Hi everyone. I just watched this movie for the first time on DVD and just loved it. I felt Steven Keats stole the show. Its so sad that he died far too soon. I wish there were some websites devoted to him or more in the way of bios/videos/interviews etc. Anyway, I really enjoyed it and thought it was great movie. I highly recommend it!!!!
Rest in peace Steve
Yeh, Keats was great in this. I think that Tarantino (who loves this movie) used Keat's characters name (Jackie Brown) for his own movie title. Yet, other sources claim Tarantino used his friend Jack Hill's "Foxy Brown", and Jack's own first name as a combination to make the title. I personally think he used Keat's character name myself. Has Tarantino ANY originality???
shareI agree, I think he used Steven Keat's character Jackie for the title too. Totally.
"This lifes hard man but its harder if you're stupid!" (Steven Keats as Jackie Brown)
Has Tarantino ANY originality???
He's also fantastic in the excellent, supremely-underrated Black Sunday.
"...if that was off, I'd be whoopin' your ass up and down this street." ~ an irate Tarantino
hi Sean, oh I totally agree! I loved him in Black Sunday as well and got the DVD two weeks ago. He's so versatile and could literally play so many roles. I just watched him on youtube in Voyagers (the "Worlds Apart" episode) where he plays Thomas Edison. Amazing. A beautiful man.
"This lifes hard man but its harder if you're stupid!" (Steven Keats as Jackie Brown)
yes, i remember him as Edison in that VOYAGERS episode. what a great show that was.
actually, i dont think Tarantino based the name on Keats because one of the crew members of JACKIE BROWN's name is JACQUI BROWN (or spelled something like that). plus i really feel the BROWN came from FOXY BROWN, the Jack Hill/Pam Grier blaxploitation movie. I think that's where the BROWN came from. then again, who knows with Tarantino.
steven keats was good in DEATH WISH but annoying... but that was on purpose. the way he said "DAD" really strikes a nerve, of the audience and bronson's character after a while.
oh and another tarantino connection to keats:
tarantino based the scene in KILL BILL where daryl hannah is impersonating a nurse... and he uses the split screens showing her putting poison in the needle... for this entire scene he was inspired by the use of split screen in an old trailer for BLACK SUNDAY that shows Marthe Keller loading up a poison syringe (it's not split screen in the film, just the trailer, according to QT) and she ends up, although wanting to kill Shaw with it, murdering keats in the elevator.
He was good as the star of 7th avenue, a miniseries in the late '70's. Terrific.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
Actually it's a perfect Tarantino mashup. Everyone knows that Pam Grier was Foxy Brown.. so calling her Jackie Brown is sort of expected .. but it also pays homage to the character played by one of Tarantino's sainted 1970s character players.. like John Saxon, Robert Forster, and Steve Keats. So it's, like most of Tarantino's titles.. a play on titles if you will.
Just as Inglorious Basterds references the kind of "Wild Geese" style films of the 1970s featuring casts of mercenaries out for a big payday and carrying out some shady mission like like "Geese" or a film actually titled Inglorious Bastards.. so too does Tarantino juxtapose the solemn and reverential view of WWII with the good time WWII action pictures like Kelly's Heroes, Dirty Dozen, or Force 10 From Navarone overlaid with his rumination of Hollywood and film.
Hi HFG
Thanks for explaining. That makes sense.
I'm also a Tarantino fan too by the way. I would have LOVED to have seen Keats in one of his movies
"This lifes hard man but its harder if you're stupid!" (Steven Keats as Jackie Brown)
Hmmm....not sure about that.
Jackie Brown is based on the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch - but the character's name in the novel is Jackie Burke.
My Friends of Eddie Coyle book has an intro by Leonard. So, I always figured that the Jackie Brown movie name was a nod to Higgins by Leonard.
Who knows, though.
Agreed. His performance is why I came to this board
shareYeah... Keats. talk about your scene stealing! I can't believe how much I was pulling for this guy in every single scene. Seems like a character in need of a period made sequel/prequel. Completely compelling and with so much more meat than much of his later work.
Yates movies called by some: "directorless"? Watch the dialogs with and including Eddie and Jackie... There's your direction. Freakin' riveting and when folk don't "get it", more's the pity!
Keats was outstanding as Jackie Brown. Pity that he committed suicide at a fairly young age.
I am the Duke of IMDb bio writers! I am A#1!
He just never got a better role than this one, and it crushed him. He deserved a better career than he got, because he really proved his acting chops here. When I think of him, I always see him in that yellow muscle car.
shareGreat character, great car and great acting. Makes up for his irritating whining character in Death wish.
Mr. Jackie Brown
QT apparently loved this film.
I’m thinking so too.
share I would not say he "stole the show" but I know what you mean. It was a flashy, confident, first film role. So it was a tremendous achievement for Keats.
As to why it didn't lead to bigger things IDK? He did some strong work: had a good career. What led to his demise: again, we don't know. But after seeing him on "L&Order" I was thinking about him.
Keats as Jackie fans unite! https://bamfstyle.com/2020/12/02/friends-of-eddie-coyle-jackie/
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