Review of Jackie Brown

Introduction

Believe it or not, Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino`s most recent film as writer and director. It`s now 4 years since it was released. So while we wait for the next project (rumoured to be called "Kill Bill"), let`s take a look at Jackie Brown on region 4 DVD.

Video

The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and on the whole looks good. The colours are good, the detail is good and there aren`t really any compression artefacts on view.

The only problem is that there seems to be a lot of film dirt on the original print, and this has all transferred over to the DVD. The print could have done with cleaning up before being transferred. It`s not overly distracting, but it`s a shame.

Audio

An MPEG surround track and a DD5.1 track are on offer here, and the DD5.1 is clearly the winner.

The soundtrack to this film is brilliant, as ever the music really helps the film along, and sounds very good. Lots of bass and loads of great tunes make this one a real winner.

Apart from the music the soundtrack is mostly a mix of dialogue and gunfire, with the most obvious example being the TV show "Chicks who love Guns", which 2 of the characters watch during the film.

Features

Oh dear, here`s where things go downhill. You do get a trailer (in 1.85:1 anamorphic), and some biographies, but that`s it. No deleted scenes, no commentary, no interviews. A shame.

Conclusion

You often hear musicians talk about "the difficult third album". I would class Jackie Brown as Tarantino`s "difficult third film" as a director (if you ignore the episode of ER that he directed and his contribution to "Four Rooms").

There are some Tarantino set pieces here (the department store sequence played out from different angles), plus some violence and some gangster style dialogue. It`s not got the "quote factor" of Pulp Fiction, but that doesn`t have to be a bad thing. A little editing may have helped, as it feels too long at times.

The film is definitely worth watching, and if you want to own it on DVD now, this is the version to get, if only for the fact that it is not a flipper like the region 2 version. If you`re prepared to wait, a special edition is rumoured to be coming to region 1 this year (the film is not yet out on DVD in any form in region 1).

Recommended.