The way the story goes is Quentin Tarantino worked at a video store in his youth and watch a ton of movies. He delved deep into the movie collection beyond Hollywood factory fair and into the independant and low budget films of the 70s. Grindhouse type fair – crime dramas (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), karate movies (Kill Bill 1 and 2), Westerns (The Hateful Eight), war movies (Inglourious Basterds), action horror film (From Dusk till Dawn), pulp romance (True Romance) – the plots, characters, photography, direction and actors were burned into his writing and directing.
One actress from the blaxploitation films of the 1970s stood out – Pam Grier.
Pam has been a major African-American star from the early 1970s. Her career started in 1971, when b-movie mogul Roger Corman of New World Pictures launched her with The Big Doll House (1971), about a women’s penitentiary, and The Big Bird Cage (1972). Her strong role put her into a five-year contract with American-International Pictures, and she became a leading lady in action films such as Jack Hill’s Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), the comic strip character Friday Foster (1975) and William Girdler’s ‘Sheba, Baby’ (1975). She continued working with American-International, where she portrayed William Marshall’s vampire victim in the Blacula (1972) sequel, Scream Blacula Scream (1973).
Jackie Brown was adapted from the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. In fact many consider Jackie Brown to be Quentin Tarantino best film because it a rather understated compared to his other films. Tarantino films tend to be heavy on both dialog and body counts — as if he is trying to jam several of his favorite 70s films into one. Here with Jackie Brown the source material keeps his impulses under control.
Beside the stellar cast couldn’t be better with several long time Tarantino repeats like Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight, Pulp Fiction), Bridget Fonda (The Hateful Eight) plus excellent acting from Michael Keaton, Robert Forster and Robert De Niro.
Plot of Jackie Brown: When flight attendant Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is busted smuggling money for her arms dealer boss, Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and detective Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen) want her help to bring down Robbie. Facing jail time for her silence or death for her cooperation, Brown decides instead to double-cross both parties and make off with the smuggled money. Meanwhile, she enlists the help of bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster), a man who loves her.