Los Angeles,1995. Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is a flight attendant for a small Mexican airline called Cabalas Airlines which flies only from L.A. to Cabo San Lucas, the latest step down for her career. Despite the low pay, the job enables her to smuggle money from Mexico into the United States for Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), a gun runner under the close watch of the ATF.
title sequence :
Jackie Brown opens with a wonderful tracking shot of it’s protagonist floating forward on an airport escalator. The credits roll in front of Pam Grier’s imposing presence, except the title card, which consumes the frame and Tarantino’s heroine. This clearly establishes the character of Jackie through stereotypical character estblishing techniques. She remains facing forward and walking for the majority of the shot, showing independance and concentration in order to keep herself looking professional as someone with authority through her wearing an air hostess uniform. The lack of empotion in her fce makes itdifficult for the audience to connect with th charater straight away as it makes her hard to read. This is a strength of the shot as it keeps interest from the audience. She remains relxed and calm throug the shot even when running. The camera work used is very effective when showing that Jackie is an impiortant character, the opening is long and set on one character in order for this to remian intresting the character must come across as strong and independant, also mysterious leaving the audience wanting to know more about the enigmatic Jackie Brown.
After the tracking shot of Brown on an escalator, it cuts to a low angle tracking shot of her walking through a terminal. The low angle shows Jackie as important, and someone with authority. This sets the assumption that Jackie will be an important character throughout the film. The use of brown walking in a different direction to the other actors gives off the assumption that jackie is independant, as well as the camera always tracking her movements. The camera never moves off Jackie throughout the whole opening sequence. It establishes the character well, showing her importance to the audience.
challenging steroeotypical thriller conventions
Tarantino challenges many conventions in this film by the main character being a woman, this was rare in the time period as danger and heroistic charactersitics were mainly associated with men, Tarantino also uses this woman heroin role in the 'Kill Bill' films using Uma Thurman as a strong independant main character throughout the films. He also challenged the conventions by the main character being black, the film is set in the 90's, this was still a very racially segreated time, especially in america. Casting Pam Grier was a very interesting choice as it challenges what the norm was at that specific time period, as well as many other apsects, it is factors like this which make Tarantinos films unique.
another way tarantino challenges conventions is through Jackie Browns age, she is middle aged, which was rare in films, and still is now. All the different aspects of the character (ethnicity, age and status) makes her interesting to the audience, meaning they will remember the film for its unique flare in comparison to other films released during this time. Women in thrillers are normally represented as femme fatales, very beautiful and normally just side characters in comparison to the main characters which usually are men. This film challenges that, by establishing the charcter of Jackie Brown as important, and spending a lot of time with the camera focused on her. In thrillers, women are not usually represented this way, in turn making this Thriller unique. For example, the first shot of Jackie is showing her power and status, and is in no way objectifying her as character when in an atmosphere of dominant men. This differs drastically when the character of Melanie is established. The first shot of Melanie that we see is a close up on her feet, this shows unimportance as instead of focusing on her whole body, tarantino uses the camera to focus on her lower half. Already the camera work is establishing her as an object, she is always out of shot throughout the conversation and only comes intot he shot when asked to answer the phone. This shows that the men in the scene have dominance and power over her, this could not be more different when comparing it to Jackie Browns establishing shot.
the shooting of beaumont livingstone by ordell robbie.
Tarantino uses many stereotypical thriller conventions in this scene to build tension and establish the genre. For example, the mise en scene. In this part of the film, some of it is set in a urban black of flats, which mirrors the characters corrupted morals. The colours surrounding the characters are dull, and it is shot during the night, enhancing the sense of darkness and mystery. Usually, blocks of flats are stereotypically associated with crime, this sets up the assumption to the audience that a violent act will occur. Tarantino sometimes challenges stereotypes of location, for example in kill bill the fight between the bride and Vernita Green, this fight scene is shot in a colourful surreal neighbourhood. This contrasts massively with 'Jackie Brown', due to what i mentioned before about the location being stereotypically associated with crime. This shows Taranintos varying conventions when making thriller films.
In this scene tarantino also uses the sense of vulnerability to the victim Beaumont by the character being a lot shorter than ordell. This shows dominance and power over the victim from the suspect (Ordell). Also, beaumont is topless, where as ordell is fully clothed in very smart attire, and an interesting hat. The costume of ordell could be compared to that of Jason Locke in 'Essex Boys'. the outgoing costumes relfect their deceiptful personalities.
The low angle shot of the camera looking up when Ordell asks Beaumont to get in the trunk of the car shows vulnerability and has an interesting effect on the film, showing the action from a different perspective. this is often referred to as Tarantino's trademark shot. It is used in some of his other films such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Kill Bill.
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