The poster above is perfect for this movie. It makes complete sense after you’ve watched it. I consider myself a casual fan of Quentin Tarantino, I can live without most of his material and completely dig a few of his others. The Hateful Eight gets added to the dig pile.
It’s not long after the Civil War and it’s the dead of winter in Wyoming. A bounty hunter, John Ruth, is traveling with a catch, Daisy Domergue, to Red Rocks to claim his reward. En route he picks up two stranded men (another bounty hunter and the new sheriff of Red Rocks) and they have to take shelter in a cabin to make it through a blizzard. When the travelers get there, they meet and must withstand a few suspicious characters.
Because this is a QT picture, you can expect a few things: memorable characters (played by many returning actors that QT loves), a ton of dialog (180-minute runtime), a killer soundtrack, a whole lotta mayhem and even more cursing. This move thrives entirely by its cast.
While the entire cast if fantastic, the showstoppers for me are Jennifer Jason Leigh (Daisy Domergue, love this name!) and Walton Goggins (Chris Mannix). JJL is absolutely amazing, she might be remembered most for this role from here on out. Transformative is the only word I can think of. She’s unrecognizable as this hell raiser. Just her facial expressions during the carriage ride at the beginning should have won her an Acadamy Award. A lot of credit to Kurt Russell (John Ruth) too as they work off each other a lot and have a symbiosis that’s only matched later by Goggins and Sam L. Jackson. Walton Goggins knocked my socks off every week in Justified and it’s clear that QT was too because he’s perfectly cast for this role. The way he delivers lines is just something else. I can’t describe how well he works on screen, you just have to see it.
QT and his DP went nuts on this movie as it’s a real looker. Much was made about filming on 70mm and the biggest takeaway from that is how wide the frame is. As most of the movie takes place in the cabin, QT gets a huge amount of the set in one frame and he works his blocking around it. He fits a lot of important things in the entire frame, but it also remains very spartan looking at the same time (the lighting work in this movie is incredible, it’s like a character itself). There’s usually big spacing between characters and he’ll move the camera a bit to the left or right for reveals and he uses the depth of the set to great effect as well. I can think of two scenes that use some ingenious rack focusing to wordlessly tell a plot and build suspense. The camera may be stationary, but the scene and story move as the focus changes back and forth from someone in the background to someone in the foreground. Brilliant stuff.
I thought the first 20 minutes was a little slow while the last hour flew by. I’m not sure how well this will hold up to repeated viewings, but it’s a hell of a ride. It really took me by surprise. I loved how it went from a travel movie into a claustrophobic whodunnit. I was also not expecting that I was going to laugh like a maniac. The characters and what they do are absolutely nuts. So much caught me off guard that it made me scream in delight. Just about everything Marquis Warren does is epic, the trash talking that Daisy does, Mannix’s reactions and with crack with every single line. I can’t recall a movie I’ve seen recently with such unique, defined and enthralling collection of characters.
Be forewarned! This picture gets intense! There is some intense violence and QT rolls around in the blood once it’s on the ground. I think this is a love it or hate it movie, but I for one loved it.