While writing Django Unchained (2012), Quentin Tarantino had a subplot regarding Django hunting one bounty in a blizzard, and getting holed up at a stagecoach outpost. Tarantino had originally intended to do a sequel novel entitled Django in White Hell. However, Tarantino felt Django didn't fit into this story, so he rewrote it, and it became The Hateful Eight, which was announced as his next film. The plot was inspired by selected episodes of old Western TV series such as Bonanza, Alias Smith and Jones and The High Chaparral, where there'd be an episode where the main characters would be holed up together in one claustrophobic location. A chamber piece if you will. However, it was leaked onto the internet in early 2014, and Tarantino cancelled it. However after a live reading in Los Angeles later in 2014, featuring much of the cast that Tarantino had in mind for the film, Tarantino changed his mind, and The Hateful Eight was back on. The Hateful Eight is a film which harks back to the tight containment of Reservoir Dogs (1992), where you don't who is good or bad, and who's lying. Aside from a stellar cast in this film, Tarantino has two secret weapons in his arsenal to put The Hateful Eight above and beyond most other movie westerns, and to ensure this wouldn't be a patience-testing western, as there's a lot of dialogue. One, is that it would be scored by the great Ennio Morricone, the maestro of so many great Spaghetti Westerns, and secondly, Tarantino and his trusted cinematographer Robert Richardson had decided to film it in 70mm. But, not any old 70mm, this was done in Ultra Panavision 70mm, a format that had not been used in 50 years. The Hateful Eight is Tarantino firing on all cylinders, great performances, great dialogue and gripping and exciting.
Circa 1875, somewhere in Wyoming, and a stagecoach being driven by O.B. Jackson (James Parks) stops to pick up a passenger. Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), who has 3 dead bodies he's delivering to the town of Red Rock. However, the coach is being commandeered by bounty hunters John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and a fugitive he's handcuffed to, handcuffed to Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). As Ruth and Warren had met once before, Ruth allows him to travel with them. Along the way, they pick up Lost-Causer militiaman Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), who claims to be the new sheriff of Red Rock. As a nasty blizzard is on the way, they're forced to seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach lodge where they'll sit out the storm until it passes. When they get there, they meet Mexican Bob (Demián Bichir), English hangman Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), quiet cowboy Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) and Confederate General General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). Ruth is instantly suspicious of the 4 men they meet at Minnie's Haberdashery, Warren even more so. As they sit out the storm, they try to get to know one another, but everyone is holding their cards close to their chests about who they are, but as night draws in, the atmosphere darkens, and then... Oh, I won't give anything more away...
This is Tarantino's second western, and it's a superior film to Django Unchained, it's more focused and contained. It's about character, and it's about mood and atmosphere, and boy is it dark. It's also laugh out loud hilarious in places, especially with the crackerjack dialogue and when the blood, violence and gore kicks in. But, it looks beautiful, and that's down to the wonderful Ultra Panavision 70 cinematography by Robert Richardson. The colour and lighting are sharp and highly vivid, which add to the mood of the film. Plus, being wider than other widescreen films, (this is 2.75:1 rather than the usual 2.35:1 ratio), Tarantino and Richardson are able to get more detail into the frame and more action. Normally you'd reserve a format like Ultra Panavision 70 to capture the scope and grandeur of the great outdoors. However, a few snowy vistas aside, most of this film takes place indoors. But, it works well, with the detail on faces and characterisation, it highlights the acting more and puts emphasis on performance. Also, the score by Ennio Morricone is brilliant. Dark, eerie and moody. This a horror film score, not a western score, and it's also Tarantino's first film to have a proper score, and who better to do it than Morricone, who scored so many of the Spaghetti Westerns that Tarantino loves. Most of the score was made up of unused themes from the score Morricone did for The Thing (1982), another snowbound tale of suspense starring Kurt Russell.
Plus, Tarantino finds room in the score for a theme from Morricone's score for Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), as well as songs by The White Stripes, Roy Orbison, and a haunting ballad from David Hess off The Last House on the Left (1972). Oh, Quentin!
Castwise, it's perfection. The great Samuel L. Jackson commands the screen as Major Marquis Warren, and Jackson relishes the part. There's a touch of Lee Van Cleef in Jackson's performance, from the receding hair to the smoking pipe, there's a quiet intensity to Warren, you don't know what side he's on, but at one point in the film, he gives off a monologue that you'll never forget, no matter how hard you try!! Kurt Russell gives a grizzled turn as John Ruth the Hangman, who is determined to take his bounty to Red Rock. He's a nasty piece of work, mean and gritty but with good intentions, plus he has a magnificent moustache. Russell worked with Tarantino before on Death Proof, this is the better of the two films. Tim Roth, who worked with QT on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, seems to be doing a Christoph Waltz impression with his role, and that's not a bad thing, as he nearly steals the scenes in Minnie's Haberdashery with his spirited, charismatic turn. Walton Goggins is a hoot as the good ole' boy sheriff whose catchphrase seems to be "Well I'll be double-dog damned!", which somehow never wears thin. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a revelation as Daisy Domergue, she doesn't talk much, when she does, she's either punched or abused, but she comes into her own in the second half of the film, and she deserves her Oscar nomination. Demián Bichir is quiet and deadly as Mexican Bob, but he gets some good one liners, all matter of fact and to the point, getting a laugh. Michael Madsen is equally quiet and deadly, and you definitely don't know whether to trust him or not, as there's something about Joe Gage that's just not right, and you'll find out why. Bruce Dern is wonderful as always, even if he playing a nasty racist spurting out the n-word a lot, a word uttered by nearly every character in this film. There's even a surprise cameo, but I won't say when.
The Hateful Eight is a film you will never forget, it's a talkative film, but in a good way, it's a mystery film which will keep you guessing, and Tarantino even supplies a narration to explain a plot point to the audience, (Oh, Quentin!), but thiis is a film about atmosphere, and it's also Tarantino doing a western, and westerns are back in fashion at the minute. It's a chamber piece, and a lot of them on film can vary in quality, but this is brilliant film. There's twists and turns galore, and blood and gore too which will leave you whooping in excitement. It's a bit of an experimental film too, not least because of the Ultra Panavision 70 cinematography, and how there's two versions, one catering to it being projected in 70mm and a shorter general release version. But, even in the shorter version, it's a tense, down and dirty film which is both suspenseful and entertaining in equal measure. What will Tarantino do next, who knows. The opening credits proclaim this is "The 8th Film By Quentin Tarantino". Well, we ALL know that's not true, it's maybe his 9th or 10th at least. He claimed he was going to stop at 10 films, but on the basis of this, we ALL know that's not going to happen, he has more films inside screaming to come out. From Kill Bill: Vol 3 to another western to war films ranging from Inglourious Basterds sequels to a Vietnam war film. Whatever he does next, it'll be a delight to see, he's raised the bar with The Hateful Eight, and it'll be hard to better this film. It's beautiful to look at, an amazing sensory experience, and it's a superior film to The Revenant, another snowbound tale of suspense in the old west. An essential film for any lovers of cinema.
