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Starring Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, et al.  I don't know who, but somebody, it probably won't be me, has got to get a hold of Quentin Tarantino, slap him around a little, and tell him, in no uncertain terms, to get his ass out of the 1970's. It's time to wake up and smell the next millennium. At first his interest in the decade of fashion emergencies was quirky. He revived the career of John Travolta, on talk shows he'd talk fondly about his memories growing up, the board games he used to play, and whenever possible, he'd talk like he was in the '70's, you dig, soul brother? However, with his latest project, Jackie Brown, Tarantino has taken this interest and increased it into a full blown obsession. Starring Pam Grier, who was last heard from in the blaxploitation pictures of the--you guessed it--mid-seventies, Jackie Brown is the story of a flight attendant, not coincidentally also named Jackie Brown, who accepts some extra money from Samuel L. Jackson to bring laundered money and drugs through customs and into the United States from Mexico. Her lifestyle changes when Grier is arrested by the Los Angeles ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) department for possession of cocaine. The ATF agents give her two options: 1) Grier can rat on Jackson, and get off scot-free, or 2) she can go to jail for a couple of years on the cocaine charge. Grier, being a non-conformist, chooses door number 3, playing the ATF agents against Jackson and vice versa, hoping that such a plan will make them both forget about her. With a running time of nearly 160 minutes, Jackie Brown brings new meaning to the word 'long'. Not only is the running time enormous, but the scenes are mostly slow paced with dialogue, rather than on-screen action, filling the screenplay. This can become quite tedious after a point, especially with Tarantino's strange decision to include one scene from four different character perspectives that is totally unnecessary and also effectively adds a good ten minutes to the film.  Displaying a style and grace previously only possessed by Brian DePalma, Tarantino experiments with numerous camera angles, point of view shots, tracking shots, dolly shots, steadi-cam shots, and entire scenes taking place in one static crane shot. Occasionally these directorial experiments fail, Tarantino slows Jackie Brown's rhythm even further by allowing several dialogue scenes to play without the use of any cuts, but, for the most part, his experiments are a refreshing change of pace from the normal set-ups. Simply by moving the camera, Tarantino helps convey panic, confidence, and lackadaisicalness, which is especially beneficial to the actors performances. Grier is solid in the lead, but it is the supporting cast members of Jackie Brown, notably Robert DeNiro as a pothead and Jackson as a weapons dealer, that steal the film. Tarantino's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch is a little suspect--much of the material could have been cut from the final product to help the film flow more smoothly--by Tarantino's style of direction makes up for that in spades. This wasn't Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, but was still a well acted and directed Tarantino film. And best of all, Quentin stays behind the camera, opting not to take some small acting part or another, a trend I am hoping that will continue in the future. Tarantino fans will definitely enjoy Jackie Brown, the only question is: do you have a weekend free to watch the whole film?
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