Movie Title: The Hateful Eight
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Channing Tatum, Dana Gourrier, Zoë Bell
Review: While racing toward the town of Red Rock in post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) encounter another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and a man who claims to be a sheriff (Walton Goggins). Hoping to find shelter from a blizzard, the group travels to a stagecoach stopover located on a mountain pass. Greeted there by four strangers, the eight travelers soon learn that they may not make it to their destination after all.
The Hateful Eight is one of the more difficult Quentin Tarantino movies to dissect. It comes across as more of a stage play than a movie, with basically the whole thing taking place in Minnie's Haberdashery. I think this approach certainly isn't for everyone, but I do appreciate the simple idea of putting a bunch of all-star actors into a room and letting them talk. Much of the brilliance of this film is literary in nature. I love watching great actors deliver great dialogue. Some argue that this is boring or that it felt as if all of these actors were on top of each other in such close quarters. But I thoroughly enjoyed watching Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, and a slew of others try to get to the bottom of what's really going on at this little, mysterious stagecoach lodge. The plot is sort of reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs, where there is a traitor in their midst and everyone is pointing fingers at one another to try to figure out who they can and can't trust. I think the real star here is Jennifer Jason Leigh, who portrays outlaw Daisy Domergue. Domergue is a rather antagonistic character who seemingly agitates every single inhabitant of the haberdashery. Despite being tortured and bloodied, the unpredictable wild card sticks to her guns and provides a source of tension and hilarity as she provokes and gets under the skin of her male travel companions. This film also features a last act that is intense and action-packed that is quintessentially Quentin. While not my favorite Tarantino film, I think this is a very well-made movie with a great script, that deserves more play than it often receives. If you're ever out in Red Rock, Wyoming, stop by Minnie's (actually don't, that's a terrible idea), and have a meal with your favorite eight psychopaths. And whatever you do, DO NOT drink the coffee.
Fun Fact: The guitar that Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) played while singing "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" was a priceless antique from the 1870s, on loan from the Martin Guitar Museum and worth some $40,000. At the end of the song, the script called for John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) to grab the guitar and smash it to pieces. Six replicas were built for the shoot, and were supposed to be substituted for the real instrument for the smashing shot, but due to a miscommunication, Kurt Russell was never informed, and destroyed the original before anyone could stop him. Jennifer Jason Leigh's shocked reaction to this is genuine, and can be seen in the released film. The Martin Guitar Museum subsequently announced that it would never loan guitars to film shoots again.