One has to admire how prominently Quentin Tarantino features women in the world of action and crime: Mrs. Mia Wallace, Melanie Ralston, The Bride, Elle Driver, the Death Proof gang, and - possibly the baddest of them all - Jackie Brown. These are women who don't settle for just being sidekicks or molls. As a matter of fact, they're usually smarter and more powerful than the men who surround them. Vincent Vega is no match for Mia, Pai Mei and Bill can't compete with Elle and the Bride, and Shosanna takes on the Nazi regime. But, while those other women rid themselves of or manipulate the oppressive male forces, it's always within the context of a fantastic setting. The overblown realm of car obsessives in a grindhouse film, the world of highly-trained assassins, a pulpy Los Angeles, an alternate World War II history, etc. What makes Jackie Brown Tarantino's finest female character (and Jackie Brown one of Tarantino's best films) is that Jackie takes on a more realistic white man's world and gets by on intelligence rather than brute force.
Part of the credit for this needs to be given to the Master of Misdemeanors, Elmore Leonard. His ability to establish a real world of crime through petty conversations, relatively mundane characters with long backstories, and the perfect blend of intelligence and stupidity finds its way into Jackie Brown. "My ass may be dumb, but I ain't no dumbass," Ordell Robie (Samuel L. Jackson) says, a sentiment which applies to pretty much all of the characters. They're stupid enough to get themselves trapped in desperate situations, but - with the notable exception of Louis (Robert De Niro)- they're not dumb enough to ignore the obvious. Everyone looking out for their own interests - and doing it with brutal efficiency - makes Jackie's attempts to play people even more dangerous and suspenseful. And what's she risking her life and freedom for? $500,000 in cash, a sum that seems paltry in Hollywood terms but in the lives of Jackie (who makes "$16,000 a year plus retirement benefits that aren't worth a damn"), Ordell, Max (Robert Forster), Louis, and Melanie, it means a hell of a lot. Perfect Leonardian details like these - and Tarantino's use of titles to tell us whether we're in Compton, Torrance, or Carson - establish the film's reality and make Jackie's score more meaningful.