The characters in this felt a lot more real than most of his other movies. I know it was based on Rum Punch and they weren't his characters exclusively, but still.
shareThe movie's characters deviate from the book quite a bit. Samuel's Ordel is way cooler than the hot headed Ordel in the book. Louis Gara, in the book, is much more talkative and cunning, where as Deniro's Gara is pretty much a follower. Max Cherry is much sleazier in the book. He's more like the bail bondsmen Samuel's Ordel describes just before he kills Louis, "crooked as a barrel of snakes". That's why that line always seemed confusing to me before I'd read the book. Cherry seems to be the most rounded character in the movie. The cops are much more crooked in the book. Beaumont in the book is Jamaican, where as Chris Tucker's Beaumont is essentially a rehash of Smokey in Friday, which I also think was a good idea considering Friday's popularity in the late 90s and that the story is based in LA. Then, of course, Jackie Brown is black, whereas Jackie Burke, in the book, is white. It seems even most Elmore Leonard fans have concurred with Leonard's own sentiments that the movie was a terrific adaptation, and the adjustments might have even made it better with 90's film audiences. The characters were certainly more personal, as you put it.
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