Why didn't Max go with Jackie to Spain?
-
orchidclub — 14 years ago(October 07, 2011 08:06 PM)
This is a beautiful response, and I totally agree with you. BUT I also think the ending is open, and what the other person above said, about Max being able to track Jackie down because of his skills and Jackie's smile being an indication that she knows he will do so, is just as plausible. However, I prefer to think they didn't end up together and Jackie's smile is a bittersweet one.
-
njiuma — 13 years ago(May 04, 2012 09:16 PM)
"In the end scene, out of focus, Max breaks down, covers his face with his hand and cries, because he knew deep down he couldn't be with a woman who could plot someone's death. Jackie realizes the same thing as she drives away and sings along with the lyrics. They're from different sides of "110th Street."
- excellent analysis. i would add, though, that she had a legitimate "score to settle" with Ordell because cocaine was stashed with the money that wasn't hers, she could have gone to jail again, he was planning to kill her in the beginning of the story, so his death was incidental as he could have survived and been put in jail instead.
Max knew all of this, he is street smart. But Max could also be counted wise, as it's one thing to run a legitimate business, take a little detour and make $50,000 (his 10% fee for the $500,000) versus throwing a solid future away for what could be a short lived run. After all, it will still be tough for Jackie to live on $450,000 for the rest of her life, even if she is frugal. She could live another 40 years on only about $10,000/year.
Max knows this too.
So, it is supremely poignant that he wants to go with her, as any of us would, but he looks into his future and realizes that it is safer for him, and his retirement, to stay rather than leave.
Often the practical overrides the impulsive, as does the expedient.
Of course, together they surely have more than $500,000 between them, maybe even a million or more but it is still riskier to run off with someone you barely know than stay home and make a good living.
- excellent analysis. i would add, though, that she had a legitimate "score to settle" with Ordell because cocaine was stashed with the money that wasn't hers, she could have gone to jail again, he was planning to kill her in the beginning of the story, so his death was incidental as he could have survived and been put in jail instead.
-
trelaina — 15 years ago(March 09, 2011 09:26 AM)
I've always thought that Max didn't believe Jackie felt as strongly about him as he did her. I got the impression that she asked him along because she genuinely cared for him and felt like she owed himbut that Max knew it ultimately wouldn't work out between them.
-
robhiphop — 15 years ago(March 14, 2011 12:59 AM)
Yep, you pretty much hit the nail on the head there.
THE INQUISITOR
Movies, Culture, Opinion and more
http://robertod.wordpress.com/ -
drk1996 — 14 years ago(April 30, 2011 12:19 AM)
In plain spoken English: He doesn't trust her. He may have fallen in love with her and would love to spend the rest of his life with her, but he plain doesn't trust her. He said in the movie he was a "little bit" afraid of her. In the end, his heart says go with her, but his brain says NO!!! His brain won out in the end.
-
gregmays — 14 years ago(May 06, 2011 11:17 PM)
In his heart of hearts, he's a cop. She's a criminal. It's an insurmountable divide. Max was smart enough, or experienced enough, to know better.
Sometimes the baggage we enter a relationship with, will always be there as an obstacle.
I credit Max for understanding that. -
deck007-1 — 14 years ago(May 07, 2011 06:49 AM)
I just saw this movie. And this is the question I was asking myself.so I came here to see if it was brought up& obviously it was because many people were thinking about it.
I have also read the replies to this thread & thought many of them were very interesting & insightful. Obviously, the bottom line why he didn't go is Tarantino's screenplay had him staying.
My take is that he would have at least tried it out. He certainly had a thing for her & the movie wants us to know that. The long shot where he sees her for the very 1st time is showing us love at first site. When he goes shopping for the "Delfonics" music that she played.
Their relationship had been on the up & up. They weren't lying to each other & trying to get over on anybody like several other's in the movie. So you think he still wants to take his stun gun & regular gun & hunt dangerous people down. He is 56 in the movie. I think he would have at least tried out a relationship with Jackie in a villa in Spain with a killer view of a windswept beach.
They would have had Jackie's money & Max seemed like the type of guy who had run his businees in a proper manner & he could have left with a big chunk of dough himself. About whether he was afraid of her.I don't think he was afraid of her to the point that he wouldn't give it a try. She wants him to comeshe wants him to have money from the heist.
Neither one of them have somebody. You can have all the dough in the world.but if you don't have a special somebody to share things with.it's still not a great life.
Maybe I'm a romantic.but I see Jackie & Max in Spain together. No more waiting on people on a plane for 16 grand a year for Jackie.no more running around after dangerous people for Max. They were both smart. OK - The End. -
gregmays — 14 years ago(May 08, 2011 03:35 PM)
The long shot where he sees her for the very 1st time is showing us love at first site. <<
It's funny you mention that scene. Tarantino has quite a bit to say about that scene on the Collector's Edition DVD.
When the film came out, he liked to view the film with a real audience to get their reactions during the movie. And, he would go to Black theaters in LA, and he would go to White theaters too, to see if there was a difference. Now, he says he was really making the movie for a Black audience, and they invariably reacted exactly as he expected. Buthe never realized that anyone would take that scene as 'Love at First Sight'. Because a love song played in the background, that's how White audiences perceived that scene. He was using that song because it had a very strong rhythm, and Jackie was walking in step with it. He meant the scene to make a bold exposition of the main character, and that's exactly how Black people saw it. Here she was walking out of jail, probably going to lose her job, but still walks with dignity, her head held high.
So, maybe that's why some people see a deeper feeling from Max toward Jackie. Because they felt from the beginning of the movie, that he was smitten. I think he was very skeptical about her in the beginning. First of all, for being in any way involved with Ordell Robee. Second, the incident where she 'bottows' Max's handgun. Through that point, she's behaving like any other slightly shady person.
I personally don't think he really fell for her until the second time they're in the Food Court, and he realizes the ingenuity of her plan, and he starts to smile. And that's when his mind put everything together. That's when he realizes that just as she's about to change her life, it was getting to know her, that convinced him to change his own.
Like a lot of movies, Tarantino left it to the audience to decide whether Jackie and Max would wind up together in the end. We write our own script for them. And that's kind of fun too. -
koffeenkreame41-1 — 14 years ago(June 05, 2011 07:40 AM)
He realizes shortly after when he sees her drive that he made a horrible mistake. I think there still is a chance that he went after her. Asking the person on the phone to call him back in 30 minutes, leaves it up to you.
"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna*beep*wit' me!" Hudson in Aliens. -
Shelleyl101 — 14 years ago(August 16, 2011 08:52 PM)
This is just a theory that kind of expands on the he was scared of her one - but I got the impression that he hadn't realised she was going to have Ordell killed. Hear it out, but I will admit if this is flawed because I was watching the end really late and half asleep at night. I thought maybe Max assumed they would just hand Ordell over to the ATF, get arrested and Jackie (and maybe Max too) would disappear with the money without a trace. I vaguely remember a shocked look on his face when it happened, wasn't sure whether it was because he'd just seen a man killed in front of his eyes or because he hadn't expected it to happen at all.
That, maybe? with the idea that he knew he couldnt trust her or what she was capable of, I thought was why he decided against it despite his attraction to her. -
queenshan — 14 years ago(August 20, 2011 09:19 PM)
@Greg,
First of all, I love this thread! So many well-written and thoughtful ideas.
So, I am black (and a woman) - in terms of what Tarantino observed from white/black audiences in generalI took the scene to be love at first sight. It wasn't the music at first, although the music did help me eventually react that way. Yeah she was walking like a strong "sista", I got that.
But it was the look on his face as she walked. It was a long, lingering and interested look he was giving her. We were watching him watch her for a long time, not just us watching her. But he could only see her shadow, how could he even know anything about her? That's what I was wondering. And I figured it didn't make any sense but it was what it was.
He also had a smile on his face when he headed to his office and discovered that the gun was gone. Maybe he's just a generally content kind of guy who enjoyed his job.
But he definitely expressed that he had the hots for her immediately after he first saw her - asking her out for a drink after just bailing her out, and he even offered to let her keep his gun for awhile, and he continued to ask a lot of probing slightly jealous-sounding questions about Odell. As I watched, in my mind all of this supported the idea that he fell for her as soon as he saw her. So my belief grew stronger as I observed his actions throughout the rest of the movie.
The ending
He was obviously conflicted. He said "no" as a knee-jerk reaction. But then, even though he was professional to his core and cared very much about his job - he told the caller who desperately needed help for her son to WAIT. There was urgency as he hung up on her. But Jackie hadn't even hesitated, and sped away. If she hadn't been so hasty, maybe he would have walked out the door and said something else to her. But she hadn't. So he turned around, thinking about what could have been. The moment had passed - for both his time to make a choice, and his chance to change his mind.
Earlier in the film, she asked several times - "if/when the time comes would you be tempted to steal crime money?" And he couldn't really answer her at first. I think that the question was ultimately about more than just the money. In life there really are fork-in-the-road moments and choices that literally change everything. Sometimes you don't even realize it, while other times you know it and it hurts.
Here's the scene when he first saw her from the script:
MAX
Still reading his novel. We hear offscreen, a SHERIFF'S
voice.
SHERIFF (O.S.)
Max! Here she comes.
Max puts his book down and see -
Jackie being led into the Admitting Area by TWO SHERIFFS.
She's wearing her stewardess uniform and carrying a small
envelope with her belongings in it and her shoes. When
Max was imagining a woman in her forties, he had someone
with a bit of wear and tear on them in mind. But this
Jackie Brown's a knockout.
As he watches her, she steps out of the County Jail
slippers she was wearing and slips into her shoes.
He approaches, handing her his card.
MAX
Miss Brown I'm Max Cherry. I'm
your bail bondsman.
And here's the last part of the final scene from the scripts:
JACKIE
I didn't use you, Max.
MAX
I didn't say you did.
JACKIE
I never lied to you.
MAX
I know.
JACKIE
We're partners.
MAX
I'm fifty-five-years old. I can't
blame anybody for anything I do.
JACKIE
Do you blame yourself for helping me?
He shakes his head 'no.'
JACKIE (CONT'D)
'd feel a whole lot better if you
took some more money.
MAX
(smiling)
You'll get over that.
Jackie smiles.
MAX (CONT'D)
Where're you going?
JACKIE
Spain.
MAX
Madrid or Barcelona?
JACKIE
Start off in Madrid. Ever been there?
He shakes his head 'no.'
JACKIE (CONT'D)
I hear they don't eat dinner till
midnight.
Max doesn't say anything.
JACKIE
Wanna go?
MAX
Thanks, but you have a good time.
JACKIE
Sure I can't twist your arm?
MAX
Thank you for saying that, but no. My
business.
JACKIE
I thought you were tired of your
business?
MAX
I'm just tired in general.
JACKIE
Are you scared of me?
Max smiles and holds up two fingers, close to each other.
MAX
A little bit.
Jackie smiles back.
JACKIE
Come over here.
Max does.
They give each other a long, tender kiss.
She breaks it.
JACKIE (CONT'D)
I'll send you a postcard, partner.
THE END -
DMarkwick — 14 years ago(January 27, 2012 03:56 AM)
This is a great thread.
I haven't ever read the script, and it's been several years since I saw the film, but my impression of those two moments (the first and last meetings) seem to mirror this view. I live a Max-like existence myself, and while I'm still ten years away from his age, as a lonesome white guy in middle age I can fully empathize with his directionless yearning, and hopeless optimism.
As a middle-aged white guy with a minor job commitment and not much else, I wonder what my reaction to the last scene would be. I'd like to
think
that I would go, my pathetic optimism might drive that, but, we never really know what we'd do do we?
But this thread has given me one thing, a realisation that I'm waiting for my Jackie Brown
-
grumpy_otter — 13 years ago(March 23, 2013 06:06 PM)
But it was the look on his face as she walked
Yes! Even if Tarentino never intended that scene to mean "love at first sight," Max Cherry fell in love with her at first sight. Well, maybe not love, but he was definitely intrigued.
I love Forster so much in this filmand that scene is one of the reasons whyhis face is epic. -
degree7 — 12 years ago(May 07, 2013 01:11 PM)
I love Forster so much in this filmand that scene is one of the reasons whyhis face is epic.
I totally agree. He's got this great, sort of deadpan look on his face in those scenes. Like, "am I really seeing this?"
Greatest Films Not in the IMDB Top 250
http://www.imdb.com/list/bc9x1QAFat0/ -
denny7777 — 14 years ago(August 28, 2011 02:17 PM)
Because she was just using him to get the money. A lot of writers name characters "Max" to indicate they have the personality of a dog (no offense to anyone named Max, but there are more dogs named Max than people named Max) - they are obedient, and don't understand when you leave them, just like Max.
Push the envelope, watch it bend