Review 530: The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight is admittedly lengthy and challenging for viewers, but it's outstanding atmosphere, great performances and stellar work from Quentin Tarantino makes

In 1877, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as "The Hangman" plans to bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town's new sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie's, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces: Bob (Demian Bichir), who's taking care of Minnie's while she's visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) and Confederate Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, these eight travellers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all...

The plot is an absurd work of art.
Told in six chapters, the lengthy 167 minute narrative plays out unfolds like an extremely well written det. story. Throughout the film, Tarantino makes it ubundently clear that we're watching a bunch of unreliable narrators: Every character is an enigma, we can never tell which character is lying or telling the truth. We never find what Daisy did to have a $10,000 bounty on her head. Because she has that bounty on her head, Tarantino wisely and smartly leaves plenty of room for us as an audience to make assumptions about her that she's undeniably dangerous and not to be trifeld with.

Confining this film to a single dark, cluttered haberdashery lends itself to a truly claustrophobic atmosphere and a tense viewing experience. This a bold move on Tarantino's part that more than pays off. All the characters in The Hateful Eight are untrustworthy and to put them in a singular room and trap them there with a blizzard that's almost akin to a monster in a monster film,

Tarantino's direction is typically taut and  the score by Ennio Morricone is magnificent and reflects the moody, tension-building work that Tarantino is aiming for, the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beauty, the isolation and the wildness of Wyoming, the scenery is breathtaking, the costumes are lavish, the production design is immaculate.

There are splendidly marvellous performances all round. Tarantino has assembled an incredibly stacked cast talented actors, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Demian Bichir and Channing Tatum in a small but pivotal role.

It's a joyous pleasure to see Jennifer Jason Leigh in film again after such a long time.

5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.