The Hateful Eight: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in those parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Demián Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
When watching Tarantino film it becomes an event rather than just your regular movie going experience so I had to mentally prepare myself. The film feels a lot like a western version of Reservoir Dogs for the majority of it and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Self contained films with one basic location are some of my favorites because it pushes the filmmaker to become more creative with the story and what they can do with the setting. I was impressed by the storytelling in the film immensely. It flowed one way and as soon as you got comfortable it twisted another way. I loved every part of it and Tarantino’s casting is always just as fantastic as his writing. Yes, even Channing Tatum was pretty cool in there. Now here’s the part that I had a problem with. Tarantino’s use of a certain derogatory term is bothersome. I tried to look past it for Django Unchained because of the subject matter but this film could’ve been handled differently. Tarantino and the super fans out there may give throw out the argument that it was the way people talked around that time and that it makes the story “more real” but I feel like there’s no need for an over abundance of it to further the story. It almost felt like it was done as shock value and I think it could’ve had the same strength without it. As I had said before, the cast was great but I think that the stand out performance to me goes to Goggins. He totally stole every scene that he was in and killed it. I enjoyed the movie the whole way through and thought it was another Tarantino masterpiece that people should pick up. 9/10
Special Features:
Beyond the Eight: A Behind the Scenes Look – A really basic EPK style feature with clips and interviews.
Sam Jackson’s Guide to Glorious 70mm – This feature looks at the Ultra Panavision look of the film and the process.
