Jackie Brown (1997)

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

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Writers:

Quentin Tarantino (written for the screen by), Elmore Leonard (novel)

Stars:

Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
LisaGay 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

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...

---

Plot Keywords:

money | arms dealer | atf | bail | flight attendant | 

---

Taglines:

Six players on the trail of a half a million in Cash. There's only one question... Who's playing who?

---

Genres:

Crime | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong language, some violence, drug use and sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rum Punch

Filming Locations:

724 E Carson St, Carson, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

DEM 2,867,952 (Germany) (17 April 1998)

Gross:

DEM 9,169,811 (Germany) (22 May 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Miramax Films, A Band Apart, Lawrence Bender Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

154 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Quentin Tarantino:  [trunk]  The scene where Ordell is trying to convince Beaumont to get in the trunk of the car is shot entirely from a camera in the trunk looking up at them.

---

Goofs

Del Amo Fashion Center is listed during the film as the largest indoor shopping center in the world. At the time of production, that distinction belonged to the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

---

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.

---

Crazy Credits

A copyright notice appears under the title at the beginning of the movie--a common practice for low-budget movies in the 1960s and '70s but very uncommon for 1997.

---

Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Daybreakers/Leap Year/Youth in Revolt (2010)

---

Soundtracks

"Aragon"
(1973)
Written by Roy Ayers
Performed by Roy Ayers
Courtesy of Polydor Records
By Arrangement with PolyGram Film & TV Music

User Reviews

No Fancy Fireworks needed

Contrary to Pulp Fiction which had a very unusual editing and flashy situations, Jackie Brown focuses more on characters that are basically humans with very focused problems, for instance getting older which is an eminent theme tackled in the film. No one's evil in all this. They all have interestingly real personalities and I felt strangely comfortable watching them talk, eat, kill and argue with each other. Tarantino is an excellent storyteller and I wish I could write dialogues as interesting as his. The film flows with a slower pace than Pulp, with all it's many streched takes and lenghty scenes, but by doing so leaves us more time to grasp the characters with all their differences. A more mature Tarantino. Still loving what he does. And he said it himself before the film came out: "This one is at a lower volume then 'Pulp.' It's not an epic, it's not an opera. It's a character study."