Jackie Brown - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Can a director have more than one peak? Often a director’s career and output is described as “peak so-and-so” or “lesser so-and-so.” Where trying to compartmentalize a career output gets a little problematic is that it necessarily pits great works against each other. Unrelated films made at different times in a career are forced into this silly form of combat to define a filmmaker. But when you have a meteoric career like Quentin Tarantino’s rise, fans draw swords pretty quickly over which film is his career-best thus far. While I love what came before and some of what came after, I’ll make the case that Jackie Brown is actually QT’s best film. 

Adapted from Elmore Leonard’s slick novel Rum Punch, our story centers around the aging airline flight attendant Jackie Brown (Pam Grier). Her job pays next to nothing so to make ends meet she runs money back and forth across the border into Mexico for wannabe gun runner Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson). Caught with drugs in the return packet, she’s being squeezed by Feds Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and Dargus (Michael Bowen) to flip on Ordell. But flipping means she's a dead woman. Her only way out is to pull off the ultimate scheme and get out clean with the best help she’s got, bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster). 

Admitting up front, I’m a huge fan of Detroit’s own Elmore Leonard. His knack for drawing intricate relatable criminals, good guys, and shady folk made more than a few thrilling novels. On top of some incredible Westerns, he also had a knack for crime thrillers with a humorous bent. Thus we have stories like 52 Pick-Up, Get Shorty, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch (among so many others) to draw from. When he could write something simple and straightforward like 3:10 to Yuma, he could also throw together a sprawling multi-plotted story with ease. But it isn’t just the plotting that makes Leonard’s stories so much fun, it’s actualy the colorful characters. Adapting these multi-faceted stories with an army of great characters to a feature-length film isn’t always easy. Many have tried, not as many have succeeded. 

And this is where I make my case for why Jackie Brown is probably Quentin Tarantino’s best film - it’s not 100% his creation, but he made it his own while respecting the source. Essentially he took a contemporary 90s thriller and squeezed it into the container of a modernized 70s blaxploitation neo-noir heist film. Tarantino made smart changes, such as moving the action from Miami to L.A., and fiddled with some of the character relationships to keep things simpler for the audience to follow. Still, most importantly though, he kept the integrity of the novel intact. It’s genuinely a cinematic version of the novel. He adapted a great book and made it his own film letting the two works live symbiotically. You can love the book and love the film in equal measure. Tarantinio’s later films just don’t have the original flair of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and they don’t have the same sort of adaptive craftsmanship as Jackie Brown. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of what Tarantino made after this film, but most of them feel like he’s just chasing and imitating films he loved in his youth rather than trying to do something new and excting. As I said at the outset, a director can have more than one peak. Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown are all Tarantino’s first big rising Everest peak in filmmaking. I enjoy Kill Bill 1 & 2, but they slid down the slope. His half of Grindhouse is more of a plateau than a peak as is Inglourious Basterds but again there’s that imitation factor I just struggle with. Django Unchained manages to be a K2-styled peak in this arena whereas the non-roadshow or non-TV Extended Version of The Hateful Eight is a below sea level valley of repetition and stagnation (albeit with great performances). Then we come to the Annapurna of this little analogy with his Oscar-winning hit Once Upon A Time… in Hollywood. I loved the film, I thought it was incredibly entertaining and was his best film in years, but, it’s not as mighty as his first three-film Everest that reached the summit with Jackie Brown. 

For another take on the film, here’s Nate Boss’ Blu-ray Review

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Pam Grier is Jackie Brown in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray + Digital from Lionsgate. This two-disc release offers up a Region Free BD100 disc for the 4K and a Region A BD50 for the 1080p. The discs are housed in an eco-friendly two-disc case with identical slipcover. The disc loads to an animated main menu with standard navigation options.

Tarantino films on disc can be a bit of a mixed bag. Since he is seemingly disinterested in revisiting them between formats, whatever approved master exists is the one from which each new edition can be culled. Thus we have great-looking 4K titles like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction on 4K with Dolby Vision, and we have a few films enjoying lesser or not as exciting results on the format. Thankfully Jackie Brown falls in line with QT’s first two films and is an exceptional transfer. Details practically pop off the screen with vastly improved clarity over the old Blu-ray discs. The opening credits still show the hallmarks of optical titles, not as tight looking with a little more noticeable grain, but once Bobby Womack’s song moves along, the rest of the show is stunning. Facial features, early 90s fashions, the organized mess of Max Cherry’s office, the antiseptically white facade of Ordell’s home life, and De’Niro’s beard stubble are all on display. Film grain has a nice tight cinematic veneer without looking overly processed, smoothed, or sharpened. The Dolby Vision grade has also been judiciously applied. Colors are richer and more vibrant without looking blown out or overly hot. Skin tones are healthy and human without looking too flushed pink. Black levels are nice and inky, avoid crush, and nuanced shadows lend a striking sense of depth to the image. Whites are pristine and bright. A genuinely excellent catalog transfer from beginning to end.

On the audio front, we have what sounds to be the same DTS-HD MA 5.1 track from past releases. No big deal there, because I’ve always liked this mix. The dialog crackles clean and clear. Sound effects spacing set a nice wide stage for the surround channels to play. The numerous classic needle drops fill the soundscape nicely without overpowering the rest of the audio elements. This round I flipped on my receiver's DTS Neural:X function to see if there was any benefit. I liked some of the enhancements to the staging, impacts felt a little heavier, but not a dramatic enough change to say this is a recommended way to roll. Absent Tarantino feeling the need to create a new Atmos mix (HIGHLY unlikely), this is the best we’re getting and it’s pretty damn great.

Nothing new in the soup and what’s here is only available on the 1080p Blu-ray disc. Now this wasn’t a bad set of extras in its day, there’s plenty of great material, but some new stuff wouldn’t have hurt. All said it’s a better-than-average package for a catalog release of a Tarantino film. 

• Breaking Down Jackie Brown
• Jackie Brown: How It Went Down Documentary
• A Look Back at Jackie Brown - Interview with Quentin
• Chicks with Guns Video
• Deleted and Alternate Scenes
• Siskel & Ebert: At The Movies Jackie Brown Review 
• Jackie Brown on MTV
• Marketing Gallery
• Still Galleries
• Enhanced Trivia Track
• Soundtrack Chapters
• Robert Forster Chapters
• Pam Grier Trailers
• Pam Grier Radio Spots

Well-known as a career resurrectionist, Tarantino pulled off a twofer with Jackie Brown. Pam Grier shines bright as our lead and Robert Forster delivers an earnest and deservedly Oscar-nominated turn all his own. Their chemistry as terrific actors who were virtually forgotten by Hollywood is what gives Jackie Brown its heart. A terrific adaptation of a fun novel, I hold this film in such high regard because it feels like the last time Tarantino tried to create something genuinely new and unique and unlike anything else he made previously before he slid into his imitation mixed-genre exploitation period. He’s made some great films since, but this is the one I love most and watch more often than the rest. Now I get to fall in love with it again in 2160p with a sparkling new Dolby Vision transfer that greatly improves on the now ancient Blu-ray disc. The same great audio returns along with the same solid archival extras to round out this package. It might not be everyone’s favorite QT movie, but it’s mine and I’m calling this disc Highly Recommended
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