With THE HATEFUL EIGHT, Quentin
Tarantino revisits (again) the 70s era of classic spaghetti westerns where the
production company logos and the title-designing go retro with those bright,
bold and yellow western fonts on a panoramic, scenic and slow long-shot of a barren
territory (in this case, a snowy landscape). Bracing and brisk? Absolutely, but
not for long! The real trial of your serenity starts when the characters get
introduced calculatingly in the most similar manner where the words are set
loose to roam free and the actions hardly try to set the tone any warmer. Hang
around, isn’t it the pattern Tarantino is loved all over for? Couldn’t agree
more; THE HATEFUL EIGHT pays not only a homage to the yesteryear’s gratifyingly
grand movie-making techniques but also to the ‘Tarantino’ style cinema. Only thing
funny is that the payee here is none other than the master himself.
A bounty murderer Daisy Domergue (Jennifer
Jason Leigh) is being transported to the town Red Rock, handcuffed with her hunter
John Ruth (Kurt Russell) in a stagecoach. Soon they are stopped and accompanied
by another bounty hunter Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson) and Chris Mannix
(Walter Giggins), supposedly a ‘yet to be badged’ new sheriff of the town. After roaming around
an hour or so of screen-time in a snowstorm-prone province, THE HATEFUL EIGHT
settles in a small shelter where the previous four meets another four; Oswaldo
(Tim Roth), Joe (Michael Madsen), Bob (Demian Bichir) and Smithers (Bruce Dern).
As the conversation gets deeper and the dialogues a lot edgier revealing the
darker sides of each one under the roof, the action initiates to take over the
stage with bullets being fired to pierce and explode various body parts without
showing any discrimination of any kind. A typical Tarantino you’ve been waiting
and dying for the whole first half!
The snow-clad geographical-spread was,
at any given day, a perfect canvas for Tarantino to paint it bloody red in all
the panoramic wide shots likewise the Coen Brothers excelled in FARGO but the
Tarantino of RESERVOIR DOGS tows away the plot to stay put in the restricted
and walled barn- a quite suffocating stricture for Robert Richardson (the
cinematographer) to play around. The first half though scenic and scintillating
in the opening sequence impressively blessed with the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone,
sucks most of your survival force with the all dead, wordy expressions. And
then it tries to compensate it in a ‘been there-seen that’ scenario where the
blood spatters easily manage to please the desperate genre-aficionado in you. In
this very half, you will never feel for the lack of words, I guarantee you.
Samuel L Jackson being a regular in
a Tarantino film looks comfortably positioned. With a coarse and wavy accent
and a lot stronger character manipulative of racial intolerance in his own favor,
he leads the cast. Kurt Russell with his one-liners impresses. Jennifer Jason
Leigh as the smirking, gruesome and blood-licking bounty proves to be a worthy
nomination for Oscars this year. If rumors are to be believed, Tim Roth has
been roped in for the role meant for Christoph Waltz, another Tarantino regular.
He makes it his own; no doubt on his caliber but still, you could find a glance
and glimpse of Waltz easily there within the character.
Overall; despite being gifted with
some exceptionally good performances, a soul-pleasing opening sequence, a few
lyrical blood-shots and even more engaging and tempting soundtrack; THE HATEFUL
EIGHT remains an unfulfilling, desperate and standard Tarantino film. Now, I am
ready to take the shots! [3/5]
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