The Hateful Eight

 

I have to admit that I am one with a weakness for a Tarantino movie. I have seen them all and seen each many times. My favorite part of his work is his writing and what he puts in the mouth of his characters to say. It's almost a gift to get all the rest that is good about his films. The way he reuses actors and brings out the best in all of them is testament to the respect they all have for him as a director. Any actor worth his craft would kill to be in a Tarantino production because he lets you go full retard with your role, usually. Here, everyone get's their chance to shine in a story that I found tighter and less meandering than Inglorious Bastards.

 

Make no mistake, this film is violent and racist and all the worst parts of human nature are on display. Watching Jennifer Jason Leigh get smashed around by Kurt Russell who is taking her Daisy character to be hung is disturbing to the extreme but is consistent with the kind of balls to the walls storytelling that Tarantino always delivers. I for one never saw a single one of the twists coming and I ALWAYS see the twists coming. That is the joy of a Tarantino script or a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.

I can listen to Walton Goggins talk all day long. He is at his most manic here and it's an Oscar worthy bit of business. So glad he is part of this cast. I needs me a Walton Googins action figure. When the hell will I ever see one again? I can pretend he is also a Boyd Crowder action figure from Justified if I want to.

This one plays like a stage play - the classic drawing room mystery. I think that is why I preferred the screener to seeing this one in the theatre. The conversations are all so intimate and reward those who pay attention. Every conversation is a new story and all these tiny stories add up to something very full and rich indeed. There is so much to chew on here. As with all his scripts, Tarantino doesn't need to get right to his point. He meanders around it while going for the truth at his leisure.

One of the most fun things as an audience member is playing along with the mystery and trying to discover who the one in the group is lying and is not who they say they are. There is also a dramatic shift in story tone about two hours in. It's a change that I found exhilarating but others may find it off putting and distracting.

 

The Hateful Eight is like no other western I have seen in my life and unfortunately, now that I know all of it's secret, I can never watch it again because the sense of discovery is lost. But for anyone wanting to see something interesting that will stick with you for days, then this is the holiday movie for you. Stay home if you are squeamish. This one tends to get a bit messy right from the get go.

 

The Hateful Eight isn't a western as wacky as Django Unchained, but it's everything you want from a Tarantino movie: unbearable tension, deft and intuitive dialogue, and sudden, grisly violence

One Quentin Tarantino trademark of note is his unqualified "fuck you" to the status quo. This is a guy who watched movies, loved movies, long before he made them and he knows what he likes so ... ! Time and history have borne out his discretion: his work passes into the cultural id with ease. His actors are virtually assured immortality (or what passes for that) and so the joy of watching The Hateful Eight is the joy of watching actors so full of happiness that its infectious. They're so happy to be in a Quentin Tarantino film. The "we got this" mojo infuses every scene whether they actually do got it or whether they don't. It's a fun film to watch.