Review: THE HATEFUL EIGHT is Violent, Captivating, Quintessential Tarantino

While the settings, styles, and time periods of Quentin Tarantino's movies have changed throughout the years, there are three things that have remained consistent; ensembles of gleefully disturbed characters; depraved, but gorgeously bloody violence; and lots and lots of profanity. While the theatre is no stranger to violence nor profanity, it is his legendary ability to create compelling, but bizarre characters that has led me to say in print and on podcasts that if the 52-year-old writer and director had been born a few decades earlier, Tarantino could have been one of America's greatest playwrights, alongside Williams, O'Neill, Miller, Stoppard, and Mamet.

With his newest film, THE HATEFUL EIGHT, Tarantino again shows why there are few auteurs as proficient at creating movies that are as cinematically pleasing as they are artistically. With an obsessive attention to detail, the film is beautiful from start to finish, even when the blindingly bright snow gives way to blood red stains.

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier this month, Tarantino hopes to have THE HATEFUL EIGHT on Broadway by the end of 2016. While one might be suspicious about a western set during a blizzard in post-Civil War Wyoming being viable on Broadway, Tarantino constructed the film, at least in one of its forms, very much like a play, complete with an overture and intermission. While those touches were meant more as an homage to classic Spaghetti Westerns, they do make it easy to imagine the screen to stage transition. The film will first be released on Christmas in 70mm (the version that includes the overture and intermission), while a slightly shorter, digital version will open in theaters on New Year's Day. If you can see the film in the classic 70mm, the way that Tarantino envisioned it, do yourself the favor.

The film tells the story of bounty hunter John Ruth (1, Kurt Russell) as he transports the wanted murderer Daisy Domergue (2, Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock to be hanged. Along the way, he comes across two strangers stranded in the desolate Wyoming wilderness as the weather gets increasingly worse. The first is Major Marquis Warren (3, Samuel L. Jackson), a former Union officer turned bounty hunter, and the second is Chris Mannix (4, Walton Goggins), the son of an infamous Confederate rebel, now claiming to be the new sheriff of Red Rock.

As the motley, untrusting crew finally makes it to Minnie's Haberdashery, where they plan to wait out the blizzard, Minnie is nowhere to be found. In her place is a stagecoach full of men also waiting for the storm to pass. Amongst them are Oswaldo Mobray (5, Tim Roth) a British hangman on his way to Red Rock, a cowboy named Joe Gage (6, Michael Madsen), former Confederate general Sanford Smithers (7, Bruce Dern), and Bob (8, Demián Bichir), Minnie's Mexican caretaker.

With a $10,000 bounty on Daisy's head, the suspicious John Ruth makes it his business to get to know the men that he is going to be hunkered down with for the next few days. As the gang gets comfy, connections are discovered and alliances are revealed, leading to a shootout worthy of the RESERVOIR DOGS legacy. Tarantino also dabbles in (and narrates) a bit of non-linear storytelling, reminiscent of PULP FICTION.

As is always the case in Tarantino movies, the cast is superb. Six of the Hateful Eight, and many of the supporting characters, are played by alums of Tarantino's films, so they understand how to make the hyper-stylized, Runyonesque dialogue sound and feel natural. Leigh is wonderful as the delightfully unstable Daisy, Russell would fit in perfectly next to John Wayne and Gary Cooper, and if Jackson only made Tarantino movies for the rest of his career, that would be ok by me.

Despite his strong, eclectic work on TV and film, Goggins was the biggest surprise as the eccentric rebel turned lawman, and Roth does a fantastic Christoph Waltz impression as Mobray. Madsen, Dern, Bichir, and Channing Tatum all give strong supporting performances as well.

While the cast is great, the star is undoubtedly Tarantino, however, he does indulge a bit too much in oddly long establishing shots of characters riding across the blindingly white horizon or panning across a snow covered crucifix. In his previous film, DJANGO UNCHAINED, a bit of controversy swirled about the number of times the N-word was used, and while I did not count, that particular epithet seemed to flow just as freely in THE HATEFUL EIGHT.

As he did for Tarantino's KILL BILL, DEATH PROOF, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, and DJANGO UNCHAINED, legendary composer Ennio Morricone scored the film, adding another connection to the classic Westerns that Tarantino grew up loving.

Despite the over three hour running time, including intermission, the story and performances are so captivating that I didn't notice. This violent character study is quintessential Tarantino, making it a perfect Christmas gift for movie fans who like their films with as much violence as character development.

THE HATEFUL EIGHT starring Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Demian Bichir, Walton Goggins, Channing Tatum, and more, opens in select 70mm cinemas on Christmas Day. THE HATEFUL EIGHT will then open nationwide on January 1st and is rated R for strong bloody violence, a scene of violent sexual content, language, and some graphic nudity.

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Are you ready for THE HATEFUL EIGHT to bloody-up Broadway? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt. If you want to follow along with my "366 in 366" articles, you can check out #BWW366in366 on Twitter. Also, make sure to follow @BWWTVWorld on Twitter for all of the biggest news from the world of TV and movies.

Banner Image:
Kurt Russell, James Parks, and Samuel L. Jackson. Photo Credit: The Weinstein Company

Video:
The Weinstein Company

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