Plot
A female flight attendant becomes a key figure in a plot between the police and an arms dealer.

Release Year: 1997

Rating: 7.6/10 (112,889 voted)

Critic's Score: 64/100

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Stars: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster

Storyline
Jackie Brown is the name of a flight attendant who gets caught smuggling her boss' gun money on the airline she works for. Luckily for her, the Fed Ray Nicolet and the LA Cop Mark Dargus decide to team up in order to arrest the arms dealer she works for, whose name they don't even know. Here's when she has to choose one way: tell Nicolet and Dargus about Ordell Robbie (the arms dealer) and get her freedom -except that if Ordell suspects you're talking about him, you're dead- or keep her mouth shut and do some time. That's when she meets Max Cherry -her bail bondsman-, a late fifties, recently separated, burnt-out man, who falls in love with her. Then Jackie comes up with a plan to play the Feds off against Ordell and the guys he works with -Louis Gara and Melanie Ralston, among others- and walk off with their money. But she needs Max's help. No one is going to stand in the way of his million dollar payoff...

Writers: Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard

Cast:
Pam Grier - Jackie Brown
Samuel L. Jackson - Ordell Robbie
Robert Forster - Max Cherry
Bridget Fonda - Melanie Ralston
Michael Keaton - Ray Nicolette
Robert De Niro - Louis Gara
Michael Bowen - Mark Dargus
Chris Tucker - Beaumont Livingston
Lisa Gay Hamilton - Sheronda
Tommy 'Tiny' Lister - Winston (as Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr.)
Hattie Winston - Simone
Sid Haig - Judge
Aimee Graham - Amy - Billingsley Sales Girl
Ellis Williams - Cockatoo Bartender (as Ellis E. Williams)
Tangie Ambrose - Billingsley Sales Girl #2

Taglines: LOOK OUT! caught between the Feds and a cold blooded killer. With half a million dollars up for grabs. No one knows how it's going down. Except for maybe JACKIE BROWN

Release Date: 25 December 1997

Filming Locations: 724 E Carson St, Carson, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $9,292,248 (USA) (28 December 1997) (1370 Screens)

Gross: $39,647,595 (USA) (22 March 1998)

Runtime: 154 min

Trivia:
Sylvester Stallone originally wanted to play Louis, while John Travolta was the first choice to play Ray Nicollete.

Goofs:
Anachronisms: Ordell's cellular phone (Motorola StarTac) was not available until 1997.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Girl at Security Gate: Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas, now boarding Gate 103, first class only. Flight 710, Cabo San Lucas, now boarding Gate 103. First class only.
Jackie Brown: [greeting passengers] Buenos dias. Welcome aboard. Welcome aboard.

Tarantino's sleeper. An underrated gem of a movie.

Rating:

Many people were disappointed with 'Jackie Brown' when it was first released as it didn't live up to their expectations created by the more flamboyant 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction'. I admit that I was one of those disappointed fans. But as the years have gone by I have come to appreciate this movie more and more, and if you deal with what it IS and not what you thought it was going to be, you'll see that it is an underrated gem of a movie. 'Jackie Brown' is much more character driven and leisurely plotted than Tarantino's previous two movies. I haven't read the Elmore Leonard novel on which it was based so I can't tell whether this was a conscious decision by Tarantino himself, or it's because of the source material, but it might be a stumbling block for those with MTV-style attention spans. 1970s crime movie buffs will find it much easier going. The big names in the cast like De Niro, Jackson and Fonda are all very good, but the real standout performances in this movie are by 70s blaxploitation icon Pam Grier ('Coffy', 'Foxy Brown', 'Black Mama White Mama',etc.etc.) and a revelatory one from Robert Forster. Forster back in the day showed plenty of promise in movies like 'Medium Cool' but quickly found himself stuck in b-grade exploitation movies like 'Vigilante' and 'Alligator'. Fun stuff, but hardly Oscar material. Max Cherry is the best role he has ever been given, and he is superb in it. The fascinating thing about 'Jackie Brown' for me is that Tarantino's critics accuse him of making shallow and violent self-consciously hip crime films, but the central story of this movie concerns an inter-racial Middle Aged romance, something I haven't seen done in a believable or realistic fashion by Hollywood before. By doing this so well Tarantino shows he has much more depth, and is a much more interesting and braver film maker than his more acclaimed contemporaries. 'Jackie Brown' is a fine movie that hopefully one day will get the kudos it deserves. Don't overlook this one just because it isn't 'Pulp Fiction The Next Generation'!

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