Original subtitles

In 1994, a film was released

that was destined to reset modern cinema.

Let me take a wild guess here.

"Pulp Fiction," it became a sensation across the world.

Shit, negro, that's all you had to say.

That movie made well over $200 million worldwide.

It made Tarantino a rock star.

It was Star Wars for independent cinema.

It had everyone asking a truly

taran-tantalizing question.

What's he gonna do next?

Ms. Brown!

But to understand where Tarantino

was headed after "Pulp Fiction"...

What the fuck is up with this shit?

...we first need to understand

where he was coming from.

He grew up surrounded by black culture.

- And go back... - Oh, I ain't here

because they didn't try, lover.

...to a time when the Tarantino verse

was still forming.

You can't make movies like this.

I can't tell you that was one of the best times I ever had.

Not in the movies he directed.

This is not the proper way that a script is written.

You can forget about acting for the next 20 years.

Your fucking career is over!

But in the films he wrote,

starting with a true romance in the early '90s.

They sent me "True Romance" and I was like,

"I don't even know what's going on here."

Involving certain natural-born killers.

We bought your script, now get out of here.

That's not what I had in mind.

That proved to be the wrong

kind of knockout in 1994.

Quentin took his fist and popped him.

What do you have to say to your fans?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Before things really started to change shape...

Kill them all!

...in 1996.

Is it a vampire movie? Is it a gangster movie?

What you are doing is not how it's done.

All this long before the film,

- whose name... - Jackie Brown.

...announced the return

of an almost forgotten star.

She was like, "You wrote a movie for me to star in?"

Following Pulp Fiction,

Tarantino was not just a success story, but a disrupter.

Rarely in our years on the movie beat has a new director

become as hot as fast as Quentin Tarantino

In Hollywood,

the greatest form of flattery is imitation.

Not only did the film itself spawn loads of ripoffs

I got an idea for a movie.

But you had the other big studios looking at this film

and going, well, we want in on that action.

Three, two, one.

It started this whole wave of nonlinear storytelling.

So you have big studios opening up

like their own indie wings.

Pretty smart.

20th Century Fox started Fox Searchlight.

Paramount started their own.

It genuinely was a film that changed the movie industry.

God damn, it's a pretty fucking good milkshake.

- Told you. - And in this changed

industry, its newly crowned king

was being watched almost as keenly as his movies.

People could not wait to see the next Tarantino film.

Luckily for fans, in the year of "Pulp Fiction,"

another Tarantino work hit screens.

You believe in fate, Mallory?

Maybe.

It was bold, risque, and innovative.

That hasn't been done in years.

It just wasn't a movie made by him.

This is not about you, you egomaniac.

Oh, and one other thing...

We have the road to hell in front of us.

He personally despised it.

What do you mean by that?

Well, long before Quentin Tarantino made

a name for himself--

One of Tarantino's earliest scripts

was "Natural Born Killers."

His work was already doing the rounds

among Hollywood elites.

He sold it to these up-and-coming producers,

Don Murphy and Jane Hamsher.

The money from his script sales

would go towards his first feature, "Reservoir Dogs."

Uh-uh, I don't tip.

You don't tip?

Oliver Stone got the script, they put it in his hands.

Eager to continue his Hollywood education,

Tarantino assumed he could look forward to working

with one of America's foremost directors.

By this time, Oliver Stone

is one of the most celebrated filmmakers

with the Oscar-winning "Platoon."

Hell is the impossibility of reason.

And the director liked what he saw

in Tarantino's work.

He loved "Natural Born Killers."

I won't forget about you.

Instead, before a frame was shot,

"Natural Born Killers" claimed its first victim,

Tarantino's hopes.

Quentin went to Oliver's producer

and the guy said, "Beat it."

Producer Don Murphy felt Quentin's job was done.

"We bought your script, now get out of here."

"Thank you, goodbye.

I'm now gonna make my movie how I want to make it."

And true to his word,

Stone's vision for the story was different.

He could see in it some commentary

that he could say about modern American media.

We are talking about nothing less than television history.

And he saw it as symptomatic

of American culture going down the toilet.

You're scum, Wayne.

You did it for ratings.

Pretty soon Tarantino

could see something else going down the toilet.

They changed the script a lot.

And as soon as Tarantino got wind that Stone was in fact,

heavily rewriting,

Tarantino actually went back to Murphy and Hamsher

and said, "Can you stop this?"

Uh, they refused.

Powerless to save something recognizable

from his script,

Tarantino publicly disowned "Natural Born Killers."

There was definitely a lot of animosity.

And it all came to a head

when the producers lawyered up.

They tried to stop him from publishing the screenplay

like his original screenplay before the changes.

Why in the hell are you letting this scumbag do this, Dwight?

Quentin got his way winning

the right to publish his screenplay.

- And then... - There was a restaurant--

Cut to a West Hollywood restaurant,

Interior. Day.

Quentin was leaving the restaurant

and Quentin made eye contact with this guy.

That guy was producer Don Murphy.

And he goes, "Oh, hi, Quentin."

And Quentin just lost it.

Quentin took his fist, which is about as big as my head.

And popped him and dropped him on the floor with witnesses.

He just was smacking him. You know?

And dropped him on the ground

and walked away and got sued.

Fade out, fade in.

A lawsuit followed and parties settled out of court.

I know I heard Quentin say, "It was worth every penny."

Stone's film was released to polarizing reviews.

For Tarantino, this was unnatural born killers.

He said, "Nah, they fucked up my script."

Thought you'd be more creative than that.

Even though...

Quentin claimed he'd never seen "Natural Born Killers."

So he got up, he walked out.

It's seen enough.

But audiences loved Stone's movie.

The picture grossed 50 million at the box office

from its budget of $30 million.

Tarantino needed a greater vengeance.

It came just two months later when a story told his way,

as he'd written it, put him firmly on the map.

And you will know my name is the Lord!

Suddenly, everyone wanted to know--

What's he going to do next?

Newly blooded Tarantino addicts turned

to the director's back catalog in search of their next hit.

Just like Tarantino had done.

It's in. They've got it.

They combed the video store shelves

in search of forgotten gems.

How about you go to the movies with me tonight?

What are we gonna see?

And there they found another Tarantino epic,

hiding in plain sight.

"True Romance," it's the most personal Tarantino movie.

Do you like to get pie after you see a good movie?

Because this was another crime

caper scripted by Tarantino,

Many newly minted Tarantino fans were about to discover

the director was no overnight success.

"True Romance" was something

that Tarantino had been working on.

it kind of pulled from other things he'd already done.

This romantic crime thriller had its roots

in both a script written

by Video Archives collaborator, Roger Avary

and an unfinished feature starring Craig Hamann from 1987.

What's that?

He'd already half-made effectively,

"My Best Friend's Birthday."

But I mean, he is Rockabilly.

He is, Rockabilly.

- Mean, nasty. - Mean, nasty.

He couldn't give a fuck about anything.

The main character in that,

which is very much based on Tarantino himself,

became the character of Clarence.

My life depended on it.

That's for adults.

There was a plot device about the friend buying

a prostitute for him for his birthday.

I'm not a whore, I'm a call girl.

No, I'm a call girl and there's a difference, you know?

Call girls, well they're a lot more classier.

And then the character of Alabama

was very much like Tarantino's dream girl as well.

Is she a four-alarm fire or what?

It all sounded like a classic Tarantino picture.

I don't think so.

But just like "Natural Born Killers,"

where this film would end up

was not where Quentin Tarantino imagined it.

A film written by Quentin Tarantino

and called "True Romance" was the perfect vehicle.

Just not for Quentin Tarantino

because it became a Tony Scott film.

Tony said, "You know what?

I'm going to do 'True Romance.'"

After Tarantino sold the script

to the British director of "Top Gun."

You can be my wingman anytime.

He earned about $30,000.

But despite not directing,

True Romance's cast could hardly have been more Tarantino.

Christian Slater was the hot guy at the time.

You know what that's like?

And at the center of the romance,

Patricia Arquette as love-struck call girl, Alabama.

Mind if I smoke here?

My sister did "True Romance,"

but that scene,

where she's getting the shit beat out of her

and that was very painful to watch for the family

it was like, it was horrible.

But it's a kick-ass scene and how she plays it.

Breathe.

Hi, how are you?

My name's Elliot.

That cast straddled

different kinds of stardom, different kinds of acting,

different kinds of living.

But even with all that experience,

this actor and his castmates were challenged

by Tarantino's esoteric takes.

Elliot, your motivation is to stay out of jail.

They sent me "True Romance" and I was like,

"I don't even know what's going on here."

I can't believe I'm doing this.

After all, this was the pre-Tarantino universe.

If you don't know Tarantino,

how are you gonna understand it?

I was like, this is full of profanity.

You wanna fuck me?

Fuck you guys, man.

Who the fuck are you?

Where the fuck did he come from?

And it's full of violence.

And I don't even know how they go together.

I certainly didn't get that it had this lyricism.

I had to come all the way from the highways

and byways of Tallahassee, Florida.

That lyricism found its voice and subject matter

only Tarantino had the courage to explore.

I couldn't understand, you know,

the big pussy eating white boy monologue.

Or should that be "exploit"?

What are you motherfuckers talking about?

Floyd say he don't be eating pussy.

It should be released for acting classes.

'Cause the original script, the pussy eating monologue...

Oh, hold on a second.

Big D, you saying you eat pussy?

Damn, motherfucker, I eat everything.

...is at least two and a half times

what it is in the finished film.

I eat the pussy, I eat the butt,

I eat every motherfuckin' thang.

If you can't imagine an extremely amazing actor

doing that, you don't know what the hell you're reading.

Tony Scott shared Tarantino's willingness

to push the boundaries of taste,

but not the storytelling envelope.

He did kind of feel that there were some changes

that needed to be made to it.

"True Romance" was originally like told

in a non-linear way so it kind of started

with Clarence killing the pimp

and then went back to Clarence meeting Alabama.

What a wonderful philosophy.

And Scott just wanted to make it more linear.

Or you might say less Tarantino

as we would come to know him.

This isn't a good idea.

And perhaps surprisingly...

Tarantino didn't have a problem with that.

Okey-dokey, doggy-daddy.

Partly because Tarantino knew

he had been accepted to his own personal film school.

Tony took him under his wing

and Tony Scott became a mentor.

And Quentin Tarantino

wasn't the only one being schooled on the set.

I don't fucking believe this.

The stuff, dammit, I knew it!

Nobody had asked me if I could drive stick.

Nobody thought to ask me.

I fucking knew it!

And yours truly was not only learning how to drive a scene,

I was also learning how to drive.

We're shooting out of sequence

where I'm driving the Coke Whore.

And I knew just what to do.

So I said to the actress, "Would you like be giving me

a blowjob, but your head will be out of frame

and I'll just pull your head up?"

And she's like, "I love it."

Oh fuck!

Fuck!

It's a good reveal.

But anyway, so we're doing that.

I'm cackling.

The more I cackle, the more everybody loves it.

And we're having fun and I'm doing this wild cackle.

And all of a sudden somebody says to me,

"So now you need to pull over and park

because the cop's gonna come up."

Bronson needed to actually drive the car for this wide shot.

And I said, "Oh. How do you do that?"

And they said,

"Did no one ask you if you could drive stick?"

I said, "No, I can't."

Oh fuck, this is how my goddamn head examined

for driving like this.

And somebody said, "Okay,

we don't have any stunt doubles here,

but there's an electrician kind of looks

like he could be Bronson.

We could spray paint his hair black

and then he could be Bronson."

And Tony said,

"He doesn't look anything like fucking Bronson."

So they said, "Okay, well, what if we put sunglasses on him?"

And Tony said,

"But Bronson wasn't fucking wearing fucking sunglasses."

And so I said, "Look, put sunglasses on him

and then in the shot, I'll put them on

and then take them off

because I want to see the rearview mirror.

So that's how we'll cover that."

And Quentin comes up to me and says,

"I wanted that cackle in this movie.

How did you know that exact sound?

I said, "Well, you see, she was well, never mind."

He goes, "I wanted that cackle."

As a writer, Tarantino was learning

how to flow like water around actors.

- Hi. - You know, because we're all

afraid of writers on film.

Sometimes you want to lighten up what you're doing

or sometimes you want to play

and you don't want to feel like the writer

is getting mad at you.

So there's an art form so that you can enjoy the fun

and not cramp anyone's style.

If after talking to you he likes you,

wants to deal with you, he'll deal with you.

He had that down pat.

If he doesn't, he'll say, fuck you,

and he'll walk out of the room.

In Tony Scott, Tarantino had a sympathetic mentor

who was allowing him to stay in touch with his own work.

And besides the money he was paid for the script,

Tony let him contribute to the dialogue

and he's making extra money

by helping him with the dialogue.

Don't you want to count your money?

But there was a shootout

between the young writer and his director

when it came to the finale of "True Romance."

He had written it that Clarence dies at the end.

And Scott was like, "Yeah,

I don't think he should die at the end.

I think they should get away and go to Mexico."

Tarantino absolutely disagreed.

He said, "Don't do that.

That would be wrong."

Scott stuck to his guns and Tarantino said, "Well fine,

you can do it, but I'm not rewriting it."

The rewrite went to Roger Avary

Tarantino's Video Archives writing buddy

and soon to be co-author of "Pulp Fiction."

And he rewrote the ending for a fee of about $1,000,

I think it was.

I look back and I'm amazed

that my thoughts were so clear and true.

But that wasn't the end of the ending

for Tarantino.

Tarantino, when he finally saw the movie, went,

"Okay, sure, that was the right thing to do."

- You're so cool. - They said it made

the film feel more like a kind of a fairy tale.

And the want of death would fade

like the stars at dawn.

The fairy tale had no fairy tale ending for the studio.

When "True Romance" was released in 1993,

there was nothing romantic about the truth.

A box office flop.

It barely edged past its $12.5 million budget,

earning $13 million worldwide.

Well, in Tony Scott terms, it was not successful.

But this was a Tarantino film

that nobody saw through his lens until the film

that changed everything in October of 1994.

You know who we are?

Once "Pulp Fiction" comes out,

a lot of people went back and saw "True Romance,"

people go, "Oh yeah, okay.

We see where this was gonna go if we saw this first."

As I felt the touch of God.

And as if by divine intervention,

following the release of "Pulp Fiction,"

for "True Romance," video stores rode the wave

and VHS rentals surged.

Becomes much bigger through Tarantino's name.

Can't believe what you're telling me.

It became a cult hit.

I am on this earth to make good movies.

Nothing more and nothing--

Well, maybe less sometimes.

Ironically,

its cult status was only conferred upon it

thanks to video store rentals.

And if you happened to wander over to the horror section,

you might have found another Tarantino terror

with even stranger origins.

What is this? It's nonlinear?

Is it a vampire movie? Is it a gangster movie?

So nobody wanted to buy it.

Before "Reservoir Dogs"

and "Pulp Fiction" put Quentin Tarantino on the map

as a director...

Trying to forget anything as intriguing as this

would be an exercise in futility.

He was already a writer

who wanted to be an actor.

What do they look like, Jimmie?

Dorks.

And yet many fans didn't know that.

At least not until 1996, when, in one unusual film,

Tarantino combined both of those passions.

It was going to be a project for myself to direct.

It was a script that predated

the Tarantino-verse and had a champion

and longtime collaborator, Robert Kurtzman.

I gave it to several actors who just would,

they weren't interested in being in "From Dusk Till Dawn"

because it was so vulgar and over the top.

Welcome to slavery.

Actually, that's another film.

This one was the story of two outlaw brothers on the run

from the law who wind up in a bar

that's hiding something far worse.

But few even understood.

So nobody wanted to buy it.

But by 1994,

a forgotten Tarantino script was like an icon unearthed.

And Miramax producer Bob Weinstein saw an opportunity

to convert any remaining doubters.

Miramax were the only people

that would back him.

Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary for "Pulp Fiction."

You know, they talked about Miramax being the house

that Quentin built.

This has been a very strange year.

And Tarantino had a spiritual home

at the independent production house.

Harvey loved Quentin.

He allowed him to make movies the way he wanted to.

Even though Quentin

would not be making this movie himself,

this time, his priorities would be different.

Miramax green lit the movie,

but there were also red warning lights flashing

at the house that Quentin built.

In 1995, Quentin was dating actress Mira Sorvino

and she recounted to Tarantino

that Weinstein began massaging her

and then chasing her around a hotel room.

Quentin wrote it off as Harvey being hung up on Mira

and assumed there wouldn't be any more problems

as they were close friends at the time.

That was one part of a saga yet to attract

the glare of the spotlight

But for Robert Kurtzman,

Tarantino's burgeoning reputation

was giving him his day in the sun.

The fact that we were there

finally getting this thing made, was just perfect for me.

Quentin's script was based on Robert's

original short story.

Tarantino was paid just $1,500 to write it

and had no interest in directing his script.

Quentin was never going to direct "...Dusk Till Dawn."

He had fun writing it.

I don't think he ever wanted to direct it.

Because Tarantino had something bigger in mind.

"The Holy Trinity."

Actor, writer, director.

And with Quentin committed to performing

in front of the camera,

the road for unheralded and uncredited director,

Robert Kurtzman was rockier.

Me as a director attached,

having no directing credits might have kept them

from moving forward with it.

And despite eight years nursing the project,

he decided to cede the director's chair.

At that point, I just wanted to see the movie get made.

It wasn't meant for me to direct.

Now Miramax still had to find a director fluent

in Tarantino.

What's the matter with you? Are you crazy?

Brave enough to handle the material.

- Way ahead of you. - And direct the man himself.

- Hi. - Robert Rodriguez

had done "Mariachi."

They got completely different styles,

but there's no way they they don't learn from each other.

They enjoy each other's movies.

Finding a director for "From Dusk Till Dawn"

was never the production's biggest personnel problem.

In those days it was like horror wasn't

for serious actors, you know?

We're having such a hard time finding somebody to play

the brother to Quentin 'cause I want it to be someone

who could actually look like he could be his brother,

yet be a great actor.

Somehow, that man happened to be

one of the best looking men in Hollywood,

a man Tarantino had directed,

a TV dreamboat named George Clooney.

Look at you working on a Sunday.

Quentin had directed "ER" at that point, I believe.

And now that Tarantino was a star,

the director drew more serious actors into his orbit.

Everybody be cool.

You, be cool.

Including Selma Hayek,

- Juliet Lewis... - Need some company?

...and Harvey Keitel.

Has anybody here read a real book about vampires

or are we just remembering what some movie said?

Because most of those people they had connections with.

Robert's own connection with Tarantino

would see him retain a hand in his dream project.

I was a co-producer on it.

KNB got to do the effects.

Tarantino go-to, KNB FX,

was hired to do the makeup and prosthetic effects.

A relationship that would endure well past the vampire fest

of "From Dusk Till Dawn."

That made up for everything and the fact

that we were there finally getting this thing made

was just perfect for me.

Principal photography kicked off in June 1995,

forging scenes fans would never forget.

And now, for your viewing pleasure.

Kneel and worship at the feet of Santanico Pandemonium.

And speaking of--

- Worship at the feet. - Right.

"From Dusk Till Dawn" wouldn't have been a Tarantino script

without his unique trademarks.

He loves feet.

He likes a woman with a nice set of feet.

This tequila-soaked moment marks the turning point

of a film about to undergo its own metamorphosis.

Richie, get back on the clock.

It just twists and then it's all out mayhem.

From a violent crime caper

to an alien vampire flick in a space of a few frames of CGI.

Richie, look out!

When the vampires attack, all that's written there,

it just says, "And all hell ensues."

Robert Kurtzman finally got to see

his short story turned into a film when,

"From Dusk Till Dawn" was released in January of 1996.

Audiences embraced its dual personalities

with a $25 million box office against $19 million spent.

Tarantino takes this outline

for this cool vampire crime movie

and with the help of his friend Rob Rodriguez,

turns it into a another cult classic

that may have even launched the movie career

of George Clooney.

Those acts of God really stick it in

and break it off, don't they?

But what about the director

who had got to act in the film he wrote?

I think he's a better director than he is an actor,

but I thought he did a great job in "...Dusk."

Hi, how are you doing?

Enjoying it? I hope so.

But regardless of how well he performed

on camera in the wake of "Pulp Fiction,"

Tarantino fans had only one question...

What's he going to do next?

That decision was complicated

by the immense spotlight "Pulp Fiction" had cast

- over its director. - What is it?

"Pulp Fiction"

is so huge, how do you even follow it?

It's beautiful.

Answering that question

would set the trajectory of Quentin Tarantino's career.

People talk about difficult second album.

You ain't asking the right questions.

In this case, it was difficult third movie.

Three years on from "Pulp Fiction,"

Tarantino was in no rush to build on the momentum

from his breakout hit.

The answer to the question fans

and critics alike were asking...

If "Pulp Fiction" is so huge, how do you even follow it?

That's what I've been sitting here contemplating.

Still, inevitably, in the crime genre,

his next project could trace its origins

to a crime committed by Quentin Tarantino himself.

Not quite that serious.

He'd loved Elmore Leonard ever since he was a kid.

In fact, he got caught shoplifting an Elmore Leonard novel

when he was a teenager.

I see bits and pieces of Elmore Leonard's style

extremely prevalent right up to "Jackie Brown."

No longer shoplifting,

Tarantino had access

to best-selling novelist Elmore Leonard's work

in its many different forms...

He picked up a galley--

...including unedited manuscripts or galleys.

So it's before it's published for "Rum Punch."

But this would be his first adaptation

rather than an original script.

- So-- - As soon as he took it on,

he started changing things.

And he moved it to the part of California that he lived.

Embracing Leonard's story

of a leaned-on flight attendant

who hatches a plot to escape her gunrunner boss

and taking it to the streets of his own youth.

Growing up in the South Bay, it's a perfect melting pot.

He grew up surrounded by black culture.

His neighborhood, his high school.

What you mean, walk the earth?

You know, like Cain in Kung Fu.

And he was an excellent student of all forms.

♪ Jungle boogie, jungle boogie ♪

You can just hum the first bar of any tune

from any black performer, and he knew what it was.

Little wonder Tarantino

took Elmore Leonard's white protagonist

and turned her into a black woman for Jackie Brown.

And not just any black woman.

You know just the words that turn me on.

Pam Grier, she was such a huge, huge, huge part

of Blaxploitation films.

My name's Coffy. LuBelle Coffy is my little sister.

Actress Pam Grier was an icon

in the black community.

It seems like I'm in a dream.

And I'm still in this dream, Howard.

She was everything in the '70s.

I mean, everything.

It really has been a long time, hasn't it?

And Quentin had already paid his own tribute

in the most Tarantino of ways.

What's the name of the chick who played Christie Love?

- Pam Grier. - No, it wasn't Pam Grier.

Pam Grier was the other one.

Pam Grier did the film.

Now a filmmaker wielding real clout

He was determined to make Pam Grier

a name no one would confuse with another.

Really, really wanted Pam Grier in the role.

And the way Tarantino managed to woo her

was like a scene straight out of one of his movies.

What if I say no?

My eldest brother Warrington was dating Pam at the time

and they were waiting in line

at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

My brother looks over and sees Quentin Tarantino

and Quentin said, "Oh, I'm writing a script for you."

When did you decide?

Cut to Pam Grier's house sometime later,

where she has received a package.

Open, it's the script.

And she reads the script and calls Quentin and is like,

"Well, what part am I supposed to play?"

He says, "You're Jackie Brown. It's you."

You earned it

The script was a love letter

to his screen idol and original pinup.

What you doing sitting out here in the dark?

No!

Speaking of pinups.

She shows up to his office

and Tarantino had to take down some posters

because he's embarrassed

because his office is littered with Pam Grier's posters.

No, I thought he put 'em up because I was coming.

- Yeah. - And he says, "No.

I'm gonna take 'em down

because you was coming." You know?

While all of this made sense to Tarantino--

Tarantino's worried that he's gonna come across

as a fanboy, and she's worried

that she's not gonna be good enough for his movie--

And for a lot of people, it's a little bit like,

"Well, who's Pam Grier?"

Didn't exactly set the world on fire, did you, Jackie?

You've got the kind of people

that might have seen "Pulp Fiction."

I said, goddamn!

And they have no idea who Pan Grier is.

You sure I can't twist your arm?

His choice of supporting actor

to play opposite Pam--

I'll send you a postcard.

was another rescued from the obscurity of a bygone era.

You have to prepare to die.

Do not provoke me.

So you've got Pam Grier as Jackie

and the other role which is the character

of a bail bondsman, Max Cherry.

Robert Forster.

Most people coming to it, they're like, "Who's that guy?"

Robert Forster,

because he really wasn't getting much work,

didn't have an agent.

Tarantino had to track him down at a restaurant in LA

and said, "Hey, I would like you to be in this new movie

I'm putting together,

and I'd like you to play the male lead in the film."

You're taking a hell of a chance.

Tarantino wasn't the only man on a mission.

At least one screen legend was hunting him.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that.

It's a common thing with actors of De Niro's caliber

that they will read a script

and they will identify a role in that script

that they want to play.

And he had a role in mind

that recalled De Niro's early penchant

for playing the deadbeat outsider.

Don't say anything else, okay?

Seeing him as this loser, criminal, pothead

was a change of pace.

Want a MET-Rx?

Perhaps the only clue this film was a follow-up

- to "Pulp Fiction" was-- - The very best there is.

Samuel L. Jackson was willing to move heaven

and earth to make sure he appeared

in a second Tarantino film.

My ass may be dumb, but I ain't no dumbass.

It was an opportunity he wanted to be part of.

Or at least move himself and his makeup artist...

I was Samuel L. Jackson's personal makeup artist.

...between San Francisco and Los Angeles, repeatedly.

We would shoot five days a week in Northern California.

Where Jackson was working

on Barry Levinson's sci-fi thriller, "Sphere."

We're not dead, but they don't know.

And fly down to LA on a Friday night,

then fly back on a Sunday night.

And we did that for about a month.

We couldn't figure out,

"Are we going to LA or we going to San Francisco?"

Because it was just non-stop.

Tarantino had assembled amongst his most mature

and experienced casts.

Pam Grier, when she got cast in the role,

she was 47 years old.

I'm not saying another goddamn word.

The character Max Cherry is a guy in his 50s?

I'm 56 years old.

I can't blame anybody for anything I do.

Which would make Jackie Brown an unusual animal.

Jackie Brown is ultimately a middle-aged love story.

It was a high-stakes gamble.

Because now he's the wunderkind.

I'm certain Quentin felt that pressure upon himself.

For the film based

on Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch,"

Tarantino was making several changes to the original novel.

He was actually quite nervous about making these changes.

Whatever you're into, you seem to be getting away with it,

so more power to you.

But he wasn't sure about diverging

from what, for him, was his holy text.

Because he was so nervous, he didn't tell Leonard about it

until literally days before he was about to start shooting.

And he sat down with Elmore Leonard and went, "Yeah, okay,

I've kind of made all these changes."

And Leonard was like, "Yeah, so what?

Go make the movie you want to make."

They say never meet your heroes,

but Tarantino was making a career out of that.

That would be one point of view.

For Quentin, for Sam, for Robert, for all of us on set.

That's Pam Grier.

- Come on. - You got something for me?

Honesty, I think everybody on the set was fangirling.

But with towering talent all over the set,

even experienced practitioners were treading carefully.

I mean it, don't say one fucking word, okay?

The crew was definitely afraid of Robert De Niro.

I know Quentin was a little nervous.

Not so nervous,

he would stand there staring at his feet.

- Speaking of feet... - De Niro asked him what shoes

the character wears, and Quentin had the answer.

From there, it was kind of smooth, smooth sailing.

Adding to the pressure of working

with the biggest names,

Tarantino was working with unfamiliar collaborators.

Why I didn't do "Jackie Brown?"

Because they didn't choose me.

Like his new cinematographer chosen

to replace Andrzej Sekula.

Tarantino, he wanted a bit of a different feel for this.

Guillermo Navarro was hired to provide just that

after lighting Tarantino himself

on the set of "From Dusk Till Dawn."

How you like them apples?

Far out.

With shooting about to begin,

Tarantino's team was learning to work with the rhythms

of his esteemed cast.

I had racks and racks of clothes. Robert De Niro's,

we got to the shoes, we got to the pants,

and a black T-shirt, but he didn't have the shirt.

When he was walking out,

I had a rack that he wasn't even supposed to see.

And it was an old shirt that I had given my brother.

Robert De Niro went over to it and he said,

"What is that shirt?"

And Robert said, "That's the shirt I have to wear."

Much like his director,

De Niro knew how he wanted to embody his character,

and he wasn't pulling punches.

I'll knock you the fuck out.

At one point I was fitting him for a shoulder holster

and in the process of, you know,

adjusting that shoulder holster,

one of the straps was vertical and I went to cinch it up.

And so my hands are right here, I popped him in the jaw.

Without missing a microsecond,

he got me with his left in the gut.

He's holding his jaw, I'm doubled over.

And we just looked at each other and started laughing.

But to get punched by Raging Bull,

that was a career-defining moment for me.

And hurts Robinson again,

hooks the left hand to the jaw.

For Pam Grier,

a career-defining moment was beckoning,

but first, she would need to become fluent

in a new language.

Start adding these motherfucking figures up,

tell me this ain't the business to be in.

Tarantino.

If you don't know Tarantino, how are you gonna understand it?

Shit work my nerves, you and that motherfucker

being so buddy-buddy.

Some of these bigger dialogue scenes.

Hey, if I wasn't so buddy-buddy

with that motherfucker, this wouldn't work.

There were moments in time where you could feel

she was like, "Oh my god, this is hard."

You wanna see some motherfucking silly?

If I have to tell you to shut up one more time,

I'm gonna shut you up.

But in Tarantino, Grier had not just a fan

or a friend, but an ally.

Quentin always from day one was very good at working

with actors because Quentin was an actor.

And he found simple devices to support his lead.

For the scene in the Cockatoo Inn with Sam Jackson--

I'm gonna have to remember this place, it's all right.

Sam's rolling off this, that, that, that.

You tell him anything else?

And Pam was having a little bit of time,

so Quentin had her eat pretzels.

Actually it was popcorn.

Had her do something completely natural.

So he said, "Just eat the pretzels."

Popcorn.

But it don't matter because they already know I'm meeting you.

The Cockatoo Inn

was just one of the real locations Tarantino insisted on

in the pursuit of authenticity.

In terms of town, you do feel Southern California,

specifically the South Bay.

And for his ode to Blaxploitation,

he wanted to shoot just as a Blaxploitation film would.

- Yeah. - Hey.

He wanted to be constrained not only by budget,

but by the spaces we shot.

He wanted that for Jackie Brown's apartment.

How are you doing, Miss Jackie?

- Come on in. - That was

a small apartment in Compton.

Bet they asked you a whole shitload

of questions about it, huh?

Ordell's little surfer girl apartment...

- Hey girl. - Hola.

...was actually an apartment.

He wanted the constraints to protect himself

from becoming too big for his britches.

Wanna fuck?

But this was more authenticity

than his cinematographer could work out how to shoot.

He's like, "I don't know, I don't know how to shoot it.

I don't know, I don't know how to shoot."

Very small, second story, looking out at the ocean.

We're shooting on short sticks.

There was no room for the dolly, even the peewee.

But he figured it out.

The pursuit of realism could also be expensive.

How expensive?

Did he tell you about that half million he's got down in Mexico?

Quentin insists on realism in his props.

I'm gonna have me over a million.

So at one point, we did have a half a million dollars

in cash in our possession.

That's real hard currency.

Which was a little nerve-wracking.

Half a million dollars will always be missed.

We mostly hid it in plain sight

and everybody assumed it was a prop,

but there were three people watching it the whole time.

Because what better way to raise the tension

than by raising the stakes.

I think it just-- It ups the stakes to a different level,

and there's a subtle performance difference,

and that's the difference between Quentin and everyone else.

When shooting wrapped on "Jackie Brown"

in August of 1997, despite the euphoria of completion...

Let's give it up for Jackie Brown--

...Tarantino went into a funk.

He was always so upset the last day of shooting.

You wouldn't even be able to find him.

Would "Jackie Brown"'s change in pace...

There was this weight of expectation of like,

this is what a Tarantino movie should be.

...bring this rock star director

back down to Earth?

It's about the journey, it's not about the destination.

I'll send you a postcard.

When shooting on Tarantino's

long-anticipated follow-up to "Pulp Fiction" concluded,

it was more than just the end of principal photography

for the director.

There was a certain closeness that he had with all of us.

We were family.

He'd get depressed.

He was so upset about it all the time.

But with his cast and crew dispersing,

Tarantino would naturally embrace

one of the most important members

of his extended film family.

She's what makes his movies sing

in the final product of them.

Longtime editor Sally Menke.

He's a great writer, great director,

and she happened to be that great editor

finishing that last section that you need

in the making of a movie. She is in a class above.

I can do it, Max.

I just can't do it without you.

His editor would play a more conventional role

in defining the shape of "Jackie Brown" for one simple reason.

It's also Tarantino's most linear movie.

Let's go!

Mostly absent his trademark violence,

Tarantino engaged in a different gear.

We don't always build a supersonic race car.

Sometimes we build something that's stylish.

It cruises. And "Jackie Brown" cruised.

Accept no substitutes.

Mostly thanks to its focus on

a different kind of journey.

The biggest thing that struck me was the love story

between Robert Forster and Pam Grier.

Ain't nothing wrong with that.

It's a love story about two middle-aged people

who found each other, but can't be together.

- I didn't use you, Max. - I didn't say you did.

"Jackie Brown" was released in the US

on Christmas Day of 1997, and for the crew,

all their Christmases had come at once.

We were pumped.

I mean, the whole crew walked out of there just like, "Wow."

I love "Jackie Brown."

I think it's a great film.

Well, I must have made quite an impression.

Audiences agreed,

rewarding producers with a nearly 3.5 times return

on their investment.

A $12 million gamble that led to 39 million

at the box office.

There was this weight of expectation.

For any independent film this would be stellar.

So it's the long shadow of "Pulp Fiction."

Don't put me in this position, all right?

- All right. - But "Jackie Brown"

would only ever be compared to one film.

Because it made less than half what "Pulp Fiction" made

and because people weren't rapturous about it

in the way that they were about "Pulp Fiction."

Look, Miss Brown, we don't give a fuck about you.

It's not violent enough for a lot of people.

What the fuck happened to you, man?

They were so used to what they saw in his other films.

Who cares about this love story, this crime story,

that's all talking?

Ray, I was frantic.

What was I supposed to do?

But this being his first adaptation,

it was not the full-noise Tarantino,

which the man himself was fine with.

I didn't de-emphasize the violence in "Jackie Brown"

any more than I emphasized the violence in "Pulp Fiction."

In revisiting Blaxploitation,

Tarantino had again reanimated more than just a lost genre.

Quentin has revitalized so many people's careers.

And sure enough, Forster ended up getting

an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Robert Forster in Jackie Brown.

Newly rediscovered,

Forster's career developed a second wind.

How hot are you?

While Tarantino's favorite

received no such accolade,

Pam Grier went on to conquer new spaces on "The L Word."

I was not surprised

that she didn't get an Oscar nomination, no.

Black actors at that time was still climbing that mountain

to be seen just as actors and not just black actors.

What the fuck did Ordell ever do for us, huh?

Tarantino himself said at the time

that he was thoroughly disappointed

she didn't get an Oscar nomination.

Yeah, but I'm not in jail, and at least I try.

Like "Jackie Brown,"

Tarantino's next outing

would center on a female protagonist...

And this guy clearly thinks chicks are badass.

...but take the director back to his own musings.

While they were making Pulp Fiction,

they started kind of talking about this idea.

Back to his own muse.

Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman

are a wonderful combination.

But could Uma and Quentin...

- Bad idea. - ...soak up the pressure...

- A female revenge film. - ...and deliver a hit

for this rock star director?

I am gonna kill Bill.