The Hateful Eight: A perfect stage play where you’ll hate everyone
The Hateful Eight is the eighth film from Quentin Tarantino and his longest. As the title suggests, the movie is more of a stage play rather than a movie. But that does not mean we did not like it. It was absolutely brilliant!
The script had originally leaked in 2014 and Quentin said he would no longer shoot the film and pre production was halted, but Samuel L. Jackson stepped in and convinced Quentin to go ahead with the film and it was completely worth it. The story was tweaked a bit and shooting resumed in early 2015. I wish I could watch the movie on a 70mm screen. This film was shot with those screens in mind.
Hateful Eight is a story about 8 strangers consisting of a couple of bounty hunters, a hangman, a sheriff and some bounty too. The whole story takes place some time after the civil war, in the same universe as Django Unchained. There’s a blizzard coming and eight people who do not know each other take refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery. As the storm worsens, they are stuck for a few more days. While at this place, someone from the group intends to kill everyone else. Their identity or intention is still unknown, but bodies keep dropping. What follows are really intense scenes, trying to discover who the killer is.
The movie has a really simple concept, but is really long. Movie runtime is close to about three hours. But not for once was it boring. It keeps you on the edge of your seat anticipating what next. The acting was absolutely solid and the direction was great. Special mention should go to Samuel L.Jackson who was absolutely brilliant, like always.
The next best thing about the film is its cinematography. This is the eleventh film to be shot in Ultra Panavision 70mm film. We watched it in normal screens as they are not available in India, but the movie is meant to be watched on 70mm screens as mentioned earlier. The attention to detail is absolutely brilliant. The light and the focus were at it’s best. If not for the story, you should watch it at least for this to know how well a movie can be shot.
The costumes were also good. We could not have asked for more here. Where the movie missed out was with its Music and editing.Morricone had composed the music and there was so many expectations because of his name and that Quentin had absolutely nailed the music for Django Unchained. But it fell really short, It could really have been better. About the editing, they could have done a better job with the size of the film. Although you do not feel the time passing by, three hours is a bit too long for any film.
The Hateful Eight is a stage play adapted into a film. Don’t go expecting to watch a Western action film. Think of it more like 12 angry men with some action and dead bodies! It is absolutely fine that the film is this way, no complaints there. This is not Quentin’s best (Our expectations for Quentin Tarantino is really high). But that does not mean the movie is bad. It is still absolutely brilliant and a must watch.
