Well, I don't even know where to begin with The Hateful Eight, the eighth film by Quentin Tarantino (as a title card reminds us at the beginning of the film). The Hateful Eight might well be *THE* Quentin Tarantino film, as chock full as it is with extreme violence, ugliness, profanity that would make your grandmother faint, racially-charged dialogue (Tarantino LOVES the n-word; more on that later) and characters with zero redeeming qualities (with the exception of their clever ways with words). And, despite the gore and depravity, when the lights came up at the end of the film, everyone in the theatre was laughing. That's the ol' Tarantino fairy dust--he takes the sickest stuff imaginable and gets you to laugh at it.
If you're not a Tarantino fan, you're certainly not going to like The Hateful Eight, which is a locked-room mystery in which a group of (you guessed it) eight people end up snowed in at "Minnie's Haberdashery" (a general store type place) during a blizzard in post-Civil War Wyoming. The characters include John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell), a bounty hunter known for always bringing his bounty in alive in order to watch them hang. His bounty this time is one Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a murderess who spits and swears and looks about as clean as a gutter rat. Along with these two is Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black Major who fought for the North and is now also a bounty hunter, bringing dead bodies to Red Rock (John and Daisy's destination as well). When they get waylaid by the storm, they hole up in Minnie's Haberdashery along with 5 other men (Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Walton Goggins, and Demian Bichir).
This cast of characters are all highly distrustful of one another. John Ruth is paranoid about someone trying to make off with his bounty--and the $10,000 award on her head--while Major Warren realizes that some of the men in the room fought on the Confederate side during the war. In fact, the Civil War could be considered the ninth character in the room. I mentioned that Tarantino has a fixation on the n-word. I suppose he has a certain amount of plausible deniability with this film, given that it (as well as Django Unchained) is a "period picture", but trust me, 12 Years a Slave this is not, and the word is used excessively and with great glee. My morals are pretty flexible when it comes to enjoying good art created by bad people, and Tarantino's entitled, boneheaded comments about race seem downright angelic compared to the slew of filmmakers and celebrities who have, y'know, raped kids and what not, but the racial themes in The Hateful Eight are very ugly. However, the entire film is very ugly and also...goddamnit..really, really good. So, anyone with a heart who also likes Tarantino's style will undoubtedly feel conflicted.
The first half of the 167 minute film sets up the premise and the second half devolves into a typical Tarantino-style bloodbath. By "Tarantino-style", I meant that the violence is 1) cartoonish (pretty sure heads don't literally explode when you shoot them) and 2) peppered with long bouts of humorous and clever dialogue. You might be wondering at this point why I liked this movie, but it's exactly what I signed up for. Tarantino is, in my opinion, a fantastically gifted storyteller. The Hateful Eight is nearly 3 hours long, and takes its good old time getting started, but it never felt boring or slow. At least not for me. Once the characters are trapped in the haberdashery, the tension is ratcheted up slowly, inch by inch, with moments that feel almost peaceful, before all hell breaks loose. Certain characters are not who they seem. Characters who you once rooted for or thought might be "the good guy" turn out to be pretty fucking horrible. Characters with no power suddenly have it and characters with an abundance of power suddenly lose it.
The Hateful Eight pushes your psychological buttons, as well as your emotional and visceral ones. If there is one feeling you will feel during the movie, it is a sense of disgust. And, weirdly, it's a pleasurable sense of disgust--you can't look away. Maybe I'm just a horrible person (if so, a bunch of my Tarantino-loving friends are as well, I guess), but I really enjoyed this movie while also feeling like it sucker punched me.
I also want to make sure I mention the AMAZING score by Ennio Morricone which adds so, so much to the atmosphere of the movie. Just like the gory, bloody scenes, the music worms its way into a dark part of your brain and unnerves you as much as it fascinates you.
I highly recommend The Hateful Eight to Tarantino fans. It's not my personal favorite of his films (Inglourious Basterds is probably my favorite by a hair), but it's good. Just be prepared that when I say this is possibly QT's most violent film, I don't think I'm stretching the truth.
But for those out there reading this who are squeamish with violence, sensitive to profanity, and just like movies to be fun and relaxing (no judgement here! I like fun, relaxing movies too!), I recommend you stay far away from this bleak, blood-soaked tale.
Grade: A
No comments:
Post a Comment