DVD review: Jackie Brown

A flight attendant is the center of a complicated caper between the cops and an arm dealer.

My quest to see every single Tarantino movie is finally completed with this one. Many consider it his worst movie and, after seeing it, I must add my voice to the chorus.

Is not like it is that bad but is neither particularly good, his many problems drags him down too much.

At his core it is a long homage to the blaxploitation genre. What is blaxploitation you ask? That implied question is the main problem of the movie. See, Blaxploitation means black exploitation and therefore is all about the sensationalization of the culture and identity of the American black people. The soundtracks are mainly composed by funky music while the stories depict pimps, prostitutes, gangsters and others “Exploitative” elements. It had a lot of success during the 70s mainly among the same black people it “exploited”.

The main problem is that, while I can recognize easily the blaxploitation elements they means nothing to me on an emotional level because I didn’t live in that age and place. This is the big limit of a citation or an homage when is done wrong, it can please the film buff who nods his head smiling because “He gets it” but in the end it needs to stand on his own legs, to work in the movie on a narrative or at least on an instinctive level.

Sadly this is the case of “Jackie Brown”, there is a truckload of homages and stuff which is so overwhelming that all the narrative goes in circles for the first 60 minutes while the big heist is planned. The actual execution of the heist is fun, smartly shot on different timeframes but in the end is too little and too late to save the movie.