Crime, drama and mystery are leading elements in the Wyoming set Quentin Tarantino written and directed movie The Hateful Eight (2015). Set in 1877 on the plains of the frontier west, the introduces us to the snowy plains with a mission to get to Red Rock, Wyoming that we will never manifest due to a series of vengeful, selfish humanity rife in the hallmark style of the film’s director and screenwriter.
It’s on the plains, with three corpses stacked one atop another, that a stagecoach driven by O.B. Jackson encounters bounty hunter and Union veteran from the American Civil War, Major Marquis Warren, stranded. Horseless and stranded with the corpses, Warren seeks a ride on the coach. With bounty hunter John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth to ‘Crazy’ Daisy Domergue already on board and facing the same incoming blizzard, we are introduced to the tension of whether Warren will get a ride. Jackson, Warren, Ruth and Domergue were portrayed by James Parks, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, respectively.
Warren and his cargo get a ride, as he bonded with Ruth over a personal letter Warren carries as purportedly written by former United States president Abraham Lincoln. A bit up the road, Chris Mannix, claiming to be Red Rock‘s new sheriff, joins them. The tension baked into Mannix joining this party rests with Mannix’s father, Erskine, having led Mannix’s Marauders, a Lost Cause of the Confederacy militia that fought on the opposite side of the American Civil War to Warren. Clear animosity between Warren and Mannix over clear disagreements based in racial indignance, not to mention a bounty among sympathizers of the confederacy on Warren’s head. Walton Goggins portrayed Chris Mannix.
Seeking shelter from the blizzard at Minnie’s Haberdashery, the stagecoach party finds Minnie Mink, ‘Sweet’ Dave Mink, Six-Horse Judy and Gemma nowhere to be found. Señor Bob, a Mexican by heritage, is tending the haberdashery in their place. The lodge, meanwhile, is found to be sheltering cowboy Joe Gage, hangman Oswaldo Mobray, and Confederate general Sanford ‘Sandy’ Smithers. Dana Gourrier, Gene Jones, Zoë Bell, Belinda Owino, Demián Bichir, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Bruce Dern portrayed Minnie, Dave, Judy, Gemma, Bob, Joe, Oswaldo and Sanford, respectively.
Several tensions unfold at the haberdashery, with extends well beyond the introduction to the folks at the accommodations. The fact that the door needs to be nailed shut is a sure sign that unusual happenings are afoot, with the introduction of Jody Domergue, as portrayed by Channing Tatum, not coming until after the scene including references to past events having occurred in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The sequencing of revelation worked well in maintaining much of the larger mystery of the movie.
The poking at larger cultural tensions through individuals, including a social commentary in the process of telling a contemporary portrait of stylized violence, provide many of the over-the-top elements fans of Quentin Tarantino seek in his movies. It is in the delivery of these points, with a moderated gratuity in language when compared to other Tarantino movies at their full throated, that standout to me. I grant The Hateful Eight as presented by Quentin Tarantino 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five.
Matt – Saturday, May 13, 2023
Matt Lynn Digital 