Buckets of Blood on the Snow

Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight' was worth the wait

By Brianna Stallings

Filmgoers have been champing at the bit for The Hateful Eight—director Quentin Tarantino's eighth film and second Western— since he announced it in 2013. This visceral mystery, set a decade or so after the Civil War in rural Wyoming, was definitely worth the wait.

Over the course of three hours, The Hateful Eight tells the tale of bounty hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) as he escorts accused murderer Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to her execution. Their stagecoach pulls up on another bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson), followed by "Rebel Renegade" fighter and small-town sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). A blizzard forces them to take shelter at a stagecoach passover, where they find four strangers (Demian Bichir, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen and Tim Roth) and a whole helluva lot of unanswered questions. We soon learn that, while the weather outside is frightful, inside isn't looking too much better for anyone.

Cinematographer Robert Richardson filmed The Hateful Eight in anamorphic 70mm for better picture quality, although most theaters will get the digital release. Nevertheless, the shots—whether panoramic and snowy or close-up and blood-soaked—are all pitch-perfect for the genre. Tarantino's entire career is built on homage, so it's nice to see his usual flourishes in place here again, including the music. Hateful features an original score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone, his first for a Western in 40 years. Although Morricone once said he'd never work with Tarantino again after Django Unchained, and Tarantino claimed that The Hateful Eight score is "absolutely abysmal," it's a perfect fit, brilliantly capturing the film's moments of stillness, tension and fear.

Morricone's score, Tarantino's screenplay and Leigh's conniving, feral performance as Domergue have already earned Golden Globe nominations. And rightfully so: The Hateful Eight is one of 2015's best films.

The Hateful Eight
Jean Cocteau, Violet Crown,
R,
192 min.

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