Hateful is apt; this film is often repulsive, too. I understand why Quentin Tarantino is worshipped in film circles, but I have never been a huge fan of his. On the other hand, I did like Django Unchained, so I don’t hate the guy either. Of Tarantino’s self-professed eight films, all of which I have seen, this one ranks right up with Deathproof as the most pointless. It’s well made and stylish, but serious film should also have a purpose.
Tarantino’s latest puts a bounty hunter (Kurt Russell) and his female prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) at a remote Wyoming haberdashery (?) during a blizzard. Also taking refuge are several other men (Samuel L. Jackson, Demián Bichir, Walton Goggins, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and James Parks) who may or may not be ready to interfere with Russell’s plan to take Leigh to Red Rock to be hanged.
It’s an interesting premise, one which, thanks to Tarantino’s gift for intricate, theatrical dialogue, plays like an Agatha Christie drawing room mystery, only with blood and guts when things turn ugly. And things turn very ugly. Not just visually, with vomit and blood and heads completely blown off, but thematically, with the woman being beaten repeatedly, and verbally, with almost everyone using and abusing the N-word and other profanities. The film’s first half is so talky that it is alternately boring and offensive; the second half is genuinely repulsive — and yet fascinating.
To be sure, I do not like this film. It is not enjoyable in any sense (although a few things made me laugh). Yet it did pique my interest, partly because Ennio Morricone’s somewhat original score also uses four tracks from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), and the film’s structure also resembles The Thing, with suspicion being the invader which threatens everyone in that isolated haberdashery (?). Couldn’t it have just been a trading post? I cannot recommend The Hateful Eight to anyone other than a Tarantino fan, and even then I would argue that it is his worst full-length feature. ☆ ☆. 7 January 2016.