Christopher Cedar's Portfolio

Quentin Tarantino made one of his most underrated films in 1997, Jackie Brown. Jackie Brown is about a black female flight attendant, Jackie (Pam Grier) who gets caught helping her partner (Samuel L. Jackson) smuggle drugs and money into Mexico. Jackie then must help federal agents take Ordell (Jackson) down.

Jackie Brown was a thriller made in typical Tarantino fashion. It gave homage to the ‘70s Blaxploitation film movement. Pam Grier who plays Jackie Brown also played in the ‘70s Blaxploitation film Foxxy Brown. Quentin Tarantino often labels Pam Grier as cinema’s first action star.  Blaxploitation films were known for having a low budget and having the underdog character come out on top in the end. Jackie Brown had some of these same characteristics.

Jackie Brown was made in the ‘90s indie boom. The film is full of long takes, darker film style, and more depth than the average ‘90s Hollywood film. It borrowed heavily from the French New Wave film movement along with ‘70s Blaxploitation film movement. In both visual style and genre. The story of Jackie Brown (and all of Tarantino’s works) has a lot of dimension in plot. Multiple layers of plot are working together making the story more complex and longer than most Hollywood blockbuster films. In Jackie Brown we have the main story of Jackie helping federal agents take down Ordell. But we also have side story of Jackie, side story of Ordell, side story of Max Cherry and ECT. The plot is a lot more complex and complete.