“Your ass use’ta be beautiful.” : Luis Gara’s Prisoner’s Dilemma

“You know the story, the scorpion ast the turtle could he ride on him acrost a stream? This scorpion ast a turtle could he ride on him acrost a stream. The turtle says, ‘No way, and let you sting me?’ The scorpion says, ‘I do that we both’d drown. You think I want to kill myself?’ Turtle says okay. They get out in the middle of the stream? The scorpion stings him. Now they drowning and the turtle says, ‘You crazy? Why’d you do that?’ The scorpion says, ‘I can’t help it, man, it’s my nature. It’s the way I am.”

- Simone Harrison, Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch

When we first meet Louis Gara in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, it has been four days since his release from a four year prison sentence for bank robbery. With a tumbler of rum in his left hand, he vacantly stares at a television running a program titled Chicks Who Love Guns. As muscular, bikini-clad women squeeze off rounds from a TEC-9, a Steyr Aug, and a Chinese AK-47, Louis’s acquaintance Ordell Robbie flaunts his latest get-rich-quick scheme.

“That there’s a TEC-9. It’s a little cheap ass spray gun outta South Miami. Cost three-eighty retail. I get them for two hundred and sell ’em for eight.”

Louis passively nods his head as he considers the “good money” in Ordell’s “business.”

In Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch — from which Jackie Brown was adapted — Leonard writes, “Louis Gara could sound like a decent guy, an excon with possibilities.”¹ But according to the character Max Cherry, a bail bondsman, it was Louis’s eyes that gave him away. “Those dull eyes that didn’t seem to have life in them but didn’t miss anything.”² We see those unblinking eyes as Louis studies Chicks Who Love Guns for minutes on end. With each passing minute, Louis becomes all the more vulnerable to Ordell’s machinations.

Regarding ex-convicts, Max Cherry declares, “[…] you don’t come out, put on a new suit of clothes, and become a normal person again. That life changed you.”³ Yet, as an audience of Jackie Brown, we can’t discern enough about Louis’s past to forbid him a new lease on life. Louis is mellow to near passivity which makes him appear more as the victim of a vicious dilemma than a crime-hungry convict.

The night after we first meet Louis, he and Ordell are standing at the trunk of a black Oldsmobile outside the house of Simone, one of Ordell’s women. Ordell has some “for your eyes only shit” to show Louis. After Ordell squeaks open his Oldsmobile’s trunk, Louis examines the cargo and looks nervously over his shoulder, checks for witnesses, then asks, “Who’s that?” Beaumont Livingston — an “employee” of Ordell’s whom he had let go because of a “him or me situation.” Ordell lights a cigarette and says, “Now, Louis, if you gon’ come in on this thing with me, you got to be prepared to go all the way.” Louis forms a tough guy pose; pushes out his chest, crosses his arms, and clears his throat with a frown, though he is noticeably gawky like a teenager proving their coolness. It’s difficult to ignore how much we want to help Louis find a better path at this moment, but we’re helpless as he cocks back an exaggerated fist bump to Ordell, and the deal sets as Ordell declares, “My nigga.”

Days later, Ordell has to run some errands and leaves Louis with Melanie — Ordell’s little, white surfer girl. Melanie and Louis chat rather casually in the way that two friends do when they’re catching up. Their chat takes a U-turn as talk about a photo of Melanie in Japan ends as half-heartedly as it began.

Melanie suddenly asks, “Wanna fuck?”

“Sure.”

The two go at it for a three minute quickie that “hits the spot” for Louis, and afterwards they sit down for a peace bong session. Between puffs, Melanie tries to convince Louis he’s being used by Ordell in a plan to smuggle a half-million dollars into the United States. Melanie tells him that Ordell is working with the stewardess Jackie Brown to get the money out of Mexico and into the U.S.

Louis says, “And your point is?”

“Let him and the stewardess get the money over here, and then just take it from them.”

Here, Melanie becomes the temptress of Louis’s story. She uses her sexual allure and marijuana as temptation devices to seduce Louis from his loyalty to Ordell. Ordell is Louis’s friend, but how much does Louis want to preserve their relationship — is it worth a supposed $500,000? Louis’s decision becomes the most defining feature of his character.

After the scene with Melanie, a new scene opens with Bill Wither’s Who is He — And What is He to You, a song about a man and his suspicion of his girlfriend stepping out of their relationship with some guy they pass on the street. Louis sips on rum and Ordell sips on a screwdriver at the dimly, red-lit bar inside the Cockatoo Inn. Louis scratches his head and asks if he can talk about something — it’s about Melanie. Ordell apologizes for leaving him alone with her, but he figured “shit Louis ain’t had no pussy for a while.” Louis’s declining libido distracts him as he begins to stumble on his words, smiles, and asks, “What’d she say?” After he tells Louis that Melanie puts out for everyone he leaves her with, Louis returns to his original concern — trust.

Louis: “But you trust Melanie around your Business?”

Ordell: “Ohhhh… she tryin’ to play your ask against me?”

Louis: “Yeah.”

Ordell: “I knew it. See, you ain’t have to say nothing; I know that bitch.”

Louis: “Well I don’t understand why you keep someone around you’re business and you can’t even trust ‘em.”

Ordell: “I ain’t gotta trust her; I know her.”

Louis: “I don’t know what that means, man.”

Ordell: “Well, you can’t trust Melanie, but you can always trust Melanie to be Melanie.”

Louis: “Well, I don’t understand why you keep her the fuck around.”

Ordell: “I told you, man. She my fine little surfer gal. You know she ain’t is pretty as she used to be, and she bitch a whole a lot more than she used to, but she white.”

Ordell can’t contain his laughter for his last comment as Louis stares down disgustingly. With an adequate opportunity to join Melanie and swindle Ordell, Louis chose to be loyal. All of Ordell’s joking about Melanie is plainly insulting to Louis. Loyalty is a heavy investment into those whom we trust, so it’s no surprise that Louis feels so deeply insulted when Ordell shrugs him off.

Despite the injury to his loyalty, Louis remains in his deal with Ordell. After all, he doesn’t want to end up like Beaumont Livingston. On the day of the half-million dollar exchange, Louis and Melanie are unexpectedly paired up to make the exchange with Jackie Brown. Louis looks noticeably different — clean shaven and his hair slicked back. For once he looks like a man who won’t take no for an answer, and perhaps he’s starting to feel like that man too. Ordell forces him to cooperate with Melanie — the same little surfer girl who plots to foil Ordell’s big plans. For the operation to be successful, Louis must let Melanie make the exchange, but not let her escape with her own intentions. His task proves to be the greatest test of patience as the pair are late to the meeting at Del Amo Mall in Torrance, California.

Louis: “Come on, goddammit, we’re late. Come on.”

Melanie: “What the fuck?!”

Louis: “We shoulda been there already, and we woulda been there if it hadn’t been for your fucking around.”

After Melanie makes the exchange with Jackie in a fitting room at the Billingsley department store, she walks away with the bag full of money, and Louis runs after her demanding to hold the bag. When Melanie refuses to give him the bag, Louis puts up a fist and says “I’ll knock you the fuck out.” He finally pries the bag from Melanie’s grip.

“When they came in the mall Louis was thinking of why they were here, not memorizing where they’d parked.”⁴ Melanie, unfortunately for Louis, hasn’t forgotten where they parked, and she can’t keep herself from bothering Louis about it.

Melanie: Is it in this aisle or is it the next one over?

Louis: It’s this one.

Melanie: Are you sure?

Louis: Yeah, I’m sure.

Melanie: Are you positive? You don’t seem sure to me.

Louis: Don’t say anything else, ok? Just keep your mouth shut.

Melanie thinks she has Louis figured out, but Louis is just coming to terms with his experiences. He’s been betrayed, been imprisoned and seen some things. According to Rum Punch, he’s never shot anybody, but listening to so many stories from jail mates who had shot people during arguments over practically nothing, it had come to seem common to him.⁵

Louis: I mean it; don’t say one fucking word, ok?

Melanie: Ok Louis…

___________________________________________________________________

Ordell: You shot Melanie?

Louis: Twice

Ordell: Is she dead?

Louis: She’s dead.

When Ordell is certain that Melanie is dead, he starts to count the money in the Billingsley bag. He’s light over $400,000. Without knowing yet that Jackie Brown actually took his money, Ordell accuses Louis of letting Melanie get away with the money.

Ordell: Louis, are you sure Melanie ain’t in a room somewhere with a half million dollars I worked my ass off to get waitin’ for you?

Louis: Ah, fuck you for asking me that. Fuck you brother. How could you fuckin’ ask me that?

After everything Louis has done for Ordell, and he gets treated like this? Ordell even checks the chamber of the gun Louis used to shoot Melanie. If she’s really dead, then who has the money? After some deep thinking, Ordell has got it: Jackie Brown. But she must have passed the money to someone else, or else the Feds would have taken it.

Louis: Ah, man, you know what? You know who I saw in the dress department?

After some stalling, Louis finally admits that he saw Max Cherry, the bail bondsman whom Ordell used to bail out Beaumont and Jackie. Ordell loses his mind as Louis tries to justify his mistake with reasons.

Ordell: Let me tell you a reason, muthafucka. The reason is, your ass ain’t worth a shit no mo’.

“You better fuckin’ back off man” are Louis’s last words before Ordell fires a shot into his side. As Louis hunches towards the driver-side door, Ordell leans over and says, “What the fuck happened to you man? Your ass use’ta be beautiful.”

Louis never pushed back or betrayed Ordell even when he had the chance to take his money and run. Louis was beautiful to Ordell when he lacked independence and will. When Louis finally gained those characteristics, suddenly, his ass wasn’t beautiful anymore.

“Louis? You only think you’re a good guy. You’re just like me, only you turned out white.”

— Ordell Robbie to Louis Gara in Rum Punch

All along, we wanted Louis to fully realize that he was a good guy, and that he was nothing like Ordell. His loyalty would have served him well in another life, but Louis could never overcome being a product of his environment. Unfortunately for Louis, in the crime world, loyalty to anyone but oneself is fatal. If you let a scorpion on your back, expect to drown.