HAPPY NEW YEAR! For those of you deciding which movie to see tonight rather than watching the semi-finals of the college football playoff … or going to some booze-infused party, here is the latest review from my holiday movie odyssey. I sat through all three hours of Quentin Tarantino’s The H8ful 8. There is good reason to hate it … or, if you love violence, to see it.
The Hateful Eight (Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Walter Goggins, Channing Tatum) – An important warning: If you don’t like movie violence, do not even consider seeing this film. The director, whose ego borders that of Donald Trump, proclaims that this is “the eighth movie by Quentin Tarantino” in the opening credits, thus setting the stage for … TADA … a Quentin Tarantino movie! Wow!
I could hardly quell my excitement as I sat in an almost empty theater on a holiday week to watch the blood and guts that is The H8ful 8. Tarantino’s troupe includes several of his regulars, including the incomparable Sam Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Django Unchained), Curt Russell (Grindhouse), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Kill Bill II), Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs), Walter Goggins (Django Unchained), and Bruce Dern (Django Unchained).
To this, he adds Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue (DOM er goo), a killer with a bounty on her head being brought to Red Rock, Wyoming, by The Hangman, John Ruth (Russell), a notorious bounty hunter. There is a massive blizzard a-fallin’ and a stagecoach carrying them comes upon a black bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), seeking to hitch a ride along with the two dead bodies he’s a-totin. Along the way, they pick up a stranded southerner claiming to be the incoming sheriff of Red Rock, Chris Mannix (Walter Goggins). Somehow, these guys in the middle of Wyoming know of each other.
There is no way they are going to make it all the way to Red Rock in the snow so they shoot to get to Minnie’s Haberdashery, a well-known roadhouse and way station. When these “hateful four” get there, Minnie, Sweet Dave, and Six-Horse Judy aren’t there but four other people are: Bob (Damien Bichir), the Mexican cook; Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the incoming hangman for Red Rock; Joe Gage (Madsen), a local who is going to Red Rock to see his mother; and General Sandy Smithers (Dern), an ex-Confederate general on his way to visit his son.
The journey to Minnie’s takes about 20 minutes. The next more than 2½ hours take place in the Haberdashery. There is no reason for me to tell you more. Suffice it to say there is a plethora of classic old western dialogue and a whole bunch of guns, shooting, gross violence, twists and turns. As with Django Unchained, which I loved, Eight feels like a classic western with a great soundtrack, exceptional photography, and fantastic acting.
But what a bloody mess! There is so much violence that I laughed at a couple of the most violent points. It is like Tarantino says to himself: “How can I take this a step too far?” But he has always been known for extreme violence in his films. After all, he directed two Kill Bill movies.
Tarantino’s dialogue is sometimes a little too 20th century but his storytelling is unique. While most people love his Pulp Fiction best, my favorite is Jackie Brown, where the violence adds to the story, doesn’t overwhelm it. That is not true here. The movie is the violence. So unless you love to see blood and guts, don’t spend the money and three hours to see The Hateful Eight. While this is vintage Tarantino, this is not a must-see.