#5. The Hateful Eight
So I thought Sorkin’s script for ‘Steve Jobs’ was a wee bit better. I never said it was the better. ‘The Hateful Eight’ may be a little long, yes, but this is Tarantino, people! We only get a movie from this cinematic wizard every four or five years. So, when we do get a film, and especially on as rich as this one, I believe we can put down our phones long enough to enjoy the brazen beautiful mess that is ‘The Hateful Eight’. Essentially a three-hour chamber piece set after the Civil War, ‘TH8’ traps eight (nine, really) rough characters in a general store during a blizzard. With secrets to the gills and bullets to spill, it does not take long for this gang of suspicious outlaws to lets lip all of their worst, most racist, and, yes, hateful tendencies. The hilarious, confronting, and twist-filled script should give you plenty to drool over, but that is not even mentioning the film’s true glories: 70mm cinematography, a perfect score from Ennio Morricone, and a whole brood of scenery-chewing (yet subtle) actors at the top of their game. Top three to look for? That would be Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sam Jackson, and Walton Goggins. After all that, this is also the first Tarantino film with an actual message. Equal measures hopeful and fatalistic, this is a film to be remembered. It’s decisive nature should only increase its status as a truly great film.
So I thought Sorkin’s script for ‘Steve Jobs’ was a wee bit better. I never said it was the better. ‘The Hateful Eight’ may be a little long, yes, but this is Tarantino, people! We only get a movie from this cinematic wizard every four or five years. So, when we do get a film, and especially on as rich as this one, I believe we can put down our phones long enough to enjoy the brazen beautiful mess that is ‘The Hateful Eight’. Essentially a three-hour chamber piece set after the Civil War, ‘TH8’ traps eight (nine, really) rough characters in a general store during a blizzard. With secrets to the gills and bullets to spill, it does not take long for this gang of suspicious outlaws to lets lip all of their worst, most racist, and, yes, hateful tendencies. The hilarious, confronting, and twist-filled script should give you plenty to drool over, but that is not even mentioning the film’s true glories: 70mm cinematography, a perfect score from Ennio Morricone, and a whole brood of scenery-chewing (yet subtle) actors at the top of their game. Top three to look for? That would be Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sam Jackson, and Walton Goggins. After all that, this is also the first Tarantino film with an actual message. Equal measures hopeful and fatalistic, this is a film to be remembered. It’s decisive nature should only increase its status as a truly great film.