#26 - The Hateful Eight
Quentin Tarantino, 2015
In post-Civil War Wyoming, a motley collection of individuals are made to wait out a blizzard inside a mountain lodge.
Quentin Tarantino has become one of the most iconic modern filmmakers because of how much his raw enthusiasm for cinema bleeds through into his work and allows him to weld his many influences together into some extremely distinctive wholes. His filmography is such that his 2012 outing
Django Unchained, a blend of spaghetti Westerns and blaxploitation films that runs for almost three hours, can be considered an example of him "playing it safe". As such, it was easy to be skeptical about the fact that his follow-up to
Django would be another three-hour Western, suggesting that this iconoclastic director may provide diminishing returns. Fortunately,
The Hateful Eight more than challenges audience expectations even as it invokes many parallels to Tarantino's low-budget crime debut
Reservoir Dogs. The tight ensemble cast, the bulk of the film being confined to a single location, the whodunit plot, and - of course - the infrequent but effective deployment of extreme violence...it's all here. As a result,
The Hateful Eight can easily be written off as Tarantino repeating himself too much for his own good, but there is also the potential that it may end up being more of a greatest-hits package.
The plot of
The Hateful Eight is driven by an eccentric bounty hunter (Kurt Russell) who insists on capturing dead-or-alive bounties alive, even though killing them is generally considered the more practical option (as other characters are quick to point out). He is in the middle of transporting his latest and most lucrative bounty (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to the small town of Red Rock, Wyoming, when his carriage picks up another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and Red Rock's new sheriff (Walton Goggins) in quick succession. As a blizzard descends upon the carriage, they are forced to take refuge inside a remote haberdashery with a Mexican caretaker (Demian Bichir) and a few guests; namely, an affable British hangman (Tim Roth), a taciturn cowboy (Michael Madsen), and an elderly ex-Confederate general (Bruce Dern). As the harsh weather has effectively trapped all eight of them (plus James Parks' perpetually put-upon carriage driver) inside the haberdashery, Russell comes to the conclusion that one of the other men inside the building is a secret accomplice of Leigh's who plans to free her. This is where the film really begins as various interpersonal tensions begin to boil over even without the introduction of a dangerous mystery plot.
Tarantino has always had a reputation for assembling stellar casts, and the compact nature of this particular ensemble demands an especially stellar one. As such, most of the eight leads have collaborated with Tarantino in previous films to great and small effect. Russell stands out as the closest thing the film has to a hero and, while his blend of well-worn charisma with John Wayne swagger makes him quite the charmer, his rather brutal and short-sighted methods of keeping his quarry in line don't exactly make him sympathetic. Tarantino regular Jackson has always tended to get some impressive parts in the pair's previous collaborations and his role as a grizzled old soldier turned bounty hunter is as perfect a role for him as any - the gleefully sadistic monologue that he delivers halfway through the film is easily the most unforgettable moment in a film that's packed with them. Leigh makes for quite the stand-out as Russell's incredibly deranged bounty who has no qualms about antagonising everyone she meets, cackling her way through all sorts of physical abuse in the process (and any soft side she might show is either a trick or quickly stomped out by others). Character actor Goggins gets a surprisingly meaty role as a real good-ol'-boy type whose Confederate loyalties make him clash with Russell and Jackson, yet he definitely proves to be more than he seems. In comparison to these four, the rest of the leads are arguably a little flat due to what feels like a deliberate lack of development, but they do well enough. Roth in particular works as a delightfully well-mannered English gentleman, while Dern and Madsen infuse some one-note characters with appropriate levels of grouchiness. Bichir gets the really short end of the stick by having to playing a thickly accented buffoon who spends much of his time in the background.
I think the factor that will make or break
The Hateful Eight for audiences will definitely be its approach to plotting. The immense running time will definitely prove a sticking point for audiences, especially in addition to the plot that requires the film to remain within the confines of the same building for most of its running time. However, this focus on a singular setting is definitely what gives the film its strength as it enforces all sorts of theatrical developments between its incredibly disparate cast of characters. Despite its length, the film flows just fine for the most part - at the very least, events are structured so that they never truly threaten to kill the film's momentum. There is a section that is dedicated to some arguably redundant exposition, and while that section could arguably use some trimming at the very least, it never truly threatens to derail the film as a whole. For the most part, it's still a carefully-paced work that may forgo narrative in favour of characterisation from time to time (most prominently during its first 40 minutes) but it's practically inconsequential. Even lapses in judgment by the relatively heroic characters are played for maximum drama as everyone clashes with one another over events great and small.
If nothing else,
The Hateful Eight excels on a technical level. Much has been made of Tarantino's decision to shoot the film in old-fashioned 70mm so as to give the film the same appearance as the Hollywood epics of yesteryear, and while I was unfortunately unable to attend a screening of the film in its intended format, the film still looks amazing. This much can still be credited to three-time Oscar winner Robert Richardson, who has proved himself to be an incredibly versatile cinematographer time and time again. It initially seems like this particular format might be wasted considering how much of the film takes place inside a single cramped building, but that doesn't mean that the camerawork doesn't look a treat anyway. There are plenty of ambitious shots of the great outdoors in all its blizzard-struck glory, but the sheer amount of energy used to depict events within the haberdashery itself is notable as everything from revealing tracking shots to pertinent close-ups is used to bring vibrancy to the already-tense proceedings. It's not the most observably ambitious work that Richardson has had to do, but it certainly draws attention in all the right ways.
As if Tarantino going through the effort of shooting the film on a defunct film stock isn't sign enough of how dedicated he is to making
The Hateful Eight a film to remember, that still pales in comparison to his decision to bring in none other than Ennio Morricone to score the film. Morricone is responsible for crafting some of the most iconic Western movie music ever made, and while his presence here seems to be both an example of Tarantino's fanboy tendencies and a gimmick on par with the 70mm format, it still doesn't make his work on this film any less impressive. The opening scene featuring the film's extremely ominous theme playing out over a lengthy shot of a stone crucifix covered in snow is one of the best marriages of sound and vision I've seen in a while, and that's without mentioning the rest of the score. While Morricone's original contributions are appropriately foreboding and tense, what does deserve recognition is the way in which Tarantino uses pieces of Morricone's score from John Carpenter's
The Thing. The similarities between that film and this film are pretty obvious to anyone familiar with either one, but Tarantino's decision to correct the injustice done to Morricone's work on that particular film (which was nominated for a Razzie, no less!) is a sincere one that shows just how much respect this iconoclastic film-maker has for the maestro's output.
Each new Tarantino film feels like a true cinematic event, but each new one threatens to feel underwhelming and alienating. There is plenty about
The Hateful Eight that would suggest the same, especially considering the incredibly polarised reception it's received so far. I can definitely understand - the film does seem to revel in the brutality of its characters a bit too much at times and a lengthy bout of chamber-drama plotting is bound to put people off anyway. Be that as it may,
The Hateful Eight certainly made an impression on me and there's enough going on that it's bound to get a re-watch. The cast may be playing some largely reprehensible characters but that only gives them an excuse to act in as outlandish a manner as possible and the film's already-solid mystery plotting is all the better for it. Throw in some strong touches such as grand-standing camerawork and an appropriately miserable soundtrack and the resulting film becomes its own bizarre sort of masterpiece.
Reply to Topic
