The Hateful Eight – Film Review (2016)

About – A bounty hunter John Ruth “The Hangman” (Kurt Russell) is taking Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock to be hung, where John Ruth awaits his ten-thousand-dollar reward. In the meantime, they must take shelter in a nearby cabin from the winter blizzard, where they meet six interesting and suspicious characters.

The Hateful Eight, is the eighth film from Quentin Tarantino. As we are all aware, Tarantino’s films are full of inward and outward incidents that mean something to the man himself. There is no change in The Hateful Eight. In other words, they’re obvious to us all but on first viewing it is hard to join these dots together. It would be easier sitting back and letting the whole thing unfold for your normal Quentin Tarantino three hours of entertainment. Also, if you are fan of Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Django Unchained (2012) then this is the film for you.

John Ruth “The Hangman” has chained himself to Daisy Domergue, making sure she doesn’t do anything rash and stopping anyone else in the cabin trying to take her. “The Hangman” and Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) have a hunch, that everyone within the cabin isn’t telling the truth about who they really are.
There is the ‘new Sherriff’ Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), Bob ‘the Mexican’ (Demian Bichir), Oswaldo Mobray ‘Red Rocks hangman’ (Tim Roth), Joe Gage ‘a cow puncher’ (Michael Madsen), Confederate General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) and O.B. ‘the coachman’ (James Parks).
All these characters making the other two characters have a bad feeling about this stoppage at the cabin.
Each character has their own personality and sparkle, which usually on this scale some characters don’t shine as much as others. However, as this is a Tarantino film everyone is equal and excels in this.

Costumes play a big part in the mese-en-scene as they draw the audience into emotions of how characters would be feeling or in this instance into the temperature. The costumes don’t play on the narrative or the characters. However, they make you realise what type of place they’re in, which makes the audience feel the cold, freezing temperatures at the cabin. The costume designer is Courtney Hoffman, Tarantino’s girlfriend. She has worked with Tarantino before in Django Unchained. You can clearly see the influence Tarantino has had on the costume design, but also the correct approach that Courtney put herself in with the characters.

The score is another fantastic piece by Ennio Morricone. He has over five hundred credits [IMDB] from film, adverts and tv. He has worked with Tarantino as well on Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained. The score within The Hateful Eight is beautifully put together with the cinematography to capture that wintery cabin look. The music doesn’t put you on edge, however, it places us in the relaxed but excited mood for what is happening on-screen.

Finally, The Hateful Eight is one of the Tarantino’s best films, everything from the characters, actors, narrative and even location shots are something that every filmmaker should take note from. The only bad criticism that can be said is the running time of three hours and seven minutes. However, this is what you expect from a Tarantino film. Regardless the narrative keeps us entertained and engaged throughout, making it a very easy and gruesome crime, drama with a huge cast.