The Hateful Eight (2015)

Director/writer Quentin Tarantino exercises his expertise in showing man's inhumanity to man in this story of a bounty hunter meeting some mysterious strangers in a Wyoming blizzard on his way to collect his payoff in the mid 1800s. QT is a quintessential film student and, as such, shot the movie in 70mm film, which is wider with higher resolution than the old standard 35mm or the new standard digital. Jack and I combined another road trip and went last weekend to the only theatre in our state showing the movie in that format last weekend, although a local theatre will be getting it here soon. Oh well. Here's a list of the original fifty theatres with the special prints. Our sold-out house was polite and quiet, and the bigger print featured an intermission halfway through its 187 minutes. The digital version is 167 minutes long with no intermission, and, in both versions, the first bloodbath isn't for twenty minutes or so, but they come fast and furious after that. QT fans all know there will be blood. And terrible language. And people behaving badly.

As the bounty hunter, Kurt Russell (he began working at age 10 and is now 64--his earliest big hit was Escape from New York (1981), then Silkwood (1983), Swing Shift (1984), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Overboard (1987) where he met his now-wife Goldie Hawn, Tequila Sunrise (1988), Vanilla Sky (2001), to name some that I've seen, and he was in Tarantino's Grindhouse (2007) but we didn't see that one) is appropriately grizzled and Samuel L. Jackson (last blogged in Chi-Raq) is dependably scary and profane as the recipient of countless N-words. Oh look, someone counted them, 47, but that was in a script leaked pre-production. I think it's low.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (most recently in Kill Your Darlings) has already won the National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress plus a Golden Globe nomination for playing the bounty. Then we have Tim Roth (last in Selma as George Wallace, and in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) he was Honey-Bunny's Pumpkin) and Damián Bichir (most recently in A Better Life) using their native accents, English and Mexican, respectively. Chatterbox Walton Goggins (Jack knew him from the series Justified and I knew him from Miracle at St. Anna, Cowboys & Aliens, and Django Unchained, though I neglected to credit him) is quite funny. Michael Madsen had been working for a while before QT cast him in his first movie Reservoir Dogs (1992) and some of my favorites include The Natural (1984), Thelma & Louise (1991), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Tombstone (1993), Mulholland Falls (1996), Donnie Brasco (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and 2 (2004), among my favorites of his 245 credits. His character is a strong silent type, as is Bruce Dern's (last in Nebraska which earned him an Oscar nomination).

Some of the trailers call this The H8ful Eight, Quentin Tarantino's (most recently in these pages for Django Unchained) eighth movie. Here are the seven: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds, and Django, and today I heard Sam Jackson say QT intends to stop at ten. I somehow doubt it. The reason the above-mentioned Grindhouse isn't on the list is that it was one of several collaborations with others. 

Oscar-winning (for JFK (1991), The Aviator (2005), and Hugo) and -nominated (for Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Snow Falling on Cedars (2000)--the one I didn't see, Basterds, and Django) cinematographer Robert Richardson (also shot Talk Radio (1988), A Few Good Men (1992), The Horse Whisperer (1998), both Kill Bills, The Good Shepherd (2006), Inglorious, Shutter Island, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and more) gives us magnificent images both inside and out in the West.

Composer Ennio Morricone is 87 years old and has yet to win an Oscar. This may be his year. He won an honorary award in 2007 and was nominated for Days of Heaven (1978), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Bugsy (1991), and Malèna (2000), and is also known for his good work on A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), 1900 (1976), La cage aux Folles (1978), The Professional (1981), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Cinema Paradiso (1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), In the Line of Fire (1993), Wolf (1994), Lolita (1997), Bulworth (1998), among those I've seen of his 528(!) credits. You can stream the whole soundtrack on youtube here or on spotify here but they are peppered with dialogue so you might be better off looking for individual tracks on youtube. I don't know if the digital version also has an overture but it is awesome. He is surely one of QT's idols and wrote the music we think of when we think of western movies.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 75 and 79%. This is for fans, who will love it. Check out its nominations and wins so far.