American Myth - The Hateful Eight (2015)

When I started this journey, I knew that I was going to include one of Quentin Tarantino's three westerns. Yes, three westerns: Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Kill Bill Part 2. The second Kill Bill movie wouldn't do, as it was more of a spiritual western, not to mention the second half of a super-movie. I actually watched Django, only to find, at its end, that the film wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it. Or, rather, that Tarantino was still working out the kinks on what he wanted to say about the western. So I decided to watch The Hateful Eight, and have decided to include it, here, as the final western in my month-long sojourn in the genre.

Summary:

A group of people are trapped in an old haberdashery in the mountains, pinned down by a blizzard. Most of them are on their way to Red Rock, for various reasons: two bounty hunters and their quarry; the new sheriff; the traveling hang man; an ex-confederate, looking for his son. As the night goes by, they will find that more than circumstance has brought them together. And some of them may not live to see the morning.

Pros:

A Genuine Morricone: Somehow, Quentin Tarantino got Ennio Morricone to score his film. And it is a doozy. There is a palpable sense of dread, permeating the film from its very first frame, and it is due, largely, to Morricone's thrilling score. The music is sweeping, and beautiful to listen to, even as it makes your heart race.

Crackerjack Cast: One of Tarantino's strengths has always been his ability to handpick actors suited to selling his dialogue, and crowding as many amazing performers into a movie as he can. This movie has a limited cast, but he assembled a real murderer's row. Kurt Russel is "The Hangman" John Ruth, because he always takes his prey in alive, and he always watches them hang. Always. Russel's easy charisma is put to the test, as he repeatedly bashes his prisoner, a woman (and such a one), in the face for any seeming disrespect. Ruth is a protagonist, but not a hero. I love that Russel gets to stretch his muscles as kind of a piece of shit. Samuel L. Jackson is Major Marquis Warren, another bounty hunter, who always takes HIS prey in dead. Always. Warren is also no hero, prone, as he is, to killing people without mercy. Jackson has ALWAYS belonged in Tarantino's films, and no one relishes the dialogue better than Jackson. Warren is canny and dangerous, and we get Samuel L. Jackson fully in his element. Jennifer Jason Leigh is Ruth's captive, Daisy Domergue. And she is a real piece of work. She spits acid and vitriol with each word, and actually spits globs of saliva and blood, quite often. Leigh knows when to flavor her words with hate and impish glee. Her character's a talker, but watch her movements, too: she knows how to convey a lot with a darted look, or a crooked smile. Walton Goggins gets his full Tarantino on (after having a bit part in Django Unchained), and he revels in it. His Chris Mannix is, by turns, goofy, clever, dangerous, and stupid. And it's all wrapped in Goggins' southern-fried signature twang. Everyone in this movie brings their characters to life, and helps build the tension in that snowbound haberdashery.

Absolutely Fucking Beautiful: This is, probably, Tarantino's most beautiful movie to look at. He shot it in 70 mm. Ultra Panavision. And all that trouble paid off. The snowy vistas, that cramped wagon train, and the shoddy haberdashery are all shown in incredible detail, thanks to the quality of the film and camera being used. Tarantino has always had an eye for framing, but he goes the extra mile here: he uses natural frames throughout the film to highlight his actors faces. A window on a stage coach, a doorway, hanging chains from the ceiling, bottles, and chairs. Pay attention to how Tarantino shows you his actors. They are always cleverly positioned, well-staged, and beautifully shot. I like, also, how he uses light in this film. Light either filters through open windows, or loose crannies in the walls, or seems to beam down from the ceiling like a spotlight. What we get, because of that, is a beautiful juxtaposition of laser like beams of light and dark pools of shadows. The light plays against the costumes and the scenery and makes everything feel real, and stark, and mysterious.

A Stage Play: This is a movie, but it feels like a play. The scenes are long, dialogue driven, and take place in singular locations. Tarantino stays in these locations and lets characters accumulate in them, building the sense that something just isn't right, here. Whether that be a stage coach, or the haberdashery. He lets his camera explore each location, too, allowing the audience to feel at home in each scene, like you would in a theatre. The dialogue, aside from being Tarantino's usually clever and tripping quality, is also packed with information. When the characters are talking, they are either telling you something about themselves, telling you something about the plot, or telling you something about other characters. Some of this dialogue might feel extraneous, but Tarantino, for all his bluster, does not waste words. If it made the cut, it's here for a reason. This is Tarantino's western (one of them, anyway), but it is also his parlor drama: largely set in one claustrophobic location. The wordiness, and the talk, and the loving, lingering camera shots help the build, too. This film is a powder keg with a lit fuse. And it does explode, in glorious fashion. But part of the drama in that explosion is part and parcel with Tarantino's slow-burn approach. This is a film, yes, but it feels like a play, and that is rad.

The Details: I love the little things in this movie. The sound design is lush and gorgeous: filled with neighing horses, creaking leather, jingly bells, and all sorts of bits and bobs to make you feel like you are actually there. Then there's the steam: it's cold enough that hot liquid steams, and the actors' breath puffs out in clouds. The steam travels into and out of the light, and just looks beautiful. It gathers under hat brims, and settles into the air in interesting ways. Then there's the loose eddies of snow that flitter through beams of light in the haberdashery. It is shoddily constructed, and snow seems to get in everywhere. And, with that Panavision camera, the audience gets to see little bits of white dancing around in nearly every frame. These are all little touches, things you might not even notice the first time, but really add to the beauty of the film.

The Lincoln Letter: The movie features a minor plot that I feel says more about race in America than the entirety of Django Unchained ever did. It focuses on a letter that Major Warren has from Abraham Lincoln. It is famous, and something he is known for. People are always asking to read his letter. But there's one problem: it's bullshit. He never wrote to Lincoln, and Lincoln never wrote to him. But, as he says, he, a black man, needs something to disarm white folks. Black people are only ever safe, he says, when white people are disarmed. A letter from an assassinated President will do the trick. Warren is distrusted by many, from the get-go, by the color of his skin, and the n-word gets thrown around like hotcakes. It is only the letter that earns the trust and respect of Ruth, and Warren's passage aboard his stage coach. It doesn't keep Ruth from using words like, "Darkies," and other epithets, but Ruth is taken in by the letter, by the story, disarmed, and thusly feels safe enough to engage with Warren on a personal level. Of course, when the letter is revealed to be a fraud, you can see the hurt and rage painted on Ruth's face, as Warren explains the whole matter. Ruth is only hurt because the one reason he trusted Warren was proved to be fraudulent. If he had trusted Warren, because Warren could be trusted, he probably wouldn't have gotten so hurt. It's a minor thing, but I think it speaks volumes about race in America. About what it's like to be black in this country, even all these years after Emancipation.

Costumes Are Unique: Each character gets a wonderful, defining and distinct costume. Ruth has his gigantic furs, that puff him up and make him seem twice his size. Daisy Domergue's coat is lined with sleek black fur. Warren's cavalry coat is juxtaposed royal blue with a peacock yellow, and there's that glorious scarf that hides his face half the time. Each character has a unique look that says something essential about their character, and that is really cool. Westerns often will settle for putting everyone in a duster, a hat and some boots, but Courtney Hoffman, the costume designer, has gone the extra mile to make everyone feel real, and lived, and authentic.

Cons:

It's Long: Look, I have raged against long films a lot. Especially in this series of western films. And The Hateful Eight is a damn long movie, clocking in at three hours and seven minutes. That is the longest film I have watched in this entire series. However, I have also talked about how long movies need to earn their length, and I fully believe that Tarantino earns his length, here. Part of the fun is the slow burn, and the character touches, and the monologues: I am not sure what he'd cut, to save time, and I, as a true-blue fan, wouldn't have this movie any other way. Your mileage, however, may vary.

The N-Word: There was a hubbub, when the movie was released, about Tarantino's repeated, and nasty, use of the N-word in this film. If you do not like this word, and cannot bear to hear it, steer clear of this movie. However, many of the characters in this film are white, quite a few are southern, and the action takes place after the Civil War. The n-word, and worse, would have been used to describe Marquis Warren with regularity. It would have been part and parcel with his life as a black man. If that offends you, I am sorry, but that's kind of the way things were. History wasn't always nice and pretty and inoffensive. There's a reason that word still exists in our lexicon, and it isn't because it's a quaint relic of an ancient time. That word exists because it was used, it was used regularly, and it was used with venom.

In Conclusion:

I think Tarantino has said all that he can say about the western, and I think Kill Bill and Django Unchained were his warm ups for what he would do with The Hateful Eight. The film is beautiful, by any metric, the story is thrilling, and the characters engaging. It is hard to ask for more of a film.

Should You Watch It?

Consider it one of Tarantino's best. Consider it an excellent addition to the western canon. Consider it the best western made in the last eight years.

Miscellany:

- This is Ennio Morricone's first western in 34 years. He would win the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on this film. He had a month to score the film, and produced music from only reading the script.

- Kurt Russel's character smashes a guitar at one point. That was an antique 1870s Martin guitar. Russel was not aware that it was not a prop, and smashed the shit out of it, to the horror of everyone on set. Jennifer Jason Leigh's response, in that scene, is real. The damage was deemed irreparable. The Martin Museum, now, does not lend guitars to film productions.
- Tarantino scored the use of an Ultra Panavision 70 mm camera, one of the few remaining cameras of its kind in existence, to shoot this film. Panavision even made a 2,000 ft. film magazine to accommodate Tarantino's penchant for long takes. The production was able to use the same lenses that were used to film the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959). 
- Tarantino made two cuts of this film: one the three hour Road Show piece to be shown in 70 mm, and the other a standard release that was twenty minutes shorter. The bluray contains the three hour cut.
- The script was leaked early, and Tarantino was not happy about it, threatening law suits and to not make the film as a result. In 2014, Tarantino conducted a stage reading of the original draft of the script at the United Artists Theater in the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. Samuel L. Jackson was a part of this reading, and was one of the major factors in persuading Tarantino to go ahead and make the movie.
- This is the first Tarantino film to feature an entire original score.
- Russel's performance is a paean to John Wayne, and he even says "That'll be the day!" a reference to The Searchers (1956).