What the Mall Scene in ‘Jackie Brown’ Can Teach Us About Tarantino’s Quietest Film

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay that explores Quentin Tarantino’s convention-breaking use of character perspective in his movie Jackie Brown.

Even if you haven’t seen every single movie directed by Quentin Tarantino, word may have reached you that Jackie Brown is … different.

Based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, Tarantino’s 1997 film follows a flight attendant (Pam Grier) who gets caught smuggling money for an arms dealer (Samuel L. Jackson) on a flight from Mexico to Los Angeles. Rather than arrest the titular stewardess, the fuzz offer Jackie her freedom in exchange for her cooperation in bringing the arms dealer to justice. But knowing that the arms dealer will likely suspect such a ploy — and kill her for it — Jackie and the bail bondsman who loves her (Robert Forester) hatch a twisty plot to save her life and make some money along the way.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard people mistakenly refer to Jackie Brown as Tarantino’s follow-up to Pulp Fiction. Then again, I’m sure Tarantino would prefer if everyone forgot that Four Rooms existed.

As the video essay below explains, Jackie Brown isn’t just stylistically sedate, less violent, and more gentle than the dick-swinging bombast of Four Rooms — it’s a low-key, contemplative anomaly within his entire filmography. And, as the video essay details: a big part of that distance has to do with time itself.

Watch “Jackie Brown | A Matter Of Perspective”

Who made this?

This look at the use of character perspective in Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown comes courtesy of the fine folks at Little White Lies, a film-obsessed magazine based in the United Kingdom. Luís Azevedo edited this video. You can follow Little White Lies on Twitter here. And you can check out their official website here. You can subscribe to their YouTube account here.

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Related Topics: Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino, The Queue

Meg Shields is the humble farm boy of your dreams and a senior contributor at Film School Rejects. She currently runs three columns at FSR: The Queue, How’d They Do That?, and Horrorscope. She is also a curator for One Perfect Shot and a freelance writer for hire. Meg can be found screaming about John Boorman’s ‘Excalibur’ on Twitter here: @TheWorstNun. (She/Her).