The Hateful Eight Review

Quentin Tarantino films can be an acquired taste. The reality is you either like them or you don't. I'd like to think there are more people who have seen at least one of his eight films and liked it/them than those that didn't, but I haven't taken a survey and don't want to go to the trouble of doing so.

In any event, I'm going to break it to you...

The Hateful Eight is the most Tarantino-like film by Tarantino in the last decade. And that is such a great thing. So strap in. I'll say it up front. It's really great. But I'll also caution that it is just as graphic as you'd expect if you were at all versed in the ways of Tarantino. That being said, if you really are, you didn't need me to say anything. I digress.

The Hateful Eight is a western, which many agree died in the late 1970s with that era of the Cold War. The western was a common vehicle for political commentary and metaphor during the Cold War. In the earlier years of the Cold War, many that worked in Hollywood were accused of being communists. So, just think about the field that those films were being made in and the time in which they existed. Film was an excellent outlet for political and social frustration when speaking your mind was frowned upon or even incriminating.

With all of this in mind, The Hateful Eight isn't just a western because of its countryside setting or cast of characters. It is truly a modern realization of what the western film is in today's United States and the world at large. Tarantino has delivered a film about racism, bigotry, social justice and the shoot-first mentality that the United States still embodies to many of us. The Hateful Eight frames tense situations fuelled by social differences and depicts the modern American setting in post-Civil War Wyoming. It questions the different thought processes of justice, frontier justice and the morality of such justice in outlying circumstances that aren't as clear as black and white. And that's truly the theme of the film. Black and white. And a whole lot of grey.

That doesn't mean The Hateful Eight only represents the doom and gloom of America's tumbling trajectory of civil rights today. In fact, Tarantino has told a story of how even those that do not see eye to eye can come to together for a common good against a greater evil. Of course, he does it in his twisted and ultra-violent ways that we have come to expect, and accept. I feel that the story cannot be told without the graphic violence because it is just a film personifying modern American politics and society in extreme ways. The violence works in favour of these conditions, just like the colourful characters are more like caricatures of what they each represent as individuals and their own little groups. The violence is fitting, if not entirely necessary.

On the characters, they all hold a secret that slowly reveals the truth within the carefully assembled plot that plays together perfectly. Every moment is thrilling for some reason or another, even the most mundane. Behind the characters, the backdrop is gorgeous, the sets authentic and the cast just bursting with talent and expertise as they all play their parts with career-topping intensity. You'll love and hate them all in varying moments. They really are products of Tarantino.

The Hateful Eight is one of the best films of the year. It is best seen in the glorious 70mm Panavision, even though many will probably grab the leaked awards consideration copy that has found its way online. Instead, I highly recommend you pay the money to see it in the theatre. When you watch the film be mindful of the overarching themes, consider their relevance today as well as through history and try to see yourself and your surrounding society in even the most outrageous scenarios. There's something to learn from The Hateful Eight, just as there was from the westerns of a bygone era of film.