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Tuesday, 6/24/97 Tarantino shifts his artistic gears with third effort FILM: Coming out of a slump, director pulls self up with a 'Jackie Brown'

By Brandon Wilson Summer Bruin Staff Whether it's a filmmaker, musician, or novelist, it is the bane of an artist's existence: two dreaded words that can strike fear in the heart of even the most dedicated, brilliant and fearless practitioners of a craft. The words are sophomore slump. Many a career has been thwarted or ended prematurely by the sophomore slump, that inability to overcome or outdo a smashing debut. For every of the aforementioned kinds of artists, there are those whose second efforts are so disappointing that their audience lose interest. Then there's Quentin Tarantino. Unless you were raised by wolves, you know all about the meteoric phenomenon of the high school dropout, who took the movie business like Sherman took Georgia. The ripples of Tarantino's introduction to the movies and his own distinct style of storytelling are still felt, with at least one wannabe "Pulp Fiction" or "Reservoir Dogs" hitting the screen every other month. Quentin's slump came not with his sophomore effort, however; it came after his Oscar-winning "Pulp Fiction." It came as this frustrated actor seemingly drunk on his own status as a pop auteur grossly over-exposed himself when less would've been more. Besides a slew of "acting gigs" and personal appearances, QT has directed a dubious episode of "ER," script-doctored "Crimson Tide" and, with crony Robert Rodriguez, made one of the worst attempts at "exploitation cinema" in a long time, called "From Dusk Till Dawn." Mr. Tarantino's star has cooled a bit since "Pulp Fiction," causing some to wonder if the foolishness he's done since the film proved his success to be a fluke or perhaps he'd be claimed by obscurity as quickly as fame took hold. But after a period of relative seclusion, Tarantino has emerged with his first writer-director effort in three years, and while it may not be exactly what his fans are expecting, the screenplay to his next film "Jackie Brown" (going before the cameras this summer in Los Angeles) is a slightly new direction for someone whose next moves seemed all too predictable. Based on the novel "Rum Punch" by his idol/guru Elmore Leonard (he's the one literary influence QT cops to) the story has been adapted and remade into a star vehicle for blaxploitation-queen Pam Grier, another of Tarantino's favorite people. With a list that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton and Robert DeNiro, Grier is heading up one of the best casts of her career, and if she comes through, she'll get a career boost like she never expected. The plot (without giving away too much) is as follows: middle-aged Brown (Grier) is a flight attendant for a ratty little airline who supplements her deplorable income by acting as money courier for Ordell Robbie (Jackson), a buffoonish/ruthless small-time arms dealer who uses his $500,000 bank account to support himself and a number of women (Fonda's Melanie Ralston among them). One day Jackie gets pinched for muling the cash by LAPD dick Mark Dargis (a playful allusion to L.A. Weekly movie critic Manohla Dargis?) and ATF man Nicolet. Jackie, who isn't exactly a stranger to trouble, could do time unless she's willing to help the feds nab Ordell as he tries to clean out his Mexican bank account. Enter Max Cherry, a burnt out but honorable bail bondsman who bails Jackie out at Ordell's behest. Knowing she's between a rock and a hard place since Ordell typically kills his associates if arrested for fear they'll rat him out, Jackie enlists the smitten Cherry in her scheme to play both ends against the middle: do her bit for the state and mule money for Ordell in cahoots with the feds so they can nab him, and at the same time get away with the $500,000 Ordell won't be needing in prison. The screenplay clocks in at a hefty 167 pages (average length for a script is between 100 and 120 pages), most of which is dialogue. Yes, many of the old elements are back, namely Tarantinospeak, and the futzing with linear time the director is famous for. While that Tarantinospeak is back, this time around it feels a little more borrowed than before. Sounding more like Leonard than Tarantino, the talk goes on and on, much longer than most movies would dare. Most of the time it works. Sometimes its downright hilarious. The script itself is unusually well-written (unusual by broad standards, not for Tarantino), managing to pack in the kind of detail usually reserved for novels (people don't just smoke, Tarantino names their brand). He even takes the unheard-of liberty of using the first person in the course of his scene description; he qualifies a claim with an "I'm not just talking about ..." line that leaps out at you and serves to blur the line between script and prose, his probable aim. For those of you sharing sentiments expressed by Denzel Washington to Tarantino himself (on the set of "Crimson Tide") who chastised the director for his constant invocation of the "N" word (you know, that racial epithet), be warned. "Jackie Brown" has more "N" words per page than any major Hollywood production since "Harlem Nights." "N" word or no, talk is definitely king in "Jackie Brown." Even violence, the other thing associated with QT, is toned down considerably compared to what he's done before. There are only about three or four killings in "Jackie Brown" that are just straightforward shootings. Nothing fancy, exotic, sensational or too bizarre. In many ways, "Jackie Brown" is more in the vein of "Fargo" than "Pulp Fiction;" the players are all recognizably human and less the bold invention of a movie lover's feverish imagination like Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega. (By the way, though Tarantino loves to weave his stories together with character names from one film popping up in another, there are no such intertextual gags in "Jackie Brown," and the only black suit in the film is worn by Jackie herself). This new direction could be the result of a maturing process or evolution within the artist. It could be that this script is the first since QT's split with silent partner Roger Avary, whose solo writer-director effort "Killing Zoe" has more in common with "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" than "Jackie Brown" does. This will doubtlessly fuel rumors that Avary was the brains behind the operation, and QT was just a frontman. More an Elmore Leonard story than a Quentin Tarantino creation, "Jackie Brown" will not outperform "Pulp Fiction." Fans are liable to balk at the new film (which from the script seems to have the requisite killer soundtrack of '70's soul and rock, even a little Kate Bush). And while it doesn't rank with some of his past work, it promises to be better than "True Romance," another story that owes almost as much to Leonard as this new one. Pam Grier is likely to come out a winner in all this, but so will Tarantino. It may not turn out to be huge, but this script is good for Tarantino's career because it's a bit of a departure from previous films, which half the movie industry (indie and otherwise) are still aping. This could mean there's hope for Tarantino yet, although it will be interesting to see whether he can ever wrench himself free from this genre or whether he is now bound to it. In any case, Tarantino the screenwriter has done his job. Now let's see how Tarantino the director along with his promising cast breathe life into the words on a page. Related Link The Screenplays of Quentin Tarantino Previous Bruin Stories 'From Dusk Till Dawn' should not see the light of dayJanuary 22, 1996 Videobites , October 3, 1995 Related Links: The Screenplays of Quentin Tarantino Previous Bruin Stories 'From Dusk Till Dawn' should not see the light of day Videobites