The Hateful Eight
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Self-indulgence and Quentin Tarantino are often synonymous; this is the case once again, stronger than ever, in the director’s eight film, aptly named The Hateful Eight.
Brimming with trademark cheeky dialogue, gorgeous cinematography, and brutal violence, the Civil war-era epic boasts many of the filmmaker’s unique, quirky strengths but also contains several rare missteps along the way.
Packed with another star-studded ensemble, The Hateful Eight features excellent performances from main players Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Demián Bichir, Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, and a dash of grizzled veteran Bruce Dern. Set during a Wyoming blizzard, sometime after the America Civil War, the group is confined to a quaint haberdashery to wait out the storm, while tensions slowly begin to mount, until the inevitable bloodbath ensues; this is a Tarantino film after all.
Technically, the movie is admirably brilliant. Cinematographer Robert Richardson, a frequent Tarantino collaborator, shot on 65 mm film using Ultra Panavision 70 and the results are often dazzling. Composer Ennio Morricone, who put his own distinctive musical stamp on Westerns over the years, conjures up another harrowing score, his first in 40 years, which builds the dread effectively. Yet, halfway through the film, problems begin to emerge. The director himself narrates an extended sequence, immediately following the intermission, with unnecessary exposition and the already bloated runtime begins to slog with gratuitous and repetitive storytelling.
The Hateful Eight is hellishly entertaining but it also appears Tarantino might need some new tricks up his sleeve.
