Where this movie fails for me…
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Just_Jenna — 10 years ago(October 01, 2015 05:47 PM)
Maybe that wasn't so much for the audience's benefit, but to send a message to Louis..
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detroit-velvet-smooth — 12 years ago(December 03, 2013 03:47 PM)
Maybe we shouldn't like Jackie. Maybe we should find ourselves rooting for her circumstance then find it hard to swallow in the end.
Elmore Leonard is really good at writing these kinds of stories, or he was anyway (RIP).
Frankly I don't know why you didn't find Max sympathetic. He was kind of this cuddly teddy bear in a story full of scum bags. To me his motives were the most pure, if you adopt his perspective without doing a subject analysis of what he did. In the end Max's reaction to her offer to leave with him for Spain was the author's nod to us about how its okay to not like Jackie. Max in the end isn't happy about it, he's ambivalent, he can't go with her, and then when she leaves he's still weighed down by it.
Very 70's ending, very complex. Very Elmore Leonard. Not every story has to centre on a protagonist we like. Thats what makes this such an interesting film for me. -
StevenSmithNYC — 12 years ago(December 16, 2013 10:39 AM)
"Sure, Ordell was a bad person. But did he deserve to get murdered at the end? "
Yes, he murdered people. Did you forget about this?
"Would he have killed Jackie and Max?"
Yes, he's a murderer. He killed Beaumont which had nothing to do with money. -
Saber69 — 12 years ago(December 21, 2013 01:31 AM)
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human. Ordell was killed by a police officer in performance of his sworn duty.
Did he deserve it? Remember what he earlier said after showing Beaumont's dead body in the trunk "I will kill him and 10 others just like him". And he would have too! Including Jackie.
Jackie did not have a lot of options at this stage of her life. A large part due to the choices she earlier made granted, however, she was not a cold-blooded killer selling weapons to other killers!
People were rooting for her because with Ordell out of the way and small retirement fund (which was not stolen money some children's charity), or in her words "would not be missed" she would now be free to live life under her terms and could go away to a warm place and live modestly free in her golden years. Something we all would like to do. -
matagt1983 — 12 years ago(January 04, 2014 07:32 AM)
I guess you could also see it as a social commentary. Jackie couldn't get ahead in life because of a crime that happened years ago so she was forced to commit more crime to keep her a float and so the cycle continues. Now she must commit the ultimate crime in order to get out completely. It's just a big cycle and we are all apart of it.
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justinemac — 12 years ago(January 04, 2014 08:38 PM)
I agree. Also, I think the scene with Jackie & Max having coffee in her kitchen says it all. She's 40-something years old, she's gotten trapped in a dead-end airline job. She'd like to start over but it's really too late to start over. I think also if you keep in mind that her first crime was tied to her ex, you see that she really got suckered in a way. Now her only option is to take control and think of herself first.
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Robbmonster — 10 years ago(September 03, 2015 07:19 AM)
Did Ordell 'get murdered'???
In the version I saw, Ordell was killed by Nicolette while advancing on Jackie and holding a gun.
Would the US legal system regard Nicolette's actions as 'murder'? I'd doubt it very much.
Besides, Ordell had killed others in the film for far less than half a million dollars. It's a rather odd assumption he WOULDN'T have killed Jackie. Ordell was one wild, dangerous character.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
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