2015 | Dir. Quentin Tarantino | 168 Minutes
"You only need to hang mean bastards, but mean bastards, you need to hang!"
In the winter of 1877, a black Union veteran, a wary bounty hunter, his resentful prisoner, and a former southern militiaman stop at a remote general store on their way to town in the midst of a severe storm. The already distrustful travelers hole up with a Mexican, an Englishman, a bitter Confederate general, and a taciturn cowboy who had arrived previously. Tempers flare, suspicions are confirmed, lies unravel, and death is dealt indiscriminately.
A locked room mystery imbued with writer/director Quentin Tarantino's proclivities, The Hateful Eight takes its time to unfold, meticulously establishing its lead characters in its first half through extended conversations filled to the brim with Tarantino's trademark fanciful dialogue, giving ample room for its brilliant cast to play. As engaging as the opening chapters are, the pacing picks up substantially after the first lie is exposed followed by the first killing that marks the halfway point of the narrative. There is high entertainment value in the bloodbath that ensues, breaking all of the previously established tension as characters projectile vomit blood, genitals are destroyed, innocent lives are systematically extinguished, and a wanton criminal is hanged, but feelings of catharsis are uncomfortable at best due to the morally bankrupt nature of the story's lead characters.
Thematically, The Hateful Eight is a story about deception on all levels. Besides the antagonists taking on false identities to stage their ambush-and-rescue plot, the primarily protagonist perpetuates a distressing lie of his own in order to survive as a black man in America. Major Marquis Warren carries a phony private letter from Abraham Lincoln on his person at all times as a defensive prop to win over northern whites who would mistreat him otherwise. Warren's anger and distrust for the white man is completely justified, considering that he witnessed first-hand the horrors of slavery and the American Civil War, but his methods are depraved and deplorable, fully illustrated in graphic stomach-churning detail when he converses with the Confederate General Smithers. Warren is no better than the paranoid bounty hunter John Ruth, a man with no qualms about beating an incapacitated woman, obsessed with capturing criminals alive in order to watch them hang. In addition, southern dandy Chris Mannix's dubious claim that he was elected Sheriff of Red Rock is never confirmed, nor the last ditch threat of Domergue's gang suggesting that they will be avenged by an army of outlaws lying in wait. Cynically, the lie of Warren's letter may be interpreted as a symbol of the hopeless American dream of equality. As Warren and staunch racist Mannix bleed out together after teaming up to dispatch Domergue and her gang, Mannix earnestly requests the letter from Warren and reads it aloud with a certain reverence despite being the one to accurately expose it as a fake just hours before.
Tarantino went to great lengths to shoot The Hateful Eight on 65mm film and transfer it to 70mm. While scenes set in snowy and mountainous exterior locations are absolutely gorgeous, the luxurious cinematic format does not present any obvious benefit for the feature's primary one-room set. The sentiment is respectable, but the active decision to avoid digital production for the picture is the least essential of Tarantino's artistic flourishes in that it doesn't add any substantive enjoyment to the overall experience. The story is captivating, the dialogue is excellent, but at points the film might as well be a stage play.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Marquis Warren with his meanest dialed all the way up, his performance particularly disturbing in a flashback sequence detailing his fateful encounter with General Smithers' son. A reliably petulant Kurt Russell plays John Ruth, once again convincingly paranoid as a desperate man of questionable moral character trapped with deceptive people in a confined space during a snow storm, essentially another take on his role as R.J. MacReady in John Carpenter's The Thing. Barely recognizable with numerous facial wounds and a southern drawl, Jennifer Jason Leigh fully disappears into the role of Daisy Domergue, a defiant woman who should elicit unconditional sympathy from the audience for the constant beating she endures from her captor if not for the venomous bigotry that spews from her mouth. Walton Goggins at his slimiest is the perfect fit for Chris Mannix, eloquent, dopey, and despicable all at once. As General Sandford Smithers, Bruce Dern makes the character easy to despise but he also effectively sells the despair of a grieving father. Tim Roth is fun to watch as the smooth-talking Oswaldo Mobray, as is Demian Bichir as the suspicious Bob, but Michael Madsen's understated performance as Joe Gage is unfortunately overshadowed by the rest of the cast. James Parks is amusing as the unlucky stagecoach driver O.B., and in his brief appearance as Domergue's brother, Channing Tatum is a real showstealer.
The Hateful Eight may be the most challenging and least accessible of Quentin Tarantino's films due to the picture's deliberate pacing and the way each of its lead characters toy with the audience's sympathy only to betray it in spectacular fashion. However, its brilliant ensemble cast is consistently engaging and markedly elevates this tension-filled tale about the lies people tell in order to survive.
OTHER VERSIONS
- During its initial theatrical run, The Hateful Eight was released in select cinemas presented in 70mm Cinerama Roadshow format, with actual analog film projected onto movie screens, featuring a slightly longer cut of the picture with alternate takes, a musical overture, and an intermission
- The film was recut into a four-episode miniseries and released on Netflix in 2019 as The Hateful Eight: Extended Version, featuring alternate takes and additional moments that are not in the standard theatrical or Cinerama Roadshow versions
THE STORY BEHIND THE TITLE
The Hateful Eight is, fittingly, Quentin Tarantino's eighth feature length film.
QUENTIN TARANTINO AS...
- The narrator who explains in great detail why the fourth chapter is entitled Domergue's Got a Secret, and summarizes the steps Jody's gang had taken in preparation for Daisy and John Ruth's arrival
RED APPLE CIGARETTES
- Minnie's Haberdashery sells Red Apple Tobacco and pre-rolled Red Apple Cigarettes
- Bob smokes a "Manzana Roja" at the start of the fourth chapter
CASTRATION WITH A BANG
- A hidden gunman in the basement shoots Warren's johnson and cajones
NOTABLE NEEDLE DROPS
- The White Stripes' "Apple Blossom" sounds only slightly anachronistic over shots of the stagecoach traversing in the wilderness during the film's opening act
- David Hess' "There You're Alone" from Wes Craven's infamous 1972 horror film The Last House on the Left is effectively chilling in the scene depicting Gage track and murder poor haberdashery worker Charly, a direct reference to a similar sequence in that movie
- Roy Orbison's "There Won't Be Many Coming Home" from his 1967 star vehicle The Fastest Guitar Alive, closes the film on a somber note, reiterating the theme of irreparable damage the American Civil War left behind
FRAGMENTS
- Originally conceived as a novel sequel to Django Unchained entitled Django in White Hell, Tarantino decided that Django's character did not fit the story
- Tarantino briefly canceled production on The Hateful Eight in early 2014 after an early draft of the screenplay was leaked online, but positive reception for a live-read of the script at an event in Los Angeles with a full cast convinced him to restart production with a new ending for the film
- The narrative is heavily inspired by John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi horror classic The Thing about a group of distrustful men stranded in a freezing hostile environment with a deadly enemy hidden in their ranks, a film that also stars Kurt Russell as a gruff no-nonsense loner; The Hateful Eight even features previously unused music by legendary composer Ennio Morricone from the score for The Thing
- Morricone composed the original score for this film, his first score for a western in over three decades, earning him his first Oscar
- Jennifer Jason Leigh's rendition of "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" is rather lovely; the song is an Australian folk ballad about a criminal who makes his escape while being transported to a penal colony, a clue on Domergue's plan already in progress hidden in plain sight
- Unbeknownst to Kurt Russell when the scene was shot, the guitar he smashes was a priceless antique on loan from the Martin Guitar Museum that was intended to be swapped out for a replica; the genuine article was destroyed due to miscommunication on set and the take capturing Jennifer Jason Leigh's actual reaction was used in the final cut of the film
007 CONNECTIONS
- Michael Madsen (Damian Falco in Die Another Day)
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and The Marvels)
- Kurt Russell (Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
- Walton Goggins (Sonny Burch in Ant-Man and the Wasp)
- Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky in The Incredible Hulk)
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and The Marvels)
- Kurt Russell (Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
- Walton Goggins (Sonny Burch in Ant-Man and the Wasp)
- Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky in The Incredible Hulk)
