Jackie Brown - Collector's Edition DVD Review
Posted by Ashish on 10.14.2002
Quentin Tarantino's often overlooked Jackie Brown delivers a stunning 2-disc DVD set.
Jackie Brown - Collector’s Edition
Release Date: August 20th, 2002
After Reservoir Dogs got him a cult following and Pulp Fiction made him the hottest director in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino delivered Jackie Brown. Tarantino, despite audiences wanting more after Pulp, took his sweet time and released Jackie Brown years later.
Jackie Brown is not your typical Tarantino movie. The pacing is much slower and it is not as disjointed, frantic, or violent as his first two films. While it has never reached the acclaim or popularity of his first two movies, it is very good in its own regard and finally gets the elaborate DVD treatment.
The Film
This story is based on the Elmore Leonard novel titled Rum Punch. Tarantino, however, does take liberties which result in major differences from the book. The story is about an airline stewardess named Jackie Brown (played by Pam Grier). She has a history of trouble with the law and things don’t get any better as the cops find an envelope in her bag containing illegally smuggled gun money and some cocaine. The stuff belongs to Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) who was having Brown smuggle it into the country for him. He has $500,000 sitting in a bank in Mexico, and needs to get it over into the U.S. without the feds catching on. With the cops already onto Jackie Brown’s role in Ordell’s plan, she convinces the cops to give her immunity in exchange for her help in busting Ordell. Eventually, everyone including Jackie Brown, Ordell Robbie, bail bondsman named Max Cherry (Robert Forster), Ordell’s friend Louis Gara (Robert DeNiro), and beach bunny Melanie Ralston (Bridget Fonda) work to get the $500,000. The big plot hook here is that you are never sure who is working with who, and how the plan (which has different goals for the different people scheming it) will turn out.
Like all of Tarantino’s work, the success of this film comes down to the characters and in such character-driven films, the acting must be top-notch. It is here. This movie is very different from the style that Tarantino established in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. It is a film that slowly simmers, eventually building to a red hot finish that has the audience guessing as to who has the money, who got screwed, and who was working with who. The dialogue here is pure Tarantino and that in itself is extremely entertaining.
Tarantino made this film as a tribute of sorts to Grier and her blaxploitation films that made her a star. Grier delivers the performance of her career here. She captures the dynamic aspects of her character and does an amazing job of always seeming like she is in control. As she creates an elaborate scheme involving all the characters of the film, the audience is in her hands, waiting to see how everything unfolds. She has tremendous screen presence and grabs the viewer from the first scene.
Samuel L. Jackson is superb, as Tarantino once again gets plenty out of the actor. Jackson is the ideal image of “cool” as he usually is and once again it comes off well. Robert DeNiro delivers a very overlooked performance as a buffoon of a right-hand-man to Jackson. What makes DeNiro’s performance great is he rarely plays such an idiot of a character. Robert Forster is also excellent as Brown’s love interest. Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton are also excellent in their supporting role. Hell, even Chris Tucker gets in on the action and comes up with a funny, albeit small, role.
Video Quality
This movie sparkles with a beautfil anamorphic widescreen transfer that captures the brightest of brights and the darkest of darks in fabulous fashion. DVD rarely gets better than this.
You will not find any flaws, noise, break-ups, etc. as the DVD is one of the best in terms of video quality I have ever seen. This is how the movie is meant to be seen.
Audio Quality
This movie is presented in both DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. As with all of Tarantino’s movies, the main audio is through dialogue, but the fantastic soundtrack really comes through nicely, with background music lightly filling the back speakers with heavy base making up for the beats.
The original audio track makes little use of the surround sound, but what is used is nice and the music and speech come off very well.
Comparing the DTS and Dolby tracks, there is little difference as both sound excellent and get the job done in providing superior sound.
Special Features
Just like Pulp Fiction – Collector’s Edition and Reservoir Dogs – Ten Years Special Edition, this 2 disc set is packed with special features that serve as a real treat. The film itself is on disc 1 with the specials on disc 2. The features include:
Documentary on the making of the movie
Interview with Quentin Tarantino
Deleted scenes
A clip of Siskel & Ebert reviewing the movie on their At The Movies show
Various movie trailers for Jackie Brown
Reviews & articles
Photo galleries
Enhanced DVD-ROM features including a trivia game
And that isn’t even everything. The real highlight of the extras is the Tarantino interview (as usual). Tarantino is just a very entertaining director to hear from. The documentary on the making of the movie is also excellent, featuring plenty of interviews and behind-the-scenes-footage.
If you are a true fan of this film, you will really enjoy some of the smaller extras such as the dozens and dozens of trailers, TV spots, radio ads, etc. as well as the deleted scenes, the Siskel & Ebert review, the MTV promotion feature, and the DVD-ROM extras.
The package is also great, with a high glossy cover slip featuring a bullet hole and a 3-way fold case inside featuring the two discs, a small Jackie Brown poster, and a little booklet that includes commentary from Elmore Leonard, a film review, and filmographies of Tarantino, Pam Grier, and Robert Forster. Just an overall great effort on the extras.
The Film: 7.5
Video Quality: 9.5
Audio Quality: 9.0
Special Features: 10.0
The 411: This is as good as DVDs get. The film is great, the video quality is amazing, the audio quality and soundtrack are both red hot, and disc 2 is full of fun and entertaining extras. While Jackie Brown is probably the least acclaimed of Tarantino’s three films, it is still excellent, worth a watch, and a must-have for Tarantino fans. This DVD set is a great package.
