Review of The Hateful Eight (2015) by Jack F — 22 Oct 2017

There aren't many other directors more polarizing than Quentin Tarantino. He tends to be seen as either a brilliant visionary or a talentless hack, and there usually doesn't seem to be much middle ground. Regardless of where you stand on this scale, I think it's pretty safe to say there's one undisputable fact about his work: for better or worse, in some way, it's always provocative.

So given all this, it's interesting to note that, in a career filled with polarizing works, "The Hateful Eight" may be his most divisive yet, and I base this on the notion that it seems to have split the opinions of even his most ardent supporters. From the critical community to the movie-going public, "The Hateful Eight" has elicited all kinds of responses. Personally I found it to be an exceptional piece of filmmaking, but I can see why others may disagree. I can also concede that it doesn't reach the heights of his previous efforts, particularly his most recent film "Django Unchained," which ranks right up there among the writer-director's best work. While it's just as provocative, albeit in a much different way, it doesn't have quite the same effect from a pure entertainment standpoint.

There are a few factors that can be attributed to this, but I imagine the biggest one is the length. "The Hateful Eight" runs nearly three hours long, and while truthfully that's not much longer than "Django Unchained," it moves at a much more deliberate pace. The film takes a lot of time setting up its story and characters, and there's not much "action" in the traditional sense. Therefore, I can understand if impatience kicks in for many viewers. But in my humble opinion, the movie's pacing is necessary. By the end, after all the truths and revelations have been uncovered, you realize the prolonged setup had a purpose. We now understand these characters, their actions, and their motivations.

And what colorful characters these are. Tarantino's creations feel like real people, people with history and backgrounds. As with all his characters, they're informed as much by their dialogue as by their actions, and boy, did I enjoy watching them converse with each other. The film is set in post-Civil War Wyoming during a monster blizzard. The titular eight characters find themselves holed up in a tavern, waiting for the storm to pass. They are as follows: Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a former Union soldier turned bounty hunter; John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell), a boisterous fellow bounty hunter transporting wanted criminal Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock for an appointment with the gallows; Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a former Confederate soldier who claims he's the new sheriff of Red Rock; a Brit named Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), Red Rock's hangman; shifty cowpoke Joe Gage (Michael Madsen); Bob the Mexican (Demian Bichir), who's running the tavern in place of its absent owner; and Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern), a former Confederate general headed to Red Rock in search of his son.

Once the characters are all in place and begin to interact with each other, that's when the plot thickens. Some of the characters know each other, sometimes only by reputation, but most of them are strangers to one another. They try to relax and wait out the storm together, but something seems a bit...off. There's a palpable bit of tension in the air, but no one can quite put their finger on exactly where it stems from. The Hangman comes to believe that one or more of these people is not who he claims to be. There are echoes of films like John Carpenter's "The Thing" and Tarantino's own debut "Reservoir Dogs" here as the characters start to wonder just exactly who they can trust (if anyone).

Will there be bloodshed? It's a Quentin Tarantino movie; what do you think?

I'll say no more about the plot as it's best to just sit back and enjoy this one as it unfolds. And even if you can't find entertainment in that, at the very least, you'd have to admit that this is one impeccably made film. Robert Richardson's snowy cinematography is breath-taking, the dialogue is absolutely masterful, and the Academy Award-winning score (by famed composer Ennio Morricone) is magnificent.

And the performances? I don't have enough praise. No one can deliver a Tarantino-penned monologue quite like Samuel L. Jackson, who can be both charming and menacing, oftentimes simultaneously. Walton Goggins previously demonstrated on the excellent TV show "Justified" that he also had a knack for delivering witty dialogue, and it's a joy to see him reciting Tarantino's words. (He'd previously had a small role in "Django," but Tarantino must've realized that it was a bit of a waste of Goggins' talents and gave him a much meatier part here.) Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, two fine actors who sometimes make some poor film choices, seem to do their best work in Tarantino films. And the best performance in the movie comes from Jennifer Jason Leigh in her unhinged, gleefully twisted, Oscar-nominated turn as the ruthless Daisy. She's nasty and mean-spirited yet also darkly funny. Given the fate that supposedly awaits her character, "gallows humor" is an absolutely perfect description to use.

"The Hateful Eight" is an excellent film at face value, but it becomes transcendent when you look at it more closely. There's so much subtext here that you could probably write a college term paper, or maybe even a book, devoted to analyzing it. Tarantino hasn't shied away from metaphors in the past, but the ones present in "The Hateful Eight" seem especially blatant. Most prominently, the movie seems to be a scathing indictment of American behavior post-Civil War, when everything was supposedly going to become better. The film seems to argue that, as people, we actually became worse.

Just look at the characters, who more than live up to their description in the movie's title. There are no truly likable people here (which may have also been a factor in the film's relatively cold reception); they may not all be "hateful" per se, but they're all rotten in some fashion. Even the characters made out to be the ostensible "good guys" have more than a few hateful qualities. Racism. Misogyny. Sadism. A complete indifference to human life. It's difficult to find someone to root for in this group, and even when we think we may have found the lesser of the evils present, it doesn't really change our views of the characters. It doesn't undo the things we've already seen.

No doubt, "The Hateful Eight" is a bold film, challenging for a variety of reasons. You're not going to have a "good time" in the same way as you would with "Django," "Inglourious Basterds," or "Kill Bill." But I absolutely believe that you can enjoy yourself in a different way, even if that means adjusting your expectations. The film moves at a leisurely pace, but a byproduct of that is that everything feels organic. It never feels as if the plot is driving the characters; as I noted above, they feel like real people. This is a real cinematic treat for those who approach it in the right frame of mind, whether you're a Tarantino acolyte or merely a casual fan.