Quentin Tarantino’s 8th directoral effort crosses the story of eight strangers who share one dirty secret. In “The Hateful Eight”, the story is set twelve years after the Civil War, when a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a bleak mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the owner but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Demien Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all, with one of them withholding a secret that will shake the outlook to the story.
“The Hateful Eight” is Tarantino’s best slice of creative genius in easily fifteen years. It’s a story that Tarantino worked on for over five years, and that dedication to story is evident in several stylistic choices. The film was shot in 70 MM film, a style choice mostly used during the 50’s and 60’s for the Western genre, and that’s what this is; it’s Tarantino’s opportunity to tell a good western mystery. After personally seeing this at a 70 MM screen, I can personally say that the gorgeous landscapes and dreamy coloring certainly adds a different dimension to the film’s backdrops, but its just not used enough to pay extra to see these five total minutes of special effects. What is done well stylistically is the wonderful real life shooting location of Colorado which doubles as a snowy Wyoming shelter. My favorite kinds of locations are those in a film that crafts that location as a character itself in the film, and Minnie’s Haberdashery is cold, unforgiving, and far from anyone else who can hear the many screams of what transpires in this story. The movie showcases with ease just how trapped these people are, and it’s a callback to films like Ridley Scott’s “Alien”, with that abandoned kind of look.
The musical score was also brilliantly captured by Ennio Moricone, who has worked with Tarantino on more than one occasion, but his ear for detail when it comes to the western landscape beautifully narrates the immensity and suspense of such a tale. Morricone brings back a forgotten era of music in this epic feature, and he takes his task in honorable fashion, giving the movie it’s ominous tones while Quentin visually stuns with miles of snow as far as the eye can see. The two have made for great partners on films like “Kill Bill” or “Inglorious Bastards”, but it’s in “The Hateful Eight” where they have set the bar impressively not only for themselves, but for the rest of the academy.
As for the performances, “The Hateful Eight” crafts my opinion for the very best ensemble cast of the year. If Tarantino does just one thing well, it’s building memorable characters and their backstories so that it feels like the audience has been watching them for years. What Quentin does in expositional dialogue is truly remarkable when you think about how he has to build eight different stories equally, without one overshadowing another. The stakes are the highest during a film in which anyone really could die at any time. Celebrity status means nothing to the man behind this camera. Jackson expresses a stern speech that requires people to listen without him getting physical. Warren is definitely his most imposing character since “Jackie Brown”, and despite learning so much about him along the way, the viewers still feel like there is something kept in secret about his history. Kurt Russell is showcasing his best John Wayne impersonation to the film, but he is perfect as the group’s judge, jury and executioner (quite literally). The relationship between he and Daisy is often times difficult to watch, but this is clearly a man who takes great pride in his work, and you have to appreciate that. I could literally go on for hours about how layered and differently charming each of the cast members are, but this coming out party belongs to the great Walton Goggins. He has always played those characters who we know are so gritty and disgustingly likeable, and his role in “The Hateful Eight” is no different. I’m not going to spoil anything, but it’s definitely Mannix’s character who transforms the most from beginning to end of his portrayal. He slowly warms his way into our hearts as one of the most lovable scumbuckets that I have seen, but his commitment to the part is what makes this a memorable one.
The film did have a couple of problems to me, but I would like to watch the film at least one more time to see if at least one of them changes. First of all, the film’s first half is MUCH stronger than its second half, and that has a lot to do with the film morphing into one of those Tarantino kind of brutal comedies that do more harm to what he’s built up than good. The movie gets silly with Tarantino’s speciality bullet-blowing-up-the-head trick more than once. This might not seem like a big problem to the die hard fan of his work, but it adds a layer to the film that reminds me that this is just a silly movie instead of allowing myself to vanish further in the story’s grittiness and western tones. The movie is at it’s strongest when it doesn’t have to be gruesome to compete with the nastiest film characters you have ever seen, and the final act of this movie just kind of throws that out the window for a display in practical effects that doesn’t fit with the story’s first 90 minutes. My next problem has to do with the N word being used so frequently in the film. Now, i’m not a softy when it comes to offensive dialogue, and my problem isn’t quite with the word itself. Tarantino is using the word with so much frequency, so that he can make it lose it’s power, and I understand that. My problem is that it feels forced on more than one occasion, almost to the point of it being eye-rolling by the time several different characters are saying it in unison. I understand that these are nasty characters, but repetition is what left me annoyed on many occasions. “Django Unchained” was another film that did this frequently, but the film’s use of the word was a little more spread out, so it didn’t feel like it was getting mentioned with every line of dialogue. It’s something that I really hope Quentin can withhold from his next feature film.
Overall, “The Hateful Eight” is a wonderfully brutal Western whodunnit? that leaves the audience guessing behind every turn. It’s everything that you seek in a Tarantino classic; unbearable tension, devilishly clever dialogue, and sudden, grisly violence that shocks with its everchanging shift. The final half hour is a little silly, but the end result left me more than satisfied for the building anticipation which was monumental. It’s a three hour roller coaster that never stops for breath.
8/10