Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (part 1)
“The Hateful Eight” (2015)
“When you get to hell John, tell them Daisy sent you”
Ever the Cinema fan and Master Craftsman, the premieres and special initial screenings of Tarantino’s latest film were an event in themselves. The film was shot in 70mm Ultra Panavision being both the widest angle lens possible and a nod to films of cinema’s past and where available, “The Hateful Eight” was projected in this format and nowhere more so than his own cinema, The New Beverly, in Los Angeles. Adding to the pomp and ceremony on opening night(s) and special screenings around the world, The Hateful Eight was also an event cinema night with live music before curtain up and an actual intermission halfway through the three hour run time but as Samuel L Jackson’s character “Major Marquis Warren” states so eloquently just past the half way point of the film:
“Let’s slow it down. Slow it way down”
At just over three hours this is a long, epic of a western, the second western of Tarantino’s career following “Django Unchained” and even the third if you include “Kill Bill Volume 2”. Ever the cineaste, Tarantino is often at pains to acknowledge and even proclaim the number of his film’s (this was proclaimed to be the “8th Film by Quentin Tarantino”) when it is in fact his 9th (again if you include the two volumes of Kill Bill) and could even be classified as his 10th if you include his unreleased first film “My Best Friend’s Birthday”. Being a myopic fan of the master I am not one to argue with him but he has however stated that he intends to complete a trilogy of westerns before he retires and indeed will retire when he reaches his tenth film, so I’d rather he ceased numbering his films and simply continued making breath taking, beautiful and sublime films rather like The Hateful Eight here.
For The Hateful Eight is breath taking, sublime but firstly beautiful, shot in the aforementioned 70mm Ultra Panavision and framed brilliantly by long time collaborator Robert Richardson as Director of Photography which rightfully garnered him a 2016 Oscar Nomination for Best Achievement in Cinematography. The entire film has ostensibly only three separate locations, the snow bound wilds of Wyoming, the inside of a horse drawn stagecoach and the inside of Minnie’s Haberdashery but it’s key from the very first frame of the film that this will be a long and meticulously crafted piece of work from both Tarantino and Richardson as the camera slowly unveils the white snow covered expanse of Wyoming as the horse drawn carriage painstakingly makes its way across the ground towards the camera and against a backdrop of the film’s opening credits resplendent in 1970’s inspired font as per usual.
With the majority of the film set inside Minnie’s Haberdashery it’s easy to overlook the achievement of Richardson to get the lighting and framing “tone” but as Tarantino has been keen to point out, this is where the use of the Ultra Panavision cameras and lenses really came into their own, capturing and framing both the action inside this remote wooden cabin but perhaps more importantly, the duplicitous nature of the untrustworthy occupants. In addition to Robert Richardson’s nomination, there were further Oscar nods to one supporting actress (see below) and one Oscar win in 2016, for Ennio Morricone’s incredibly haunting original musical score. As is Tarantino’s way, he also inserted several pieces of music spanning the ages, from “Silent Night” (again see below), “Jim Jones at Botany Bay” and the brilliantly melancholic yet uplifting “There Won’t Be Many Coming Home” by Roy Orbison over the closing credits. However it’s the insertion of The White Stripes “Apple Blossom” that greatly pleased this particular White Stripes fan, especially at it accompanied the first of only a few blood smattering scenes.
For there are only a few Tarantino style scenes of blood letting but they are violent, visceral and, in one particular scene alone, on a par with the absurdist blood letting of his friend Robert Rodriguez’s vampire flick “From Dusk Til Dawn”. There are Mexican Standoffs and the Tarantino trademark of poetic flowing dialogue in glorious abundance. There are beautiful slow motion tracking shots, numbered Chapter cards, from “Chapter 1 — Last Stage to Red Rock” to “Last Chapter — Black Man, White Hell”, an unexpected twist and a change in the linear narrative of the story and a gratuitous overuse of the word “nigger” as “The Hangman” not so delicately explains “Darkies don’t like being called nigger any more”. There are also brilliantly dark comedic bursts from nearly every character as they wrestle with the struggle of being cooped up inside Minnie’s Haberdashery awaiting the snowstorm outside to pass so they can continue on their journey to the town of Red Rock.
Eight unruly characters with not a trusting glance between them are squeezed inside a remote wooden cabin as Christmas approaches and the snow deepens outside. Throw in some guns, tension and a pot of coffee, what could possibly go wrong?
“Major Marquis Warren” (Samuel L Jackson) Returning for his 5th collaboration with the director, Samuel L Jackson is utterly brilliant here in a headline role as a retired Army Major now turned Bounty Hunter. In his position of “Servant of the Court”, Marquis Warren has $8,000 worth of bounty that he needs to transport to Red Rock in order to get paid and hitching a ride with The Hangman and his bounty, his story soon unravels. The holder of the mysterious “Lincoln Letter”, he quickly becomes the central character in our tale of mistrust, whether inside the horse drawn stagecoach or particularly inside Minnie’s Haberdashery as he becomes the audience’s eyes and ears as he attempts to solve the puzzle that surrounds him. Cleverly, Tarantino cuts from his eyes to a slowly revealing wide shot inside the wooden cabin as Marquis Warren quickly realises that no-one can be believed and he needs to size up the occupants before the coffee turns sour. Immediately distrustful of “Senor Bob”, he questions the motivation of “Joe Gage” before his frightening intimidation of “The General”, Samuel L Jackson is yet again phenomenal in a Tarantino film.
“Starting to see pictures ain’t you?”
“John Ruth” (Kurt Russell) Known universally as “The Hangman”, John Ruth is another Bounty Hunter en route to Red Rock with his bounty and with one simple objective in his mind, to reach his destination and “hear her neck snap with my own two ears”. John Ruth is another loquacious character and well served by Tarantino’s poetic dialogue as he’s astounded, proclaiming “well I’ll be a god damned dog in a manger” through to his cutting and mistrustful admission “If he’s a god damned Sheriff, then I’m a monkey’s uncle”.
Returning from his star turn as Stuntman Mike in Tarantino’s underrated “Death Proof” in 2007, Kurt Russell excels as the paranoid and sceptical Hangman, not with his bombastic performance (for it surely is) but with his subtle coyness when asking to see and read The Lincoln Letter, putting on his reading glasses or twirling in mustache in contempt. A nuanced performance amid the grandiose gun slinging!
“Daisy Domergue” (Jennifer Jason Leigh) Rightfully Oscar nominated in 2016 for an Actress in a Supporting Role, Jennifer Jason Leigh excels in her difficult role as Daisy, the $10,000 Bounty that John Ruth is dedicated to see hang and him collect the prize. Horrifically treated, Daisy refuses to accept her fate with her foul mouth and temper.
A brilliant performance.
“Chris Mannix” (Walton Goggins) My favourite character of The Hateful Eight, Goggins provides so much of the comedic slant to the film afforded by Tarantino’s pithy script but more importantly his almost boyish, naïve enthusiasm.
Goggins jumps and weaves on the screen in a lovely, if crazy, performance.
“Oswaldo Mobray” (Tim Roth) Returning to a Tarantino film for the first time since “Pulp Fiction” in 1994, Tim Roth is superb as an English Gentleman turned hangman who, like the rest of this nest of vipers, is en route to the town of Red Rock to conduct his role as area hangman. Elegant and eloquent, Mobray quickly assumes the role of peacemaker in the wooden cabin with his calm, unflappable persona and quick wit and charm. As with nearly every character, there is a hidden duality to his character and reason for being in such a remote cabin in the dead of winter, but Roth’s outgoing charm hides this perfectly and it was a joy to see him returning to a Tarantino film after all these years.
“Joe Gage” (Michael Madsen) In his 5th collaboration with the director, this is Madsen’s smallest and quietest role to date but equally an important one. Stuck in Minnie’s Haberdashery en route home to see his Mother for Christmas, he is simply a “cow puncher” writing his life story.
Would you trust such a story?
“General Sandy Smithers” (Bruce Dern) Retired Army General keeping warm by the fire before resuming the search for his long lost son. Just a joy to see Bruce Dern in a Tarantino film.
“Bob the Mexican” (Demian Birchir) Enjoys a good “Monzana Roya” with obligatory “Red Apple” tobacco and plays a mean and moody “Silent Night”.
Notable supporting roles are perfectly filled by a returning Zoe Bell as “Six Horse Judy”, Gene Jones as “Sweet Dave”, Dana Gourrier as “Minnie Mink” and particularly the brilliant James Parks as stagecoach driver “OB”, returning in his largest role to date in a Quentin Tarantino film. Including the Director himself as “Narrator”, the cast list only totals 18 characters, with one specific role deliberately omitted to negate spoilers but suffice to say the additional character, whilst a cameo role, is an important addition to a brilliant Tarantino film that will age with far more grace than the hate filled eight primarily named above! I adored this film from the opening frame on opening night before seeing it a further two times on the big screen and numerous times since on Blu Ray. Six Chapters of pure brilliance from eight well drawn characters in this auteur director’s eighth cinematic outing. But please stop counting Quentin and just keep producing superb films.
It’s been 25 years since the release of “Reservoir Dogs”. Here’s to the next 25 please!
Anyway, “old Mary Todd is calling, so it must be time for bed”.
Just don’t drink the coffee!
Thanks for reading. I’ve penned and self-published nine books to date with one reader proclaiming the book below to be the reason why they want to whisk me away to a Caribbean beach and live life like dolphins until the end of time. So I guess that’s a recommendation?
"Tales I Tell Myself" - link to Amazon
