Jackie Brown Is Tarantino's Most Romantic Film (original) (raw)

Published Dec 25, 2022, 6:46 PM EST

The year is 1997; it’s been three years since the release of Pulp Fiction, and film fanatics everywhere are asking what Quentin Tarantino will do next. After winning the best screenplay Oscar with his co-writer Lawrence Bender and the top prize at Cannes Film Festival, Tarantino has Hollywood at his disposal. Instead of going the standard route and cashing in, he chooses to make the movie he wants to make, and so Jackie Brown is born. Compared to his eight other films, this one doesn’t necessarily adhere to all the Tarantino-isms for which he is known for. There is no excessive violence, and it doesn’t rely on over-the-top theatrical flare to pull the audience in. The winning factor of Jackie Brown is the titular character's charming relationship with bail bondsman Max Cherry, played by Pam Grier and Robert Forster, respectively. Twenty-five years later, we look back on Tarantino’s understated meditation on aging in the life of crime and how Jackie Brown is the most romantic film in his catalog.

Tarantino's Not the Romantic Type

Romance is not something that Tarantino movies are generally known for, and yet there are elements of it sprinkled throughout most of his films. Pulp Fiction had the passionate love between Butch (Bruce Willis) and Fabienne (Maria de Madeiros) and ride-or-die sweethearts Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer). Inglourious Basterds teases a beautiful spark between Shoshanna (Melanie Laurent) and Marcel (Jacky Ido), but tragically they are never given a chance to explore it. Django Unchained exists in the name of romance, as the story follows the journey of Django (Jamie Foxx) rescuing his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), but they don’t share enough scenes together to showcase their love. Honorable mentions are Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) in Reservoir Dogs and Squeaky (Dakota Fanning) and George Spahn (Bruce Dern) in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Jackie Brown, on the other hand, is the only Tarantino film that is carried by the blossoming romance between its two lead characters.

When Jackie Met Max

Pam Grier and Robert Forster in Jackie Brown (1997)

Image via Miramax Films

Jackie Brown is a 44-year-old divorced stewardess for Cabo Air, the worst airline in the biz. She also works as a smuggler for career criminal Ordell Robbie to make ends meet, whose funds are kept in safety deposit boxes in Cabo. On a regular run back to LAX with a carry-on full of cash, Jackie is busted by the ATF and thrown in jail. Ordell visits Max Cherry, a 56-year-old crooked bail bondsman, and strikes a deal to bail Jackie out of the slammer. Just doing his job, Max waits outside the jail to meet his latest bondee. As Jackie makes her way across the prison yard, he realizes this is not his average client. The song "Natural High" by Bloodstone starts to play, and an enamored Max looks on. They decide to grab a drink on the way home, Jackie insists on a low-lit dive where no one can tell she spent the night in a cell. What was meant to be a routine client pick-up and drop-off turned into more of a first date. Despite hitting it off, Jackie still swipes Max’s gun from his glovebox when he’s not looking. When he returns the next morning to get it back, she claims it was to protect herself from Ordell, but perhaps it was just to see Max again. They have coffee, he compliments her hair, and some cheeky flirts are exchanged. Max expresses his affinity for big butts, and Jackie claims hers has only grown since her twenties. She then puts on a record, and when Max asks what it is, she replies, “The Delfonics.” The next time we see Max, he’s at a music store buying that same album.

Finding Love in a Hopeless Place

Despite the low-key nature of their relationship, their chemistry stands out in the film due to its highly unromantic subplots. Samuel L. Jackson’s character Ordell has been spending time with his former cellmate Louis Gara, played by Robert De Niro. Louis is a gruff, antisocial, washed-up crook. He’s learning how to function again after spending four years locked away. Ordell can’t shut up about his new business venture into arms dealing. Both men are shacking up with Melanie (Bridget Fonda), a young, pot-smoking surfer babe with a knack for sticking her nose into Ordell’s shady business. There are schemes on top of schemes. Jackie and Ordell versus the ATF. Jackie and the ATF versus Ordell. When pinned up against those narratives, the romance between Max and Jackie reads like one out of a Hallmark movie. The next time they meet, they talk about their next steps in life. Both of them have been involved in low-level crime for decades and are frankly tired of it. They don’t have the makings of a criminal mastermind, they are just trying to get by in the world. After Max expresses his desire to retire from bail bonds, Jackie makes him an offer he can’t refuse. The final scheme is now Jackie and Max versus everyone.

As they plan the money drop to end all money drops, Max and Jackie grow closer. The woman who was once too afraid to be seen in a well-lit bar is now around Max with her hair tied back and overalls on. He becomes her closest confidant, which is a big deal to someone who has been wronged by men so many times in the past. On the day of the drop, Max is in position browsing around the department store, waiting for his queue. When the sales associate asks if he needs any help, he proudly answers, “I’m just killing time, waiting for my wife.” Sure, it’s all to keep up appearances, but he was damn excited to call himself Jackie’s husband. In a perfect world, they do get married. They happened to find each other, the only two well-natured people running in their circle of corruption, so it has to be destiny. Neither of them are that naive, though. Reality set in long ago, they are far past the days of running away with a newfound lover. When the deed is done, Max and Jackie successfully finesse the money, Ordell is dead, and the ATF is off her back. Celebrations are in order, and for those two, it means embracing in a passionate kiss at long last. He knows she’s about to skip town, and she knows he won’t follow her. This is goodbye for them, but it's not heartbreaking. What they found in each other is much more everlasting than a whirlwind romance. They reminded each other that mutual love, respect and excitement can still happen even when you think your time is up. From that, a new lust for life is ignited in both of them. They share a deep soul connection that cannot be separated by space or time.

Image via Miramax

One of the final shots of Jackie Brown is a close-up on Max, his lips covered in Jackie’s rouge as he watches her walk away for the last time. The man’s love for her is deep as his stare out the window. What other Tarantino film ends like that? He’s used to grand finales, a battle royale or blood-filled blow-out. The simple but beautiful conclusion to Jackie Brown is owed to the subtly refined performances of Pam Grier and Robert Forster. Their on-screen chemistry is not the kind of fake movie love audiences are used to, it’s authentic and palpable. The real artistry of Jackie Brown is how based in reality it is. It’s not revisionist history. It’s not hyperbole. It’s just some real, salt-of-the-earth folks who find themselves caught up in a dubious plot. The interwoven romance between Max and Jackie is so genuine and honest that it doesn’t even end happily ever after because in real life, it never does.