best film: This all depends on whether one considers Samuel L. Jackson’s pit stop of a performance as Stacks in Goodfellas (which beats out Pulp Fiction by an eye lash) to have enough to it to count for this category. Pulp Fiction feels like the right answer here. There is no shortage here of other contenders – Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing a film is another film with Samuel L. near the top of the all-time best films – giving Samuel L three (3) films in the top fifty (50) of all-time in total counting Goodfellas.
best performance: Pulp Fiction by a mile here though he is tremendous in films two through five below. Samuel L Jackson’s verbal skills are a perfect match for Tarantino’s singular dialogue and his Jules character and performance may just be the single best in the film (and Tarantino’s oeuvre). Jackson clearly has the most memorable line delivery – though the best scene is the John Travolta and Uma Thurman dance contest at Jack Rabbit Slims.
Samuel L. Jackson as Jules in Pulp Fiction. Opportunities for a monologue like the Ezekiel 25:17 scene simply do not come along often for actors – and to his credit – Samuel L. Jackson absolutely slays it.
stylistic innovations/traits: Twenty-two (22) films in the archives for Samuel L. Jackson so far with over 150 film credits – he is busy. It may be because he is so prolific (4-5 movies per year plus plenty of commercials) that it has become easy to take Samuel L. Jackson for granted. He is commanding actor – and can portray toughness and intelligence in equal measure. He is a late bloomer as well. He was just over 40 (forty) when Do the Right Thing came out in 1989 and his big break with Tarantino came five years later. The running thread of work Samuel L has done with Tarantino across the decades is important – but the weakness here for Samuel L. is that in a half dozen of his archiveable films – he is fairly unmemorable. Ten (10) of his archiveable films came before his Pulp Fiction star making breakout and he often has these bit parts in these films (True Romance, Goodfellas). Though his work with Spike Lee is during this pre Pulp Fiction period and those films are a valuable part of his resume.
Samuel L. Jackson as Mister Señor Love Daddy – the disc jockey in Spike Lee’s 1989 masterpiece. Samuel L. is strong here – but would be even better in Jungle Fever (1991) – a powerful film and performance playing Gator – an addict.
directors worked with: Quentin Tarantino (5), Spike Lee (3), Milos Forman (1), Martin Scorsese (1), Steven Spielberg (1), Paul Thomas Anderson (1), Steven Soderbergh (1), George Lucas (1). The partnership with Tarantino is key – four (4) of Jackson’s top five (5) performances are in Tarantino films. The list here with everyone else besides Spike is a little misleading – even if small performance as Hejira Henry in Out of Sight is a fun one.
from Django Unchained in 2012 – Samuel L Jackson has rarely been better – big and bold here – in a film calling for it. He would team up again with Tarantino just a few years later in The Hateful Eight. His monologue directed at Bruce Dern’s character is not quite Ezekiel from Pulp Fiction – but still brilliant.
top five performances:
- Pulp Fiction
- Django Unchained
- Jungle Fever
- Jackie Brown
- The Hateful Eight
archiveable films
| 1981- Ragtime |
| 19880 School Daze |
| 1989- Do the Right Thing |
| 1989- Sea of Love |
| 1990- Goodfellas |
| 1990- Mo’ Better Blues |
| 1991- Jungle Fever |
| 1992- Patriot Games |
| 1993- Jurassic Park |
| 1993- True Romance |
| 1994- Pulp Fiction |
| 1996- A Time to Kill |
| 1996- Hard Eight |
| 1997- Jackie Brown |
| 1998- Out of Sight |
| 2002- Changing Lanes |
| 2003- Kill Bill Vol. 1 |
| 2004- Kill Bill Vol. 2 |
| 2005- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith |
| 2012- Django Unchained |
| 2012- The Avengers |
| 2015- The Hateful Eight |
Prediction #64-Johnny Depp
My favorite scenes from the 90s in no particular order
1. Sam Jackson’s reciting Ezekiel 25:17 with a gun to Tim Roth’s head is utterly mesmerizing, the power dynamics is changed so rapidly with the over confident amateurish criminal goes from hunter to hunted and really this sequence sucks the air out of the room
2. Opening scene in Reservoir Dogs in the diner, all the characters personality traits foreshadow their later actions, I made a post on this on The Reservoir Dogs page for this site, the scene also happens to be hilarious with the Madonna conversation Buscemi’s anti tipping rant
3. The “how am I funny sequence?” from Goodfellas
4. The last few minutes and big reveal in The Usual Suspects with the Kevin Spacey voiceover “and like that…he’s gone”
5. the escape sequence from Shawshank along with the final conversation between Andy and Red
6. The House of the Rising Sun sequence at the end of Casino (1995) and the following cornfield murder of the Pesci character is so brutal but fitting for the near 3 hours leading up to it
7. The shootout at the end of Unforgiven “deserves got nothin to do with it” and the “we all got it coming kid” scene are both so great in different ways and impossible to choose between
8. The Diner scene in Heat is so amazing in how its done in such an understated way, especially in a film that has 2 amazing Heist sequences. I loved Ben Affleck’s The Town which certainly has narrative and character similarities to Heat though with all due respect Affleck is not Michael Mann. But in The Town the scene which Affleck’s character comes face to face with Jon Hamm’s FBI Agent, they trade some insults and have one of those typical “I’m smarter than you moments” The Diner sequence is great because these characters are relate to each other and actually have much in common even if opposite sides of the law, as I said it works because its so understated
9. The opening shot of Chungking Express, the score and visuals combine to create a mind bending sequence, I watched for the first time with very little knowledge about the film, it puts you in a trance, capturing your undivided attention instantly
10. The party scene in Boogie Nights, there are several party scenes but the 1st one the Wahlberg character, Dirk, attends which features unbelievable tracking shots including the shot following you into the pool. PT Anderson’s camera captures the atmosphere of the party that makes you actually feel like you are there, its insane.
@Drake – Have you seen Lakeview Terrace (2008)? It has a solid cast with Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington playing a recently married couple that moves next door to Jackson’s character who is a police officer who becomes increasingly menacing. The direction is not anything special, so it makes me think you probably would not Recommend even if you did see but figured I would ask anyway. Perhaps I’m in the minority but I think Jackson’s performance makes it watchable. Jackson is so great playing a Villain, he is both intimidating and highly intelligent and really makes you hate him, perhaps the only film I have felt that way. Of course his character in Django is despicable but that one is a little different its a complex character given the setting and historical context.
@James Trapp- I have not caught this one
Shouldn’t it be 21 archivable films for Samuel L? Given you count Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 as one film.
@Anderson- thanks- perhaps- I’m good with this for now. Not worth the update.