Movie Review: Try To Hate The Hateful Eight

 

Only Quentin Tarantino would title his eight movie as writer/director The Hateful Eight.

 

 

 

 

If there’s one word that describes this man, it has to be genius.

 

If you’ve seen pieces like Kill Bill, Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs and/or Pulp Fiction you’ll understand what I mean. Yet, he sharply divides people. It’s either they love him or hate him.

 

But I’m not here to talk about Quentin. No sir.

 

I’m here to share my thoughts about his eight entry into moville – ‘The Hateful Eight’.

 

Starring his frequent collaborator the great Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Michael Mardsen, Tim Roth, Walter Goggins and Tarantino movie-newcomer Chaninng Tatum among others, The Hateful Eight is a movie of blood and gore as only Tarantino can do it.

 

The movie is about a bounty hunter; The Hangman who delivers his bounties alive whether that was specified or not, because he likes to watch them hang. He’s on his way to a town called Red Rock to deliver a woman to the hangman.

 

 

The woman’s bounty is worth ten thousand dollars in a time when a man would kill his own mother for a hundred dollars. What could she have done to have that kind of price or her head?

 

Not my business; actually.

 

On their way, they run into another bounty hunter, The Major who is also towing three bounties to the same Red Rock. He asks to hitch a ride with them – because his horse died at some point.

 

And then, the story begins.

 

Another person joins them in the wagon; someone who claims to be the Sheriff of the town they’re all headed to. They all drive on, until a blizzard begins and they almost cannot see their way anymore. They stop at a wayside inn – Minnie’s Haberdarshery – where they run into four more strangers with various stories and the strangest one; a Mexican who states Mimi went to see her mother for a week and left him in charge.

 

Exactly why is it strange? Watch the movie – though I doubt it’ll make it to Nigerian Cinemas. One can  hope; however.

 

Allow me state; the movie is not exactly about The Hangman but about the woman he is taking to Red Rock; Daisy Domergue.

 

The thing about this particular piece of Tarantino magic is; it starts slow. There’s a lot of rambling talk for the first twenty minutes – almost to an hour – and then, you get to see when The Major goads a seemingly-innocent man into reaching for a gun and shoots him dead without so much as a blink.

 

An older man for that matter.

 

If you’re one for dialogues and character depths in your movies, this is a must-see. But if you’re the impatient Transformers/Terminator/Transporter/Expendables type movie fan, do stay away. For at least an hour, you will be bored to tears.

 

It’s almost too easy to assume the movie is just another action piece until you hear the Major (Samuel L. Jackson) say cryptically; “There’s at least one person here who ain’t exactly who they say they are.”

 

As it is with most Tarantino movies; there’s a lot going on – more than meets the eye. Somewhere along the lines, a couple of people drink poisoned coffee and start vomiting blood; and in a scene that’s reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery; The Major lines most of the occupants of the cabin against the wall and starts to unravel the holes in the stories of the strangers they met inn the haberdashery.

 

I enjoyed this movie for the exotic dialogue and the strangeness of the characters and the usual craziness in every Tarantino movie – this time it’s about the Major’s claim that he had been pen pals with President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and he has a letter to prove it. That;s alone is a sweet spot in the film.

 

The Hateful Eight is another notch in Tarantino’s feathered and often controversial cap, maybe one not as strong as Django or Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction (with the bible-verse spouting Jules Winfield), but it is one to watch.

 

You Cannot Really Hate; The Hateful Eight.

 

Unless of course; you do not like Tarantino.

 

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