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For 2012’s Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino brought his signature snappy dialogue and over-the-top action to the Western genre—a place that somehow seemed strangely well-suited to his iconic filmmaking style. So, for the follow-up, The Hateful Eight, he’s back with another fast-talking, gun-slinging Western adventure.
The Hateful Eight ventures into the wilderness of Wyoming with a couple of bounty hunters who find themselves stranded in a blizzard. John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell) is on his way to Red Rock to cash in on his capture of wanted murderer Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) when he meets fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson). They travel together through the storm to Minnie’s Haberdashery, where they’re forced to wait out the storm with a number of other men—including a cowboy, the new sheriff, and the local hangman. And it isn’t long before suspicions and tensions cause their visit to turn deadly.
With his latest film, Tarantino once again mixes a wide variety of genres. The Hateful Eight is chatty and clever and suspenseful and action-packed—part gritty Western, part twisted comedy, part Agatha Christie mystery, and all Tarantino.
It takes its time in setting up the action—probably a little too much time. As the two bounty hunters meet in the snowy wilderness, they gradually settle into the story—but it isn’t until the key players all meet up at Minnie’s that things start to get interesting. First, there’s the fact that Ruth is traveling with a woman who’s worth $10,000 to anyone who can get her to town, dead or alive. There’s also the fact that Minnie is nowhere to be found, leaving a mysterious caretaker to hold down the fort. And then there are the tensions between the various characters—most of which, in this post-Civil War setting, can be divided into North versus South.
As the characters prepare to wait out the blizzard together, they spend a whole lot of time talking. Here’s where Tarantino allows his cast to have fun with their characters—to be as silly and over-the-top as they want to be (and Tim Roth and Samuel L. Jackson really want to be). It’s all pretty captivating stuff—after all, Tarantino is a master of quirky dialogue—but, after a while, the conversations start to feel long-winded and drawn-out.
Fortunately, though, after audiences have gotten to know the characters, their stories, their conflicts, and their quirks, the tension finally comes to a head—and the bloodbath begins. And, once it does, it’s a big, crazy, violent free-for-all—in true Tarantino style.
Smart and amusing but long and generally unhurried, The Hateful Eight has everything that fans have come to love about this distinctive director and his films. It’s definitely an entertaining and artistic adventure—and it’s unlike anything you’ll see anywhere else—but the pieces don’t come together quite as well as they have in some of Tarantino’s other films.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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