Summary
With a blizzard on their trail, a bounty hunter, his bounty, and a couple of hitch hikers decide to hunker down at Millie’s Haberdashery for the next couple of days but with four additional occupants already there, tensions are high and patience is thin.
The Film
I remember loving this movie in the theater but upon seeing it again, it’s definitely one of my Top Tarantino films. I think that is because it is such a unique piece of work from him.
Now, if that last statement has you worried, don’t you fret none. There is plenty of violence and there are plenty of F-words and N-words to slake your thirst. This is still a Tarantino film after all.
It is, however, one of his slower films. Some may find that boring but to me a fuse isn’t boring just because it’s long. Each conversation, each scene is about laying the ground work for the ending. It’s about exploring characters and who they say they are or aren’t.
Uh oh. I guess that means it’s at least a little bit about identity and you know I love a movie about that. To be fair, it would be hard to make a movie so heavily influenced by John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and not have it be about identity.
Another reason this film is unique amongst the rest of his films is that Tarantino sets the film almost entirely in one location. Now I suppose “Reservoir Dogs” is close but it isn’t quite the same. “Reservoir Dogs” is about the part of a crime we don’t normally get to see. It isn’t about the heist really at all but “The Hateful Eight” is all about what happens in that cabin. The real action isn’t happening elsewhere and we get to see the ramifications behind closed doors. This is a freaking bottle episode and it’s freaking long. Pretty ambitious.
The last thing I found unique and utterly delightful in this film is the way that Tarantino almost sets up a classic murder mystery film. Now the murder hasn’t quite happened yet but the suspicions are there and we even have ourselves a sleuth or two amongst the eight who will wax a time on who might have done what and when.
I found myself feeling like I was watching a Poirot story or maybe Holmes.
The film is like classic literature turned on its head. Most westerns are set in burgeoning towns and across vast wind swept plains. This one is in a cabin. In murder mystery everyone tries to figure out who killed Mr. Body. In this one we are trying to figure out who is going to get to kill that certain some one.
This may make it a strange film but it also makes it one of Tarantino’s most enduring films, for me at least. With many of his films I am willing to bet you could blow me off of any given choice. If I sit down to watch “Kill Bill” but my wife wants to watch “Jackie Brown” I’d probably be game. “Inglourious Basterds” or “Django Unchained.” Flip a coin.
But if I set down to watch “The Hateful 8” then I’m in the mood for “The Hateful 8” and no other Tarantino film will quite fit the same mood.
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