Hateful Eight Review!
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS, I WILL SPOIL MOVIE LORE, YOU ARE WARNED. ALSO THIS IS NOT A REAL REVIEW ITS MORE LIKE OPINIONS
Hi, it's exactly what the title says. I saw Hateful Eight recently and I fucking loved it.
Where do I even begin? It's just such a good film. But why? I'll say it then. I've never seen a Tarantino film that captures 19th century tensions and racism so fucking good that's accurate to historical vibes, be inaccurate to actual history BUT ironically feels more real than any textbook or history channel EVER because it's historical fiction.
Exactly why I loved it. I loved historical fiction. This movie was even akin to his other films like "Inglourious Basterds" in that it's a revenge fueled fantasy. Speaking of his films, the movie itself was like a marriage between Django Unchained (fucking KILLER movie btw) and the Reservoir Dogs as the base. It explores the topic of 19th century racial tensions and uses the murder mystery to expose alliances and human nature alot. I'm not sure if I'm reaching but you can even say it had Reconstruction undertones with the "Nigger head hunting" (The movie characters call it that, not me) which I'm not sure if it's a real, horribly racist and genocidal practice after the Civil War but honestly it's so plausible I'm not shocked. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please try to learn about the reconstruction era. It'll be rewarding knowledgeably but be careful, it's a nasty piece of American History that's underrated in discourse.
I'm gonna digress for review sake. Hateful Eight, the movie itself. Why was it good? Well because it's a slow burner (Looking at you, red dead 2), and often you need to sit and watch the movie in full to really get it and yeah it's a big ask but with nearly 3 hours to spare, it's not a wasteful use of 3 hours at all! From the beginning the score already captured my stupid brain because of the sound. I knew the motif already "Duuuun dun duuun dun duuun dun duuuun dun dun dun dun dun dun duuuuuun" and it hooked me. The characters themselves are characters. You got Major Warren, the most intelligent man you can meet and unfortunately being black in post civil war, we're bound to get into Quentin's favorite lines: N-words and Hard Rs.
I dunno how a white director and screenwriter gets away with it but he does it right somehow. Tarantino is famous (or infamous) for not shying on words which is super respectable. Daisy was the first character I think to call Major Warren a hard-R and it's funny how John Ruth, her captor, immediately corrects her with the polite racism of saying as I quote the film:
Daisy: “Howdy, nigger.”
John Ruth: “She’s a pepper, ain’t she? Now, girl, don’t you know darkies don’t like being called niggers no more? They find it offensive.”
Daisy: “I’ve been called worse.”
Ruth: “Now that, I can believe.”
And more importantly, when the lincoln letter was found out to be a lie from Major Warren, Ruth shows his true colors about his feelings against the black soldier/bounty hunter
John Ruth: "Well I guess it’s true what they say about you people. Can’t trust a fuckin’ word that comes outta your mouth"
Warren: "What's the matter, John Ruth... I hurt your feelings?"
Ruth: "As a matter of fact, you did."
Basically, we start off with a paranoid bounty hunter with some weird civilized manner about race and justice dragging a bastardly, nasty violent woman to be hanged and just met another hunter and make a truce to protect the other's bounty from anyone else. And eventually we get into the Cabin, or precisely haberdashery.
I'm not gonna go into nitty gritty movie details cuz that's boring but I could and that's the annoying part. I'll just tell you all how I felt about the movie if you know, you know. First of all. O.B. didn't deserve to die MAN i was so fucking upset. OB didn't need to die from the poisoned coffee! It was just sad cuz he legit had nothing to do with anything except drive a coach for Ruth. And the whole thrill was exciting. The part where near the end where Daisy was reaching for Chris's gun when he fainted, I was LITERALLY AT THE EDGE OF MY SEAT literally, no joke. I don't know why but I literally did something automatically that you'd think the people saying it are exaggerating. I swear on the universe, I am not! It's literally that exciting for me because again, it's slow, so you build with the characters and feel it.
The funniest joke probably for the whole movie is Daisy herself honestly, lmao. It's so fucking funny. She gets the type of treatment you'd expect from the 19th century. Punched, sullied, bullied, dragged by chains, shot at, and most importantly the AMOUNT OF BLOOD SHE WAS COVERED IN LMAO, ALL THE BLOOD, HER OWN BLOOD, HER BROTHERS BLOOD, AND JOHN RUTH'S VOMIT BLOOD LMAO no way that bitch was gonna smell fine at all.
REEKING of all that shit and grime. And for the character she absolutely fucking deserved it, with her nasty racist gang regardless of her being a woman. For the actress, I applaud that lady for being drenched in fake blood for that whole movie production! Her actin was awesome too for being a nasty racist bitch lol.
Overall, the detective work done by Warren was awesome. He was sniffing and he sniffed good on that bullshit. From Bob's flakey explanations to the blood on Sweet Dave's chair, it's a thriller, murder mystery, comedy. Most of all, it's a Tarantino movie.
I guess that's all I got to say about the film, it's real good. Sam Jackson's performance was pretty good, and yeah. Here is my favorite song from the movie: The Four Passengers song