Quentin Tarantino’s third feature and his homage to the
blaxploitation and heist films of the 1970s, Jackie Brown has been for a long time the Tarantino film I’ve told
people was my favourite. On my first round of watching his oeuvre when I was in
my mid to late teens, something about Jackie
Brown made it my favourite Tarantino to date. Recently I’ve re-watched Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction as well as the Director’s latest Django Unchained and the film is no longer at the top of my list
but it remains perhaps Tarantino’s most restrained and focussed film to date
and features a great story and top cast on fine form.
When middle aged air stewardess Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is
caught smuggling $10,000 and a couple of ounces of cocaine through customs she
is picked up and charged. Facing a stretch in jail or a bullet to the head from
her arms dealing employer Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), Brown attempts to
play one side off against the other and pull of an epic but dangerous heist.