The Establishing Shot in Tarantino's Jackie Brown

The scene I'm going to examine in detail is the establishing shot that introduces Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997). (See it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BWA1T78WpI). The "establishing shot" (definition from James Monaco's How to Read a Film, rev. ed.) is "generally a LONG SHOT that shows the audience the general location of the scene that follows, often providing essential information, and orienting the viewer."

If the purpose is "orienting the viewer," the remarkable thing about this shot is that it resists orienting us; it withholds information about exactly who and what we are looking at and where we are. It's a 2 ½ minute shot in which the camera never leaves the woman we're watching, but it's only when the shot has ended and we move on to the next three shots that we realize where we are and who she is. The beginning of the movie is anxiety-producing, which is a good introduction to the entire movie, a crime story of suspense and violence.

The credits are superimposed on the shot, so the first question that came to my mind was "Is the movie starting?" Two and ½ minutes later, the answer is "yes." Then, there is the odd framing and staging of the shot. We are watching a woman in profile and she is wearing what looks like a uniform; it's a bright blue uniform and she's wearing what seems to be an i.d. of some kind around her neck and she has a patch on the shoulder of her uniform . What kind of uniform is it? Is she a security officer of some kind? She is standing still, not walking, not looking about. She has a calm expression on her face, stands erect and with dignity, and gives us no clues. But, and this is a major disorienting factor, though she is not walking, she is moving at a steady pace. This is not a "long shot," which "includes at least the full figures of the subjects, usually more" (Monaco) but a truncated shot: We see the woman only from the waist up. We know she's moving because she is passing by the wall behind her. That wall is tiled in geometrical patterns and has a wide range of colors, all fairly subdued. She stands out vividly from the ever-changing background. Is she moving or is the wall moving? How is the movement happening?

This movie, from the beginning, has a very evocative soundtrack, mostly of disco and blues-inflected music from the 70s. The whole time we are watching this woman a song is playing that seems to be the antithesis of what she represents. It's a song that repeatedly talks about "crossing 110^th Street" and invokes the "ghetto," a "brother""trying to survive," and a "woman trying to catch a trick on the street." The contrast between this calm, well put-together, light-skinned black woman we're looking at and the music we're listening to raises even more questions.

At nearly three minutes in, the credits finish and suddenly the woman moves—or is moved—forward much faster. Will she fall? Be thrown forward? And…cut! In the next instant, we see the x-rayed contents of bags moving right to left and the movement is almost nauseatingly different from what we have been watching, but at least we now have a clue: We are probably in an airport. Next, a crotch being wanded, and we know we're in an airport. Within another minute or so, our woman is walking more quickly, then nearly jogging through the airport. She reaches her destination and—voila!—she is a flight attendant.

The principal purpose of this establishing shot is to create anxiety and discomfort in the viewer using all of the techniques described above. We are not allowed to rest and everything is done to disorient us and disappoint our expectations. All of these features prepare us for the movie to come in which we will be continually disoriented about who is doing what to whom and in which this calm woman will not be quite what she seems, there will be double and triple-crosses, as well as a star-crossed romance, and crime, finally, will pay.