Review by special guest author, Sean Monaghan

I had somewhat low expectations when I first saw the first trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”. The trailer looked subpar, and I felt we had already gotten a similar movie with Django Unchained, which is probably my least favorite movie of his (I’m not saying it was a bad movie, just my least favorite of his). Despite this, I was excited for the movie with the mentality “it’s a Tarantino film, how bad could it be?” Then he began the campaign for 70mm showings all around the United States, which caught my attention immediately. I jumped on the opportunity to see it as soon as i could and saw the roadshow screening in 70mm at 11 pm on Christmas day. Here, I will share my reflections and thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.

Seeing the movie on Christmas night had an electric vibe. The film was set during Christmastime and while I wouldn’t consider it a Christmas movie, it really gave off a good feeling, like this was the way that it was meant to be seen. Pretty much everyone at the sold out show was a die-hard fan and extremely excited to see the new movie. Almost every scene had applause at the beginning. This is probably standard for first screenings of this sort but I could especially feel the energy at this show. I sat next to someone who seemed genuinely excited for this movie and we shared our expectations for the film. I couldn’t help but think that this was the way movies are meant to be seen; as a community experience.

One thing that I will note initially is the score to the movie which began with an overture, composed by Ennio Morricone. Quentin Tarantino has never had any original scores composed for his movies and has instead handpicked the soundtrack, which has mainly consisted of pop music from varying decades. The fact that he chose to have an original score means to me that this film was not only good enough in Quentin Tarantino’s eyes to deserve an original score, but also good enough for scoring legend Ennio Morricone (who said he would never score a western again) to score the movie himself. I appreciate the effort to switch it up a bit, because I personally cringed when Rick Ross music was on the soundtrack to Django Unchained. Overall, I thought that the overture sounded great and really did its intended job of settling the crowd and setting the mood for the movie.

The first thing that I noticed during the film’s opening scenes were how beautiful the shots were. The movie starts off with roughly a minute of beautiful panoramic and scenic shots of trees, mountains, and wilderness (which have no CGI involved) and then cuts to some shots of a horse drawn carriage being occupied by John Ruth (Kurt Russell). Throughout the film, you see many amazing shots and closeups, even some that have you trying to peek around the foreground to see what is going on in the background. In fact, lots of the film had me focusing on both the foreground and background, constantly focusing on things right in front of me and then quickly refocusing on characters in the background. Not only did these interesting shots keep me intrigued throughout the movie, but the closeups of some characters were just beautiful. I think that the ultra panavision might deserve some credit for the craftsmanship of these shots, but don’t want to take credit from Quentin Tarantino and cinematographer Robert Richardson.

I remember seeing in the theater how “filmy” the movie looked. I have seen lots of movies on film and it is easy for anyone to distinguish a movie between film and digital, but I noticed large scratches on the screen, leading me to guess that maybe the film was intentionally tampered with to give it a more “genuine film” look, similar to what Tarantino did with Death Proof, where the final cut looked intentionally like it had not only been cut terribly with ugly splices left and right, but also been beaten with baseball bats and sledgehammers after to give it the genuine “grindhouse” look. Though not as beaten-looking as Death Proof, I thought that it was possibly a move by Tarantino himself, but upon seeing the digital version my suspicion was proven false, as there are very few, if not any marks on the digital copy while the digital copy of Deathproof was very heavily marked. My best guess is that the print had a rough time being transported to the theater. That being said, seeing it in 70mm is a whole different viewing experience that I would highly recommend if you still have the opportunity to. Not only was it so obviously intended to be showed on 70mm, the non-digital version also includes 7 minutes of extra footage which I promise you is significant to the story.

One thing that I was critical of was the dialogue. Some of the dialogue seems superficial and exaggerated, and I felt like it could have been handled much better. The whole story that Major Warren (Samuel L Jackson) tells to the confederate about the death of the confederate general’s son seems exaggerated in a very childish, Tarantino-esque way which can be proven by the end of the monologue which finishes with Major Warren’s detailed description of recieving oral sex from a man he is about to kill. I guess that is something that you should have expected from The Hateful Eight. Also, this isn’t dialogue related, but did Major Warren have to be shot in the testacles? I can’t say that I’m not surprised about the moderately cheesy and immature dialogue that overall hurts the movie’s quality, but I guess you have to give some props to Tarantino for keeping it light and doing what he wants to, no matter how ridiculous it is.

Another thing that I noticed in The Hateful Eight is some pretty serious similarities to his previous movies that I think were intentional. One example is the first time the viewer sees the Lincoln letter. During the scene where John Ruth reads the envelope, I couldn’t help but notice the similarity to the shot used in Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega (John Travolta) opens the briefcase for the first time. Below is the comparison between the show used in The Hateful Eight and the shot used in Pulp Fiction. Also note the illumination on the lincoln letter when Major Warren hands it to John Ruth. The only difference is that we actually find out what was written on the Lincoln letter.

Notice how the letter shines, similarly to Pulp Fiction’s briefcase?

I am most certain that there are way more shout-outs to his previous films than these two examples, so keep your eyes peeled when watching the movie for more similarities. Also, I think that it’s kinda funny how he has gone from stealing other directors’ shots to stealing his own shots.

What stuck out to me the most in the film was the expertly choreographed storyline. Everyone knows that Quentin Tarantino is a masterful storyteller, and this one definitely lives up to anyone’s expectations for a Tarantino movie. The story felt really invigorating and fun, but also really intense at other times. Another thing that kept me intrigued throughout the film is the subtle details; someone poisoning the coffee in the background (which I could not find for the life of me even after rewatching the scene countlessly), and Major Warren noticing some candy on the floor which the viewer actually discovers is relevant in the end. every character’s actions and reactions give insight to what is really going on in this small bar in the middle of a blizzard. Combine this intriguing story with masterful cinematography and you have yourself one of the better movies of 2015.

Overall, I would consider this to be one of the top 10 movies of 2015, but not the best by any means. I think that the childish and corny dialogue heavily affects the quality of the film to the point where it is not able to hold that spot compared to other 2015 films such as (off the top of my head) Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant (which I am calling a 2015 movie because it was technically released in December), and many others. Overall, I think that the film had the most memorable score of 2015, the best written screenplay of 2015, and could arguably have the best cinematography/shots, but it could easily be argued that many other films from 2015 could hold that same title. Overall, I liked The Hateful Eight very much, and would give it a 8.5/10.