What was their relationship? He risks his life to help her steal a half million dollars only to watch her walk away after she plants a big wet one on his face with full frontal body press while begging him to go with her? I don't get why he didn't go.
shareI just dont get why in the movie he was talking about quitting the business, but then when she leaves he said he was staying in his Job that he doesnt even like...
He must be under the effect of Lorne— and Eve, too, presum— presumally.
I just dont get why in the movie he was talking about quitting the business, but then when she leaves he said he was staying in his Job that he doesnt even like...
she sai dshe waa going to spain ???
...
I HAVE BAD SPELLING GRAMMAR AND PUNTUATION PROBLEMS?
True.
Also, I really don't think he could trust Jackie after seeing what she was capable of doing. When asked if he's afraid of her, he says 'a little bit'.
I think basically he was just a very lonely guy who happened to have certain things in common with Jackie, but was just a little too honest to go along with her way of life.
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That's what's beautiful about this movie. I love it more that he didn't go with her. It fleshes out his personality of how he's just a simple bonds agent who loves her from afar.
"MALLL NOOO, JESUS CHRIST!" - Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception
Are you really Ceephax?
shareY'know what's really funny about this question? It's the idea that Tarantino tells the story this way so that a question like this gets raised!
The reasons could be psychological, or they could be tactical, from a narrative standpoint.
Think of it this way: What if Cherry *had* decided to run off with Brown?
If he had, it would simply have been too tidy, and the narrative artistry of the film would have been wasted.
Movies that lead the viewer to the pat, obvious, happily-ever-after romantic conclusion are a dime-a-dozen. Some of those movies pull that off very well ("How to Lose Friends..." a happy case-in-point, IMHO), but happy-ending romances almost invariably wind up very unsatisfying to a true romantic. We could say (strange to think!) that Tarantino sort of cops out by going the narratively safe route of leaving Cherry stateside while Brown takes her vacation. Is there a way he could have let them develop a deep, physical, post-sting romantic connection, without it seeming sappy and cheap and obvious? I wonder!
All this could be an expression of the manly ideal that the real romance occurs in the journey, not in the arrival. It could also be that Cherry is a fundamentally noble, chivalrous guy, and Jackie is a lady to whom he pays his courtly affections. It could also be that he's a neurotic guy who just doesn't think he deserves a fine woman like Jackie; that in the end they inhabit different worlds, and can't build a nest together. Yeah, Jackie gives him a big, sexy kiss.... but maybe Cherry needs a different kind of proof. What form would that proof take?
his character wasn't one who would take risks
especially in his business he would have to plan 4 weeks in advance for a trip
he wouldn't have to plan in advance at all if he was just leaving and never coming back
shareWhats to say he never went in the end? Maybe he didn't go right at that point in time but may of gone when he got the postcard from here with her address of where she was in Spain & spin a surprise on her. Max was a thinker as was proved when he watched how the plan went down the first time Jackie bought the 10 grand across & had to be convinced it was not going to wrong & it had a chance of working. There was no way he was just going to up sticks & leave that day without knowing & thnking it may work between them.
sharerzajac
good post. good one!
you are right, i think, the romance was in the journey, not in the arrival. VERY DEEP!!
your post strikes home with me: i personally get a LOAD of poignancy every time this movie ends (once a week, haha, cause thats how often i watch it)
...i get poignancy from the idea of jackie flying away and sitting on a sunny plaza in spain, sipping a cafe, enjoying her money, wearing a big sun hat and a scarf, maybe an ocean breeze blowing her hair...
and max chugging away at his desk, looking out the window, wondering where she is and what she is doing, pining for her.....
that's what i take from the ending. i love how he turns to the wall and folds his arms to savor the moment.
LTUM,
Exactly! I think it gives Tarantino a great deal of gratification to think there are folks like you out there who see that ending as *much* more romantic than a pat, feel-good ending.
I was thinking of a perfect example of a too-cozy ending; very hollow, very cold: the lousy film, "The Score". It was a poor film for lots of reasons, one of which was, at the end, there's something ultimately dissatisfying about Bassett and De Niro's characters getting their happy, snuggly little retirement at the end. It was just too tidy, too fortuitous. Very unromantic. I certainly wasn't convinced!
Although it certainly had its share of narrative weaknesses, "Diamond Men" (also w/ Forster) ended with a happy-ever-after romantic denouement that at least felt a little more organic, believable, and actually romantic. You felt happy for the couple!
It's a movie, the ending made sense in the context of the film and made it better. That said, Max is a moron.
shareAuto,
Love yr circumspection! Right on!
It's like they say: "No, art is not supposed to mirror life; it's supposed to be an enhancement of life." Max in real life is a moron. Max in art is a perhaps a subtly tragic gentleman.
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Max tells the person on the phone that he needs to go for half an hour. He is then shown walking back into his office and thinking about something. The final shot is Jackie in the car driving, but the passenger seat is never revealed. I thought this was to leave it up to us to decide if Max caught up with her or not.
We got no FOOD! We got no JOBS! Our pets' HEADS ARE FALLIN' OFF!
Did you see the way he stares at her when she drives away? He knows he's just made a huge mistake.
shareDid you see the way he stares at her when she drives away? He knows he's just made a huge mistake
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
yes. if he could have gotten off the phone faster, he might have caught her.
and she, about to cry singing the song.......
ARGGGHHHH!!
loved, the loved the ending because it frustrated the romantic side of me but totally nailed the realist in me. i think he's too set in his ways to change, that quitting was just talk. i think he was scared of jackie. and i think he knows he made a huge mistake. the scene with his back to the camera sinking in defeat was terrific. again, a really mature movie about mature adults.
being "set in their ways" is a huge part of it...they are not young people. He has a business. I was very realistic in that respect. When we "real" people start growing real balls and throwing caution to the wind and actually trying to live the life we REALLY want when an opportunity arises, instead of accepting what we are handed, films will reflect that change
shareI believe the answer to this question lies in the song that plays at the end that Jackie Brown sings along to.
All Tarantino movies have cool music, and the music fits the mood of the scene. However, in Jackie Brown, the topic of the song seems to relate directly to the characters as well.
The key lyrics here are: "...doing whatever I had to do to survive. I'm not saying what I did was alright.... You don't know what you'll do until you're put under pressure, across 110th Street is a hell of a tester."
Max and Jackie enjoyed their partnership and had fallen in love, but in the end, they were from two different worlds. Jackie was from "Across 110th Street." What she had to do to survive was coldly calculate the death of a man to steal his $500K and beat the rap free and clear. Max's morals were loose enough to bail out criminals ("Whatever you're into, you seem to be getting away with it, so more power to you"), but he wasn't a criminal himself - he's really part of the law, the policeman's world.
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."
Good analysis with the music. I will have to agree.
I also got the impression that, at 56, he got stuck in the rut that was his life. He was bored of his business to the point that he would go out for a few hours to watch a movie by himself and get something to eat. However, this routine and his job were his life and a comfortable routine. It was beyond his thinking to give it all up to pursue a woman whose lifestyle was totally different than his own.
Only until Jackie drives away does he realize that he blew his last chance at something big.
The ending is deliberately ambiguous though, both in the novel and in the film. There is a possibility that Max will go after her, particulary after the line where he asks for 30 minutes. He might be about to head to the airport. Also, how long is she going to stay in Spain? The viewer feels like they really had something going. They are still free to pursue it.
shareThis 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.
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"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.
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 him...but that Max knew it ultimately wouldn't work out between them.
shareTrelaina,
Actually, I like your take on this.
Yep, you pretty much hit the nail on the head there.
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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.
shareIn 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.
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 come...she 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.
>>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. But...he 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.
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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.
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.
@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 general...I 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
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 :D
But it was the look on his face as she walked
Why didn't Max go with Jackie to Spain?
think "lost in translation" (the movie)
I love Forster so much in this film--and that scene is one of the reasons why--his face is epic.