The Hateful Eight

Say the name 'Quentin Tarantino', and you usually get one of two responses:

"Ahhhh! The voice of a generation! One of the greatest auteur directors of our time!  Constantly reinventing and imitating the film genres he loves because he's a film fan, just like us!"

or

"Oh, that overrated guy who just makes every actor speak like him?  He had one good film back in the early 90s and been riding that ever since?"

Since I would find myself more in the former camp than the latter one, I was cautiously anticipating his newest release The Hateful Eight / The Hateful 8 / The H8ful Eight / Da H8fl 8.

However since QT's recent flicks have been best described as 'revenge porn', such as Inglorious Basterds' exuberant murder of Adolf Hitler from a tommy gun to the face, wielded by the soldier known as The Bear Jew, or Django Unchained's black protagonist shooting white slave owners with rightful justice in his eyes, I couldn't see how The Hateful Eight could contain such over-the-top nonsense. 

It was just eight horrible people stuck in a cabin, right?  Well, yes and no.

PLOT

To shelter during a blizzard, eight people find themselves sharing a little haberdashery in the snowy forests of Wyoming.  All eyes are on bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell), known as The Hangman, and his captured bounty, the despicable Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is worth $10,000 dead or alive.

Joining Daisy and The Hangman are fellow bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson); the new sheriff in town, Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins); Daisy's court-ordered executioner, Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth); mother-loving cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), the haberdashery's Mexican caretaker Senor Bob (Demian Bichir) and an elderly Confederate Civil War General "Sandy" Smithers (Bruce Dern).

John Ruth believes that the scenario is far too convenient, and at least one of these strangers is in cahoots with Domergue to free her before her execution.  But who can be trusted?

OPINIONS

Now one piece of information about The Hateful Eight that you already may have heard is it's running time. 

Whilst you may hear that the film is over 3 hours long, that is just the version with an intermission shown at roadshows across America.  The film on general release is instead 2 hour 45 minutes long. 

Whilst 20 minutes might not seem a big difference, that's the point at the heart of it.

The film's running time shouldn't put you off from visiting the cinema to watch it this weekend.  Whilst Tarantino is usually best when reigned in and not allowed to wander off on tangents, the film's relatively lengthy duration doesn't make the experience boring or tedious, rather the opposite.

Whilst all of these characters are truly despicable heels, Tarantino's fantastic screenplay is allowed the time to develop the titular eight hateful people into believable and complex characters, through sharing their stories and opinions in a steady and patient way.  No information is just shouted out in an expositional diatribe; everything is said for a reason.

If you plan on seeing this film (and I do encourage you to do so), try and watch it on the biggest screen you can.  Tarantino has utilised the beautiful mountainous landscapes of Colorado and captured them all in stunning detail. 

Combine that with the beautiful score by Ennio Morricone and you have one of Quentin Tarantino's most visually-captivating films.  And not just in the sweeping vistas of mountainside snow drifts, but also the interior shots.

With the film essentially being a stage play for the last two hours or so, you'd imagine Tarantino being quite restricted in the angles and shots he's allowed to make within this single location. 

However he manages to create a compelling and visually striking film regardless of the cramped space the eight characters inhabit.  Every single nook and cranny of Minnie's Haberdashery is utilised during the course of the film and you find yourself immersed in that world.

Let's just say if you were a fan of the claustrophobic and paranoid qualities of films like John Carpenter's The Thing or Tarantino's own Reservoir Dogs, The Hateful Eight will be right up your alley.

ON THE OTHER HAND...

I'm not trying to say that The Hateful Eight is perfect.  Far from it.  Similar to there are some fantastic high points, there are some disappointing low points.  Mainly how everything seems to be style over substance.

Not to take anything away from the amount of effort Tarantino has put into making the film look as beautiful as it can be, but without any heart or soul at the centre, the film just leaves the audience feeling pretty empty.  Impressed with the technical side, but disappointed with what Tarantino is trying to say.

Whilst Basterds made fascism it's target and Django was focussed on America's history of slave-owning, what is The Hateful Eight satirising? 

Some have criticised the way that men of all colours and creeds apparently can put aside their differences and become closer than most brothers when it comes to committing a heinous assault or verbally abusing a woman, even if that woman is a murdering psychopath like Daisy Domergue, but I don't see it that way.

Every time Daisy is elbowed in the face or shot in the foot, it is done with sincere realism and the film almost pauses to let the audience contemplate the violence they've just seen, and not in an exploitative way.  Tarantino might be a fan of a lot of things, but violence against women is not one.

LET'S WRAP IT UP!

With brilliant performances from a completely stellar cast, a powerful and evocative score twinned with majestic and stunning landscapes, The Hateful Eight is one of Tarantino's strongest films in a long time.

Whilst the running time might put off a lot of people, it is still an entertaining ride that might take a while to get going, but is worth it when the credits roll.

The film might be a bit self-serving and self-referential but it's a Quentin Tarantino film at the end of the day, you should expect that going into the auditorium by now. 

Finally giving time for his script to create a fully-formed and three-dimensional world, filled with realistic and horrible characters, it's a world in which you might lose yourself, even if you wouldn't want to.

Rating - 8/10

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

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GOOD QUESTION SAMUEL!

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