The Hateful Eight

There's a bounty hunter ploughing through the snow, wherever he moves Daisy Domergue moves too, but they need a place to stay, until the storm has gone away, Minnie's cabin's quite close by, so there they go. Before arriving they encounter men adrift, a Major and a Sheriff cadge a lift, but there is tension in the air, mistrust, suspicion and despair, chains are attached; and shackled round loose wrists. At the cabin there are others taking cover, four lone strangers it transpires don't know each other, but they settle for the night, although you know there'll be a fight, and more than one will be impaired, and truly suffer.

Plenty of hate spews forth as well as a number of other less palatable projectiles, but you'd be disappointed if they didn't from the master of magnificent movies.

I saw Quentin Tarantino's 8th film on opening night in 70 mm, intermission and all. It was pretty big and fantastic, if not a little bit exhausting. Thankfully, the intermission allowed for a bathroom break.

I just watched it again, now 4 years later, as the extended edition on Netflix, broken into four episodes, and in UHD 4K.

The snowy vistas in high def digital are as epic and beautiful as you'll see in any film. The majority of the story happens indoors, though, in Mimi's Haberdashery, which provides a more intimate feel, as if you are alone with these characters with the blizzard outside, and the noisy footsteps on the wooden floors inside (You need two boards!)

The featured racism of Tarantino's films, and liberal use of the "N" word, doesn't age well with time. It jars. It seems less funny, and even a little sad. But it is what it is, and will stand the test of time in its quality, and what it tried to say as an adjunct to entertainment. What cannot be denied are the performances that Tarantino brings out of his eclectic mix of characters. Walter Goggins still is a standout performance, and thankfully, a redemptive one.

I look forward to seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, knowing that QT will once again bring together time, music, set pieces, gore, dark humor, pulpy dialogue, and more - and would also like to see how his take on the more regrettable aspects of our culture has (or hasn't) evolved over the last few years.

I never saw this film back when it was released in 2015. But, I did manage to buy a copy of Blu-Ray. Now, when I first saw it, I thought this movie was flawless/perfect. I now know that no movie despite what anyone may say, is perfect. But I am firm believer that this is in fact Quinton Tarantino's most underrated and under-appreciated film. Everyone I've talked to, says the Hateful Eight isn't Tarantino's most re-watchable film. I disagree. With a phenomenal cast that really gets into their characters. Each one stands out and not one is forgetful. Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell are the stars of this film and it shows. Their performances (in my opinion) were Oscar worthy. Don't even get me started on the story. This is basically a Who-Done-It play turned into a film. The complexity of this story should make the audience feel confused and turn their heads going, "what the hell is happening?". But it does the exact opposite. Everything flows perfectly. The pacing of this film, while it is almost 3 hours, it doesn't feel like it. The cinematography is great. The score brings tension and makes the audience uneasy. But I think my favorite thing of this film, is the scenery. Having these 8 characters who all hate each other, trapped by a blizzard. Really builds up the tension of the catastrophe that is coming. The only thing that is working against this film is the lengthy setup shots at the beginning of the movie. The first five minutes of the film is plagued by it and those tend to drag on. Beyond that, everything about this film is great.

You'd have to go back 80 years or so to the film adaptation of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End to find a film where the set qualifies as a living participant of the action. The house in the adaption of the Eugene O'Neill classic Long Day's Journey Into Night also qualifies here.

The action is set up when the stagecoach where bounty hunter Kurt Russell is taking his prisoner Jennifer Jason Leigh to the town of Red Rock to be hung. A couple of prairie hitchhikers also come on board another bounty hunter Samuel L. Jackson and Walton Goggins son of a former Confederate general who says he's the new sheriff in the town of Red Rock. Kurt Russell replete with full flowing beard and mustache is one suspicious man. He has those suspicions justified before the film is ended.

80% of the action takes place on set of the 19th century bed and breakfast during the time of a nasty Wyoming winter and does the dialog crackle. If you think you're going to see a western the kind that John Ford or Howard Hawks or Henry Hathaway did back in the old days, then don't watch The Hateful Eight. Hateful is the operating word with these characters, there's nothing really noble about any of them.

Besides the set of Minnie's Haberdashery to recommend it, Quentin Tarrantino selected a truly fine ensemble cast who play beautifully off each other. As the outlaw queen Jennifer Jason Leigh got a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but in my humble opinion she doesn't stand out any more than any of the rest of them. The Hateful Eight also earned Ennio Morricone an Oscar for the best musical score for 2015.

The Hateful Eight is a great western, but it ain't your grandpa's kind of western.

This is a fine piece of storytelling - a mystery, western, and political drama - all artfully melded together by a seasoned crew and talented actors.

The action is set in antebellum Wyoming, in the heart of a raging blizzard, in a frontier bar. Setting is very important here.

The period is meaningful for the political currents that flow in nearly all the characters. Feelings about the American civil war are very up-front, with complicit atrocity present in nearly all the characters. The war brought out horrible things in these people, and we see how they deal with that shared knowledge, both personally and to each other.

The blizzard provides the necessary isolation to the story. These characters are stuck with each other, and this forced closeness is central to the story - they're all Hateful, and that hate reverberates among them, destroying peace and hope. Hate is what brings them together and hate is what tears them apart. The blizzard also provides some interesting incidental elements that are fascinating to watch, like the hardship of a simple task like preparing guidelines, or going to the outhouse, and the cold hell explodes inward at times (when the door is opened) with punctuating effect, providing some breaks to the narrative, and even some needed laughs.

And the bar... This film's action takes place primarily in one large room. It feels very much like a stage play (as another reviewer mentioned), allowing greater intimacy with the characters and their interactions, while providing us with an opportunity to witness multiple scenarios unfolding at the same time. This density of action is very cool. We are afforded third person omniscience without losing connection with the motives and perspectives of the players.

And the stage setting meshes very integrally with the acting. We see the principal actors doing top-notch with not only their primary motivational actions, but nearly every choice in blocking and busy action. The director and production team make a very wise choice in showing the small little details of what's going on here. Attention is paid to realistic procedural actions, and reactions, for these details. The result is that we see characters behaving in reasonable ways to their environments, pausing to disarm a stranger, or undo a shackle, not simply because the plot calls for it, but because it's a reasonable choice that they would make at the time. Very refreshing to see, actually.

On the negative side, Tarrantino's choice to use narration was weakly executed. I don't know if there would have been a way to do this without narration, but the actual usage detracted from the ongoing story. Also, there were a few points in the action where the characters seemed to be a little too accepting of the events that transpire around them. This is purely a fault of direction/writing.

But overall, a very watchable film, that is notably unafraid to portray some very dirty and uncomfortable bits of the human psyche. Some folks seem to have an issue with this last part. My advice to them is to loosen up a bit and accept art that hurts a little. That's one of the things good art can do.