Jackie Brown (1997) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2025-01-29 18:15:01 +0000 UTCHi everyone! This is a Reactr request that came in from Tyler Foster! It was very fun experiencing a Tarantino that didn't quite feel like a Tarantino. I definitely think I prefer my Tarantino more action-y, but this was still great! Please enjoy! [Direct link here.]
✦ KL
Comments
Haha Tyler is always quick to comment about the movie facts. 😏 And yeah some reactions will just be like that - good for a full-length, less so for a YouTube edit. And that's okay. I didn't realize Tarantino was retiring soon! And yeah I prefer movies on film too as I continue to watch more and more of them.
kaiielle
2025-07-07 01:39:24 +0000 UTCkaiielle, a quick(ish) addendum to my previous post. I belatedly realized that I went off on a ramble (as I’m prone to do) about Elmore Leonard and didn’t say much (or anything) about the movie or your reaction to it. For what it’s worth, I thought that your reaction was superb. By the same token, I totally understand why you’re reticent to even attempt a YouTube cut. As you pointed out in your outro, this is a very dialogue heavy film, like most of Tarantino’s work. However, the dialogue here is much more germane to the plot than you typically see with Tarantino. IMO, more input from the reactor (you), would have diminished the enjoyment of the film and your reaction. Better to have a very good full length reaction than mediocre full length and YouTube reactions. So, for what it’s worth, very nicely done. A quick point about the video quality. As you mentioned, it was superb, for the very reasons already pointed out by Tyler (that guy really did steal my thunder 😂). The good news for Tarantino-philes such as myself is that he’s a devotee of the use of film; no digital shooting on his films. I adore the cinematic quality it lends his films - particularly when he steps outside the ordinary bounds and films something like “Hateful Eight” in glorious 70mm. Sadly for fans, he’s only doing one more film and then hanging up the lenses.
Just Plain Bob
2025-07-06 20:20:53 +0000 UTCkaiielle, looks like Tyler covered most of the ground I was gonna cover and did a thoroughly good job of it, too. As a fan of independent cinema of the 70s, it was pure pleasure seeing Sid Haig share a scene with the glorious Pam Grier again. They made so many wonderful films together. The author of the book, Elmore Leonard, is widely regarded as one of the best crime authors of all time. I’m certainly a fan. The two main baddies in this film, Ordell and Louis, were also the main baddies in a book he wrote several years earlier, “The Switch”, which was set in Detroit. Leonard set most of his books in either Detroit (where he lived in his early years) or Florida (where he lived in his later years). The character of Ordell didn’t change much from one book to the other but Louis is a COMPLETELY different character. In “The Switch” he’s really an anti-hero, protecting the female protagonist from a would be rapist and generally looking out for her welfare. Obviously, in “Rum Punch” he’s a much more loathsome character. In my mind, it’s one of Leonard’s rare character mis-steps. It’s just difficult to reconcile the character from one book to the other, even taking into account his time in prison. In addition to being a fantastic crime author, Leonard wrote some of the best western novels and short stories ever written, including “3:10 to Yuma”, which has been adapted twice (the second time with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale). For my personal preferences, I think Leonard is one of the top five crime authors and top five western authors of all time. Simply a remarkable talent. PS: Elmore Leonard also wrote the short story (“Fire in the Hole”) that provided the basis for the fantastic modern western “Justified”, starring Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins. In fact, he wrote the books that provided the basis for: * Get Shorty (John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo and Danny DeVito) *Out of Sight (George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez) *52 Pickup (Roy Scheider aka Chief Brody in “Jaws”) *Mr. Majestyk (Charles Bronson) *Hombre (Paul Newman) As well as many others. Wonderful author.
Just Plain Bob
2025-07-06 17:47:23 +0000 UTCI love that the author enjoyed the movie so much! And yes, I did not recognize a younger Robert Forster at ALL but I did look him up after recording the review and saw that he was that guy in the BB universe! How cool. It's crazy how I notice some things like those bills being marked and thinking it will matter, but then don't notice others. 😅 Thanks for the explanation about the films! And to your last point, yeah we're good, don't worry! Reactr requests are tricky to schedule sometimes because I obviously need to prioritize them, but I don't want to only be doing them either. It's hard to know exactly when they'll be done and delivered. And thanks for the nudge on the commentary. I still don't know if I will feel comfortable editing this one, but perhaps I'll revisit later this year.
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:55:11 +0000 UTCEnjoy Steve!
kaiielle
2025-01-30 03:52:43 +0000 UTCElmore Leonard's book was written about a white woman, but Tarantino thought of Pam Grier, who starred in many famous Blaxploitation classics back in the 1970s and was a genre icon. Like many who experienced genre stardom in the '70s and '80s, work had been slow when Tarantino cast her in this, but the movie revitalized her and made her a popular character actor again. Tarantino recently opened a Los Angeles coffee shop dedicated to her called Pam's Coffy, which celebrates both her and one of her most famous '70s movies, Coffy. To his credit, Leonard stated that Jackie Brown was the best adaptation of any of his books, and that when he watched the film, he stopped thinking about his book entirely and simply fell in love with Tarantino's version of the characters. The guy in the greatest television show was Robert Forster, who played the vacuum cleaner salesman that gives out new identities in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul." He died the same day that El Camino premiered on Netflix, but he had thankfully already shot his appearances in that movie and the later show, allowing him to appear in both posthumously. He also credited Tarantino for helping to revive opportunities for him, so in a way, it's probably Tarantino who helped him be remembered and cast in "Breaking Bad." Another actor from that era was Sid Haig, who frequently played the villain's right-hand muscle in the same Blaxploitation movies that starred Grier. They were good friends, and Tarantino kept it a secret from her that he had cast Haig as the judge who sets Jackie's bond, so when she walked on set for the first time she was delighted. The bills being marked is in fact probably just a gaffe. It might have something to do with the fact that whenever money appears in Quentin Tarantino's movies, he insists upon it being real money. One thing many people don't understand is that the detail in 35mm film goes up to somewhere between 6K and 8K, so a film from the '90s, properly restored like Jackie Brown has been, should look incredible. In a technological twist, there are many films made between about 2005 and 2015 that will never look as good as a film from the '90s, as they have digital intermediates (the equivalent of a negative) that was locked at a max resolution of 2K, so any 4K UHDs made of those films are actually upscaled out of necessity. Since you mentioned patience in the video, I will also add that I've felt bad about the interaction we had since we had it and I hope everything is good. I feel like what I said came off differently to you than I intended (and I have since thought of some things that I should've factored in), and for that I apologize. I don't think of my Reactr requests as having a deadline -- it arrives when it arrives. It was great. (And I think you added a normal amount of commentary.)
Tyler Foster
2025-01-30 02:33:23 +0000 UTCThis one is definitely a slow burn, but it's a good burn. Pam Grier shines, Samuel L. Jackson rocks, and both Robert De Niro and Robert Forster somehow manage to steal the whole movie by doing as little as possible. Going to watch this before I go to bed. Good shit.
Steve Mercier
2025-01-29 22:59:30 +0000 UTC
