The 15 Best-Written Female Characters In Cinema

Jackie Brown – Jackie Brown (1997)

Jackie Brown is adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel by Quentin Tarantino – a filmmaker not especially renowned for his positive depictions of women (The Bride in Kill Bill included). However, Jackie Brown (played by Pam Grier) may well be the exception – orchestrating, as she does, the manipulation of every other character in order to succeed beyond the reach of those that would exploit her.

The whole story revolves around the titular character, who works as a flight attendant for a small, Mexican airline. To supplement her dwindling income, she also smuggles money for an intimidating gun runner in Los Angeles. As her situation becomes more complex, with the involvement of a bail bondsman (Robert Forster), an ATF taskforce, the gun runner (Samuel L Jackson) and his girlfriend (Bridget Fonda), Jackie Brown devises a plan that would extort a vast sum of cash from the gun runner in such a way as to leave the rest of the characters to deal with each other, while she escapes with the cash.

The reason Jackie Brown counts as a well-written character is that the usual, stereotypical motivations do not apply here. She is not a victim, a former victim, or a woman seeking vengeance for some past misogyny. Jackie Brown wants only to have her independence, and uses her intelligence and tenacity to gain the means to live the life of which she dreams. Ultimately, the needs, desires and protestations of the men around her are inconsequential. Jackie Brown has a plan, and she executes it.