The Hateful Eight

[Robyn]

this comment made me laugh:

From the trailer - at least, cause this is just a perception, since haven't seen the movie yet and honestly i am not sure I will eventually - it looks like more than a homage (especially with those great 70mm Panavision visuals) of Robert Altman's masterpiece "McCabe & Mrs.Miller" minus all the incredible insightful character's development, the stunning lirycal story telling, and, profound affecting disillusionment, so rich of texture and classic political undertones and romantic idealism so characterizing Altman's unforgettable epic, highly personal vision, social commentary and ground breaking filmmaking .

wtf is wrong with people.

[Garam]

This film was so much fun! He's really not taking himself seriously with this one. It's like he made an x-rated christmas pantomime - a farcical Western-set Reservoir Dogs. I can't say it's a deep movie, it clearly isn't, but it doesn't have a drop of pretension in its pores so I can't hold that against it. Like a Mel Brooks flick with the bloodshed of a Peckinpah. I loathed Django, so i'm really surprised to find myself enjoying this so much. For me it's easily his best film since Jackie Brown.


Think I might watch it again later tonight...

[Mel]

For me it's easily his best film since Jackie Brown.

I'm on the same page here, wasn't expecting too much, but in the end it is a huge surprise.

this comment made me laugh:

From the trailer - at least, cause this is just a perception, since haven't seen the movie yet and honestly i am not sure I will eventually - it looks like more than a homage (especially with those great 70mm Panavision visuals) of Robert Altman's masterpiece "McCabe & Mrs.Miller" minus all the incredible insightful character's development, the stunning lirycal story telling, and, profound affecting disillusionment, so rich of texture and classic political undertones and romantic idealism so characterizing Altman's unforgettable epic, highly personal vision, social commentary and ground breaking filmmaking .

wtf is wrong with people.

Yeah it is so wrong that is it funny. Speaking of influences, I think mainly of John Carpenter's The Thing - the setting, themes, Kurt Russel, Ennio Morricone and so on. You can find even few takes that doesn't make much sense plot wise, but feel like a direct reference. This ain't far fetched (just jump to 9:26):

[Garam]

Hah, good call! It does have a bit of a Thing vibe, especially the just don't fall asleep hook...


Rewatched it in the same day. A 3 hour movie too! Can't remember the last time I did that. It really does breeze by, 170 minutes feel like 90. Jennifer Jason Leigh is the stand out I think, but everyone's pulling their weight here.

[cronopio2]

i'm excited now.

[Mel]

Hah, good call! It does have a bit of a Thing vibe, especially the...

"One of them fellas is not who he says he is." vs "Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be."
Line from the front to the shithouse and O.B almost getting lost in a blizzard.

Still this is more a pop reference, "The Hateful Eight" stands on its own.

[Axolotl]

For me it's easily his best film since Jackie Brown.

Exactly.

I'd forgotten the feeling of not wanting a QT movie to end. I honestly could have taken another hour.

Edit: Also, this is funnier now. Mild spoiler.

The Hate Fellate

or

The Hate Fellatio

or

The Hateful 8"

[Something Spanish]

is this the first time a director used his own voice over as narration for their feature? Other than Woody Allen, I can't really think of any. Maybe Hitchcock?

[samsong]

this is pretty great and almost makes up for the unpleasantry that was Django Unchained, the irony being that in some ways, this is tarantino's most repugnant movie.  utterly nihilistic and immensly entertaining for it.  Tarantino's at his best when he isn't trying to uphold ideals outside of cinema.  here we find him a pig in shit, and I loved (almost) every minute of it.  pretty sure it'll play better out of the roadshow format.  ennio morricone done real good, and the song that closes the movie is as perfect as you got for that type of thing.

this is the Tarantino western I wanted.

[matt35mm]

is this the first time a director used his own voice over as narration for their feature? Other than Woody Allen, I can't really think of any. Maybe Hitchcock?

Bergman did it a few times.

[samsong]

is this the first time a director used his own voice over as narration for their feature? Other than Woody Allen, I can't really think of any. Maybe Hitchcock?

Bergman did it a few times.

carol reed did the opening narration of the third man.

orson welles narrated the magnificent ambersons.

[Neil]

So, from where I sit, we should discuss QT in a few different capacities.
He's sort of like Plato.

(Early QT)
The first being that Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown are one period (Sure, throw True Romance and Natural Born Killers in there, but they'll still lend themselves to this argument).

The 2nd period is Kill Bill(which I call early 2nd period), Death Proof, Inglorious Bastards and Django Unchained (Middle QT) .

Supposedly he's going to make 10 films then do other shit, so I count "The Hateful Eight" as his 8th film, and i'm going to say we've reached the Late QT phase.

What does that mean? This film isn't based on being a stylistic combative reaction to the cinematic norm (RD & PF), nor is it an extreme shock based revenge fantasy. The revenge we as an audience experience in IB and DU does not need to be set up in the same extensive way that Beatrix Kiddo's tale does. That's a simple fact. I can illicit an emotional response no matter what I do if my film is about re writing history in such a way as to have Hitler assassinated (you guessed it) by a Jewish woman. The same can be said about a film that takes place in the antebellum south and features a black protagonist that becomes a bounty hunter to kill not only the people who enslaved him and kidnapped his wife but other white people who endorsed the disgraceful act of slavery...yada yada yada. I'm not discounting QT, he's great. I'm saying The Hateful Eight is a new phase.

This film is as much a western as Kendrick Lamar's "to pimp a butterfly" is a jazz record.

Both works of art use the genres mentioned however neither fully commit nor do they rely on or have any interest in committing to the  boundaries that come along with those genres.  QT is showing us how efficiently his toolbox can be used. It's not flashy. It sure as hell doesn't feel like 3 hours, and nobody dies until like 20 seconds before the 1st intermission.

The blocking of this film is as impressive anything I've ever seen. QT has certain freedoms that some of those older (set piece driven) dramatists didn't have the technology to achieve. This is to say that way the audience discovers the layout of the main set piece in the film is done very well. The restricted/unrestricted knowledge is used perfectly.

I don't know, i'm kind of freaking out because I think this is his best film, hands down.

I need to read over this thread, but I haven't been on here in so long, I've not read what anyone's said, nor had I even seen so much as a trailer before going into the theater.

In retrospect, after almost deleting everything I just typed I'd like to say that this is QT at his best and most mature, and by mature it seems like he's got nothing to prove. It's not as if some action sequence stands out, or some dialogue piece stands out, it's a very well put together film that unfolds in a very satisfying way. You still get hints of the QT aspects you love, but here he's trying to wow in ways that only cinema can provide, and in such a way that it still feels exciting. The film moves forward very eloquently.

Lots more i'd like to say but it's four thir-tay. on a tues-dayyyy

Edit: I was so drunk when i typed this that I forgot QT made Death Proof, so i added that into his middle phase.

[samsong]

I don't know, i'm kind of freaking out because I think this is his best film, hands down.

when the movie ended this was my initial thought, but i shook it off as hyperbolic silliness.  now that i've sat with it a few days and it's festered in my brain, i'm kind of convinced that this tarantino's magnum opus.

[JG]

wish i shared your enthusiasm, but i found this movie very boring and a bit of a mixed bag. i'll dash off some thoughts..

SO MANY SPOILERS!

-the 70mm looked great, and the photography in general is a step above his recent output... felt a lot more naturalistic, as opposed to django which i thought looked bizarre and over-lit... this might be the best LOOKING thing he's done...
-the morricone! loved the score, though qt doesn't use it that much, doesn't really develop the themes, and instead uses some jack white song or something at some point. this matters to me, i think its very uncool.
-really liked the pace... there's not really another QT movie that MOVES like this. its slow, methodic (at least in its setup)... inglourious basterds obviously has some extended scenework, controlling tempo through dialogue, but QT pushes it all the way here... its like one of the sequences from basterds but for the entire 3 hours... the story shape QT uses is very appealing to me, even though i ultimately feel like the CONTENT of the story is pretty useless...
-my favorite scene in the movie is when they're outside setting up the rope as it gets dark.. the wind is whipping, the morricone is blaring, QT  and bob richardson zone out on the men doing their work - again, takes it time - maybe i'm the wrong audience member if my favorite part of a QT movie is the part where no one talks...
-i loved the parts where QT narrated. I found this endearing. Thought these sections were most fun, had some verve and pop that most of the movie lacked...
-thought the story was flat! i was with it for the first hour, but the twists and revelations in part 2 were not very satisfying. for example, bruce dern's character. why was he there, other than to provide sam with his moment at the end of part 1? in part 2, we learn more about dern's place in the habberdashery, but for what? he's already dead and has no bearing on the story.

can't help but be biased since i've heard QT talk about writing hateful 8 - he wrote with no outline (nbd), and let the story come to him as he wrote, so - in his words - when QT gets to minnie's haberdashery, he, like john ruth and co, doesn't know a thing about the characters in the haberdahsery. well it felt like that!  it has an around-the-campfire vibe to it, in that the storyteller is finding the story in the process of telling it, and throws in a good, juicy detail right when he notices you nodding off... i imagine QT narrating the whole thing.. "oh yeah, but i forgot to mention - this WHOLE time channing tatum has been waiting in the basement and he shoots sam jackson's nuts off!!!" These don't feel like dramatic turns as much as ways to kind of reinvent a stalled story.
-the dialogue is what it is. i was not offended by the N word, but i was also not especially tickled by any of the dialogue. my least favorite moment was minnie talking about her big booty, an anachronism that seemed to go over with well the crowd. i suppose those of you who had fun mostly liked the words, right? what were your favorite parts?

END SPOILERS

[Reelist]

What a treat to top off the colossally shitty year that was 2015. I needed every ounce of this movie. Not just as a fan of cinema, but as a man trying to make sense of the lowly prospects these times have to offer. I just felt so refreshed, firstly by the snow. We didn't have any on the ground here until December 27th. It was like some sort of apocalyptic hell, to experience 70 degree weather in December. No one understood wtf was going on, then it finally began to fall and we carried on with our typical complaints about it. I admired QT's wishes to shoot a film where we aren't being blasted by the San Fernando Valley sun at every waking moment. It seemed to be a mark of true maturity, that he'd venture into such foreign territory to create this perfect atmosphere. I was just kind of basking in the glory of all that until the true signature of the man showed it's face: his use of the dreaded 'N' word. Really, at first you think "What does this guy have to prove, always throwing this word around?" If you look back on his filmography, he always has to sprinkle it in there. I don't think 'Kill Bill' features it, and that's probably because it's set in cartoon fantasyland. What came to me while watching this is that he simply wants to push our buttons, grab our attention. Whether it be by the use of extreme violence, profanity, corrupted behavior, he's going to keep us watching. What's interesting about the use of that word in this movie is that it has a particular sting because we're only dealing with one major black character, who also happens to be our protagonist. So, whenever it is dropped you can feel the time bomb start ticking of when that character is going to receive their comeuppance. We're not dealing with your average 'black man', but a former slave who made his way to top of the military ranks and has spent his entire life proving that he is not 'that word'. It's not a question of 'If' someone will be punished for calling him that, but 'When?'. Therein lies the crux of suspense in the story. It's a very funny movie, ( really, which of his isn't? ) but I noticed he never used that word as a punchline. The brashness of the characters saying it may in itself be, but the desired effect is not to make the audience guffaw at it being uttered ( although I'm sure in Mississippi, many will. ) I think what QT has been trying to do with these last 3 films is rub our faces in the mud of history a little bit in an attempt to wake us up to how these systems we operate in came to be. He's not lying when he chooses to display such atrocities, but he DOES want to entertain the hell out of us. More than that, he aims to provoke. He wants us to squirm in our seats at the sound of his words and the grotesquery of his violence knowing that we'll all leave the theater with an experience we're eager to talk about. Really, what more could you ask of a movie?

There is so much beyond this I want to go into, but to comment on any of the plot points would be superfluous right now. It's a movie I'll probably see 5 more times this year. I have plenty more to say, but with this small review I just want to give our man a pat on the back for doing us yet another solid.