A successful addition to the Tarantino canon.
The Hateful Eight
Grade: A-
Director: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction)
Screenplay: Tarantino
Cast:, Samuel L. Jackson (Chi-Rak), Kurt Russell (Bone Tomahawk)
Rating: R
Runtime: 182 min.
by John DeSando
“One of them fellas'll kill everybody in here...” John 'The Hangman' Ruth (Kurt Russell)
Quentin Tarantino movies, such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, linger like pop culture artifacts long into the memories of geeks and movie lovers. The Hateful Eight will follow along those lines with its emphasis on light-hearted violence that supports themes of racism sexism, and nationalism, among others.
"The Hangman" bounty hunter John Ruth is transporting Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to be hanged in Red Rock, and Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) has a couple of dead bodies to be transported in the same stage coach for collecting his bounty. Stuck at a way station in a Wyoming storm in post-Civil War, they and five other shady types spend two days sizing each other up and eliminating the bounty competition.
Underneath the gruff exterior of each eccentric character is a point the gifted director is making: Daisy is a woman, most unusual to be hanged in any age, but just as unlikeable and ornery as any of the rotten men--a sure-fire comment on today's egalitarian military.
Warren is regularly referred to as "Nigger," reminding us that racism is both in our history over a hundred years ago and our present. Yet, he commands the stage as he demands respect even to claiming a personal letter from President Lincoln, a comment on the liberation of blacks long ago and the lingering combat with whites.
Some will be put off by the pervasive violence. However, violence is a part of the Tarantino experience, a statement about the dangerous culture we live in and the need to trivialize it in order to defeat it.
Besides, some of the film's humor comes from the unexpected mayhem and t casual way characters commit it (think Travolta and Jackson characters in Pulp Fiction). Fortunately most of the characters seem to deserve their fates, making the experience cathartic to some degree.
Because much of the action takes place inside the station, Tarantino is able to compose his shots like a stage play in which the antagonists can face off against each other in the frame, whose 70 mm projection allows for serious space between to emphasize their individual isolation. That's not to say the director is negligent in his wide open shots outdoors--the snow covered landscape with the six horse stage coaches in the distance is thrillingly made for the 70 mm. A nomination should be forthcoming.
Although The Hateful Eight is not my favorite Western, as The Magnificent Seven is, it ranks next to Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles and Tarantino’s Django Unchained for tickling me about the genre I grew up on.
“Now, what would make a man brave a blizzard and kill in cold blood? I'm sure I don't know! You'd be surprised what a man would do . . . .” Major Marquis Warren
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
