By contrast, the working class heroes of "Jackie Brown" - Jackie and Max Cherry (Robert Forster) - talk and behave more-or-less the way we think of normal people talking and behaving. Throughout Tarantino's first three films, just about everyone is a hitman or a heroin dealer or a crime boss. Pam Grier arrived to the set with a truckload of pre-existing iconic status, but in a way, Jackie Brown stands out by not standing out. The righteous, if ethically-neutral, center of "Jackie Brown" is the title character. If "Reservoir Dogs" or "Pulp Fiction" gave you the impression Tarantino thinks gangers are suave, witty, relatable guys, this film will disabuse you of that notion. "Jackie Brown" doubles down on its predecessor's indebtedness to 1970s pop culture, but otherwise plays out as a much more grounded endeavor. Its criminals are overtly dishonorable and cruel. Shall we rank the most iconic of all? Let's go for it. That's a lot of time and a lot of movies to load up with iconic characters. The director's feature-length debut, "Reservoir Dogs," is approaching its 30th anniversary, and Tarantino has made eight other movies - or nine, if "Kill Bill" counts as two - since the 1992 gangster shoot-'em up got Hollywood's attention.
Ironically, it's really the talking scenes - not necessarily the sword fights or the shootouts - that make a Tarantino movie a Tarantino movie, but it's the characters saying that dialogue that we remember. In terms of surface-level elements, three factors distinguish Tarantino from the pack: gratuitous shots of women's feet, unforgettable characters, and razor-sharp dialogue. Countless other directors have made thousands of movies with equal or greater quantities of blood and guts, and they're not considered among the most influential filmmakers of their era.
Despite his reputation for boundary-pushing violence, you can see a dozen brutal shootings and stabbings in a film and never wonder if you're watching a Quentin Tarantino movie.