REVIEW: THE HATEFUL EIGHT
"I've never heard someone be called the N-word as much as I have in this movie." This is a quote from a friend of mine who saw The Hateful Eight, and boy is it accurate. Quentin Tarantino, along with, you know, changing the movie landscape and all that, is a fan of gratuitousness. His first two films (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction) clock in, according to Wikipedia, at 534 f-words combine, and you can guess it's not "falafel." The first Kill Bill movie has Uma Thurman chopping off dozens of samurai limbs, and Django Unchained had...everything. The lover of everything B-cinema loves to meld genres, tropes and character archetypes together to give you an X-rated smorgasbord for movie fans and casual watchers alike. It almost seems like a burden to have that much of a crammed imagination.
I've yet to see Jackie Brown and his Grindhouse collaboration with Robert Rodriguez, but otherwise I'm happy to report I've seen Tarantino's entire directorial filmography. I'm also here to report The Hateful Eight, at least in my opinion, is his most violent movie, and the first shot isn't even fired until halfway through. In fact this is one of the more violent films I've ever seen. But with all this blood comes a bloody good story. Before I proceed it's just nice to know that, in a cinematic world full of disappointments, you know Tarantino's got you. The man says he's only going to make 2 more movies because he knows he has such a good winning streak. So when the movie started I just had the satisfaction of knowing that I was in for a good time, and once Samuel L. Jackson's character Major Warren is able to climb aboard Kurt Russell's character John "The Hangman" Ruth's stagecoach, I was hooked. Though I have some problems with the film, like it's unnecessarily lengthy shots (I know it's an epic, but still!), the story still manages to shine through. Two Oscars don't lie!
And the story is nothing complicated, no Pulp Fiction web of interweaving tales. The Hangman is escorting Daisy Domergue (the rightly Golden Globe-nominated Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a town called Red Rock to be executed. Along with the aforementioned Maj. Warren, alleged sheriff Chris Mannix tags along, to the Hangman's reluctance. They travel to a log cabin called Minnie's Haberdashery, where an old Confederate general (Bruce Dern), a Mexican (Demián Bichir), a peppy British fellow (Tim Roth) and a scraggly cowpoke (Michael Madsen, making a triumphant Tarantino return to form) all await for the blizzard to blow over. Only the Hangman suspects that Daisy has a friend amidst the bunch...
This whodunit meets western meets stage play meets exploitation film captivated me the entire time. My last review, on the movie Joy, serves as an interesting sort of counterpart on what to do/what not to do when writing unlikable characters. That film featured one likable protagonist, and a gaggle of annoying supporting characters who virtually fought to drag her down. Here in Hateful 8, you kinda despise everyone. Jackson's Warren is the "main" character because he's on the longest and you sympathize with him the most (largely because of what my friend mentioned), but he's not the "hero." Nobody's the hero, here. 80% of what comes out of Daisy's mouth is vile. There are racists, misogynists, bounty hunters, soldiers, all under one roof that no one wants to be under. So how do you end up enjoying yourself amidst all of these creeps. I'm going to use my favorite character of the movie, Walton Goggins' Mannix. He's a Confederate soldier, with an irritatingly hick accent who openly spews racial epithets and calls it "talking politics." So why do we invest in him? Because, without giving much away, he experiences an arc. He's not a static character, and even though his past remains the same he changes. No one changes in Joy. Robert De Niro actually says "I shouldn't've given her the confidence to think...she could be more than a housewife." Father of the year right here.
When I say Tarantino can't make a bad movie, I don't mean the man is incapable of producing bad material. Anyone can. But even after the script of this movie leaked, and his controversial police comments provoking possible boycotts, he still saw the potential in this film and put forward his best foot. Is he in love with himself when he makes movies? Sure. Two Oscars and nonstop critical lauding will do that to you. But his movies are such safe bets, and take so long in-between that you know he's nurtured them until he feels ready to release to the public. With the cinematography, gorgeous spaghetti-western score by veteran Ennio Morricone, fantastic ensemble where you wouldn't be surprised if any of the titular eight got recognized, all melding together in one ultra violent cauldron, it's fairly easy to forgive the movie's flaws. I don't care if he only makes two more movies in his lifetime. Just keep makin' 'em.
Rating: 3/4 stars
I've yet to see Jackie Brown and his Grindhouse collaboration with Robert Rodriguez, but otherwise I'm happy to report I've seen Tarantino's entire directorial filmography. I'm also here to report The Hateful Eight, at least in my opinion, is his most violent movie, and the first shot isn't even fired until halfway through. In fact this is one of the more violent films I've ever seen. But with all this blood comes a bloody good story. Before I proceed it's just nice to know that, in a cinematic world full of disappointments, you know Tarantino's got you. The man says he's only going to make 2 more movies because he knows he has such a good winning streak. So when the movie started I just had the satisfaction of knowing that I was in for a good time, and once Samuel L. Jackson's character Major Warren is able to climb aboard Kurt Russell's character John "The Hangman" Ruth's stagecoach, I was hooked. Though I have some problems with the film, like it's unnecessarily lengthy shots (I know it's an epic, but still!), the story still manages to shine through. Two Oscars don't lie!
This whodunit meets western meets stage play meets exploitation film captivated me the entire time. My last review, on the movie Joy, serves as an interesting sort of counterpart on what to do/what not to do when writing unlikable characters. That film featured one likable protagonist, and a gaggle of annoying supporting characters who virtually fought to drag her down. Here in Hateful 8, you kinda despise everyone. Jackson's Warren is the "main" character because he's on the longest and you sympathize with him the most (largely because of what my friend mentioned), but he's not the "hero." Nobody's the hero, here. 80% of what comes out of Daisy's mouth is vile. There are racists, misogynists, bounty hunters, soldiers, all under one roof that no one wants to be under. So how do you end up enjoying yourself amidst all of these creeps. I'm going to use my favorite character of the movie, Walton Goggins' Mannix. He's a Confederate soldier, with an irritatingly hick accent who openly spews racial epithets and calls it "talking politics." So why do we invest in him? Because, without giving much away, he experiences an arc. He's not a static character, and even though his past remains the same he changes. No one changes in Joy. Robert De Niro actually says "I shouldn't've given her the confidence to think...she could be more than a housewife." Father of the year right here.
When I say Tarantino can't make a bad movie, I don't mean the man is incapable of producing bad material. Anyone can. But even after the script of this movie leaked, and his controversial police comments provoking possible boycotts, he still saw the potential in this film and put forward his best foot. Is he in love with himself when he makes movies? Sure. Two Oscars and nonstop critical lauding will do that to you. But his movies are such safe bets, and take so long in-between that you know he's nurtured them until he feels ready to release to the public. With the cinematography, gorgeous spaghetti-western score by veteran Ennio Morricone, fantastic ensemble where you wouldn't be surprised if any of the titular eight got recognized, all melding together in one ultra violent cauldron, it's fairly easy to forgive the movie's flaws. I don't care if he only makes two more movies in his lifetime. Just keep makin' 'em.
Rating: 3/4 stars
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