“Hateful Eight” Continues Tarantino’s Violent, Brilliant Streak

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Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, The Hateful Eight, begins in snowy Wyoming, where Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) hitches a ride from John Ruth (Kurt Russell) after being stranded. John Ruth is taking Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock in order to be hanged. They also pick up Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), the alleged new sheriff of Red Rock, who antagonizes throughout. The four of them start off the movie with heavy dialogue until they get to Minnie’s Haberdashery, a mountain overpass, to wait out the impending snow storm. There, the first and second half of the Hateful Eight will collide, and the results are just as suspenseful and bloody as you’d expect.

All eight of Tarantino’s characters are ugly–some physically, with knocked out teeth and bloody faces, but that is only complementary to the fact that they are so repugnant in virtue. Despite Quentin’s love for murderous, vengeful, but ultimately righteous protagonists (see Beatrix Kiddo, Shoshanna Dreyfus), he doesn’t paint a single one here with any stroke of integrity (at least in the beginning). He also aims to make audiences as uncomfortable as possible. The blood and gore has always been a part of oeuvre and is still amplified here. Instead, it’s the tone in which he delivers it: characters are constantly degraded and humiliated. In fact, I couldn’t laugh at any quips before it was at least half way over because I dreaded too much what was to come. It’s only until after the violence are you able to decide who is at least partially innocent (and are you able to laugh out loud). Quentin’s got years of experience in manipulation like this, but The Hateful Eight is especially clever considering how far the boundaries of Tarantino’s work and westerns are pushed.

Ennio Morricone’s score is a mix of western and horror tropes. Like his past work (most notably The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) it revolves around a few note theme and repeats it again and again with different variations- and it’s just as effective. It’s simple, but it’s so haunting, exciting, and triumphant, serving as a great foundation for the tone of this movie.

The Hateful Eight is nothing unexpected; considering Tarantino’s past work, it’s incredibly characteristic. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s an old news movie; the dialogue is so easy to get caught in, and the strangeness of it all makes it a very remarkable watch. Tarantino continues to bring something new to the table while bringing back the glory of film.