Review: The Hateful Eight - Tarantino Triumphs Again

The Hateful Eight is Tarantinos 9th directoral excursion onto celluloid and has the potential to be amongst  his greatest work. For clarity I am talking about Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and Inglourious Basterds.

Hateful…uses essentially a stagecoach and an inn  for his tale of hangmen, and bounty hunters against a backdrop of the American Civil War. Yes there is blood, gore and liberal use of the N word but if this is going to offend then perhaps the sugar coated Disney Star Wars may be more your liking.

The storyline is simple but it’s a masterful piece of 70mm art, and told in a complex and utter compelling way with twists galore in its near 3 hour run time…the Hateful Eight find shelter in Minnies Haberdashery in the middle of an extreme blizzard. As events unfold, and true motivations are unravelled, merciless revenge, racial tensions, rage and integrity all come to the fore.

Once again Tarantino call on his trustworthy soldiers, Samuel L Jackson, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and new recruit Jennifer Jason Leigh as the increasing toothless Daisy Domergue collectively deliver a smart and satirical dialogue that truly brings the best out of them all. Arguably Russel as John Ruth delivers his greatest role to date.


Choosing the 70mm format for this outing was a genius stroke, delivering us deep into the freezing wintery landscapes of Wyoming. Legendary composer Enno Morricone, dipping into this format and genre for the first time in almost 40 years, supports the visuals magnificently, at times flowing and carrying the beautiful vistas, at others acting against the script, undoubtedly adding suspense and intrigue. I hope this sets a precedent should Tarantino choose to linger in this timeframe.

 Tarantino fans will know exactly what to expect from this kind-of-Western that owes more to a stageplay than a film. The story however flows much better, much simpler than, for example Django Unchained and is all the better film for it. Political and racial observations are still delivered through a masterful script which is beautiful in its simplicity. Tarantino triumphs again, glorious 70mm cineography with trademark dialogue, violence literally explodes on screen, entirely in keeping with the script and the direction of travel, like all his best films do. This film will support multiple viewings (I have seen it three times now) as all his best films do.