Screwdrivers and other tools

Would you like a Screwdriver? If you're stuck for an answer, let me rephrase. Would you like a vodka orange? As a cocktail name, a "Screwdriver" struggles to justify itself. It's confusing to name a combination of just two ingredients. Martinis are fine because of the ritual involved in making one. Screwdrivers? No.

In Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, Samuel L Jackson's character is partial to a Screwdriver. But he never asks for vodka orange. It's one of Tarantino's branding exercises, in the same way a "Royal with Cheese" will forever invoke Jules and Vince in Pulp Fiction.

Odd drink choices crop up in all sorts of films. In another Tarantino picture, Inglourious Bastards, Christopher Waltz's SS man orders milk, the childish beverage sharply contrasting with his sheer calculating nastiness. Warren Beatty's tough gambler in McCabe and Mrs Miller likes a raw egg and whiskey, while Sally Bowles' bohemian in Cabaret prefers raw egg and brandy. Jack Palance's bad guy in the Western Shane drinks black coffee from a black coffee pot. No one orders quadruple whiskies except characters in Withnail & I.

What I think is different about Screwdrivers in Jackie Brown is that the drink seems close to the very essence of the film. It's very cool and a little retro. The examples above however are mere moments, giving brief insights into a character. The only comparable example I can think of is White Russians, drunk throughout the Big Lebowski. Somehow that silky, sickly combination of milk, Kahlua and vodka matches exactly the laid-back weirdness of the film. Mine's a Mojito.