Tarentino’s vision of violence
the violent themes of the narrative making it more accessible to the viewer, while also allowing the film to be somewhat light-hearted. This comic theme is further shownwhenOrdell Robbiemakes Beaumont Livingston get into the trunk of his car with the intention of taking his business associates by surprise during a transaction and shooting them, and then casually driving away as joyful music begins to play. The upbeat tune ceases when Beaumont is shot by Ordell. It is clear to the viewer that doing so was the plan all along. The use of upbeat music in relation to violence presents the viewer with a somewhat confusing juxtaposition as they struggle to understand whether they should empathize with the characters or not. This technique is similar to that employed by the director Martin Scorsese whose biographical films about particular villainous characters make the viewer question why they are empathizing with characters who are often engaging inmorally bankrupt acts. 3 Unlike other Tarantino films, violence in Jackie Brown is never explicitly shown on screen. When Chris Tucker's character, Beaumont, is shot, it is shown from a distance. Similarly, when the body is revealed to Robert de Niro's character, a shifty ex-con named Louis Gara, the viewpoint angle is almost seen from the perspective of the body. No blood or gore is actually shown. The story continues and the eponymous character, Jackie Brown, (played by PamGrier) is arrested with 50,000 dollars and large quantities of cocaine by two policemen. Ordell Robbie goes to a bond broker named Max Cherry (played by Robert Forster), who then pays the bail and picks up Jackie Brown. Max, after seeing Jackie Brown for the first time immediately falls in love, again implied by the soundtrack and the use of romantic music. Both characters subsequently drive away in Max’s car. While on the road Jackie Brown looks for cigarettes in the glove compartment but instead finds a gun. This is a further example of the conflation of pleasure and pain which establishes the film ’ s narrative. Being dominated by this juxtaposition of love and violence continually places the viewer on edge making for uncomfortable viewing. Jackie and Max then go to a bar but afterwards Ordell follows Jackie Brown home. What follows is a tense exchange between the two main characters. When the violence is threatened or implied in the conversation one of the characters turns the light off. This suggests that whatever violence is going to occur will be hidden from the audience and hence violence is normalized in the sense that the viewer no longer can see the brutal reality. The next morning Max goes to Jackie’s house in order to recover his ‘borrowed gun’ . In this situation the two potential lovers are reconnecting because of a weapon which further fuels the narrative cocktail of sex and violence. The film ends with Jackie Brown navigating a way to benefit from both the corrupt detectives and Ordell, and the concluding scene in which Jackie kisses the bondsman hence completing both the romantic and criminal narratives in a satisfying way. Quentin Tarantino's previous film, Pulp Fiction (written and directed 1995), presents violence to the viewer in a stylized and gratuitous manner, playing down the brutality of the characters and allowing the audience to empathize with them through the normalization of the gory reality of the action. The opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the film while also allowing for the themes which resonate throughout the film to be established early on. This initial scene presents a couple, played by Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer, who are sitting in a typical American diner discussing robbing banks. The conversation is normal in its tone however abnormal in its somewhat violent subject matter. The subject of the conversation is normalized due to the tone of the speech and hence, so is the implied
3 Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Gangs Of New York (2002), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) are all examples of films directed by Martin Scorsese depicting particularly villainous characters.
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