Jackie Brown
Year: | 1997 |
Production Co: | A Band Apart |
Studio: | Miramax |
Director: | Quentin Tarantino |
Producer: | Lawrence Bender |
Writer: | Quentin Tarantino/Elmore Leonard |
Cast: | Pam Grier, Robert Forster, Michael Keaton, Samuel L Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, Chris Tucker, Tommy Tiny Lister Jr, Sid Haig |
One can be more forgiving with the passage of time, but Tarantino is still much better when directing his own script, although few writers are tailor made for his eye than Elmore Leonard.
The story of a high stakes double cross, airline stewardess Jackie (Grier) is ferrying guns between the US and Mexico for fearsome gun runner Ordell (Jackson), who's surrounded himself with a band of Taranintoesque misfits including former colleague just out of prison (De Niro) and his kooky stoner girlfriend (Fonda).
Meanwhile Jackie has the burgeoning friendship-cum-romance with bail bondsman Forster and has fed Keaton on her tail every step.
It's going to take all her wiles and smarts to stay one step ahead with the loot and her life intact, and Tarantino treats it all with a style you could almost guess was his if you had no idea he directed it, every frame an artwork to both a bygone era and something we've never seen before.