Marval Movie

The Hateful Eight is a big story, told in a small setting and with a rather small cast. It is a Western that dials back the bombast and instead takes characters from multiple movies and puts them togther in a pressure cooker of a situation.

We open on a snowy mountain where a carriage comes across a figure sitting atop three frozen dead bodies. The one sitting on the bodies is Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) a bounty hunter on his way to the town of Red Rock, the carriage is driven by O.B. (James Parks) and inside is John Ruth (Kurt Russell) another bounty-hunter that's transporting his latest catch Daisey Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), they are both on their way to Red Rock. On their way they also pick-up a scoundrel by the name of Chris Mannex (Walton Goggins) who is on his way to Red Rock to become the new sheriff. They work their way over the mountains and then take refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, Minnie is nowhere to be seen, apparently she left for the week to visit her mother, she left the place to Bob (Demian Bichir). The others residing inside are an Englishman by the name of Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth) who is also the hangman at Red Rock, a loner that's just visiting his mother for Christmas by the name of Joe Cage (Michael Madsen) and an old general from the south Sandford Smithers (Bruce Dern), also heading to Red Rock. They are all there with their goals and are unable to leave for about two or three days while the blizzard is going on. Pretty soon also, John Ruth suspects that one of the men must be there to help Domergue escape, but which one?

The plot is like something Agatha Christie would come-up with. One location, multiple, interesting as well as distinct characters that are brought together by chance or decision and are now kept together by an act of God. And of course the ever hanging question of who's who?

This is a dream cast in anybodies book. A few of these actors are either regular Tarantino collaborators or returning to work with him again after many years. They are all given their quirks and unique personalities that they are able to perform well and even more importantly act-off the others just as good.

This is Tarantino's second Western movie, he had great success with his last being Django Unchained and he seems to have found his comfort-zone in this genre. It allows him to have quirky, memorable characters, violence and interesting settings. Though I seems as if this is also a falter of the movie. In the end none of these characters are very admirable or even likable. It's a dog-eat-dog world with violent imagery and I don't even know the point. It doesn't tell or reveal anything, colorful and memorable yes, but anything of true substance or even any kind of message? Not really.

The movies length is a little over three hours. This is indeed a long film and if a movie is three hours it has to justify it's run-time. There are seemingly pointless elements in the film but nearly all of them come back to play a part in the mystery. Even though it stands well as it is it could have been written shorter. There is a lot of opportunities for more brevity within this work. Tarantino specializes in having meaty obrolan sessions that build on his characters but also unknowingly work their way to their point. Here though, he could have written it with a little less meat on the bones.

Anyone who really knows Tarantino's work knows his passion for over-the-top violence and gore. In his other films like Kill Bill or Inglorious Basterds it worked fine. But when the moments of blood come it just seems like over-embellishment from a director that has been allowed to get away with it for too long. It becomes more distracting and ridiculous than any-type of fun or engaging.

This is Tarantino's eighth film and the first time in his whole career that he has had a composer create an original score for his movie. Ennio Morricone, who's work includes The Thing, Once upon a Time in America, Bugsy and The Untouchables doers indeed deliver a score with much character. I didn't really remember it though being that this is the first Tarantino movie with an original score I might be placing too much attention and pressure on it.

Roger Ebert once wrote that Tarantino is "too gifted to make a boring film, but he could possibly make a bad one" this is not a bad film. Though it does show some of the elements that should be tightened-up or toned down that he is now allowed to go mad with. Everyone can make mistakes and he is not the exception. But still this is well made, memorable, cleverly written, good looking and it will have you engaged throughout and you'll also find yourself laughing and in-shock throughout that engagement.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 4