackson. Jackie Brown is a great film in Tarantino's long run of works.