Rum Punch
Encyclopedia
- For the alcoholic mixed drinkMixed drinkA mixed drink is a beverage in which two or more ingredients are mixed. Some mixed drinks are alcoholic beverages that contain liquor; others are non-alcoholic.-Types:Some popular types of mixed drinks are:...
, see Punch (drink)Punch (drink)Punch is the term for a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from India to England in the early seventeenth century; from there its use spread to other countries...
Rum Punch is a 1992 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...
. It was later adapted
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
into a film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
by director Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
, who changed some of the characters and the plot. The film was released in 1997 as Jackie Brown
Jackie Brown (film)
Jackie Brown is a 1997 American crime drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch by American novelist Elmore Leonard and pays homage to 1970s blaxploitation films....
.
The characters Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara first appeared in Leonard's novel, The Switch.
Plot summary
Set in West Palm Beach and Miami, FL, Rum Punch follows Jackie Burke, a 44-year-old airlineAirline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
stewardess, who has been bringing cash into the country for a gunrunner named Ordell Robbie (whose nickname, Whitebread, comes from the fact that he's light-skinned). When the cops try to use Jackie to get at Ordell, she hatches a plan—with help from bail bondsman Max Cherry—to keep the money for herself.