THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Getting through a blizzard is the worst feeling because it can make you highly conflicted on what to do next.
PLOT
The Hateful Eight takes place in 1877 and follows a day that goes wrong for everyone involved.
‘Chapter One: Last Stage to Red Rock’ follows bounty hunter John Ruth aka The Hangman (who gains the nickname for always has the pleasure of seeing bounties legally hanged after delivering them alive) taking his latest bounty Daisy Domergue to the small town of Red Rock and collect her $10,000 bounty for murder. His only other expected company is a stagecoach driver named OB, but that changes when encountering fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren who is heading to Red Rock as well collect three bounties of his own. Ruth chooses to let him join him and his company to an isolated lodge known as Minnie’s Haberdashery out of respect for one another and bonded over a letter personally written to him allegedly by Abraham Lincoln.
‘Chapter Two: Son of a Gun’ would show Ruth go through another pit stop when encountering militiaman Chris Mannix who is also heading to Red Rock to become the new sheriff. The Hangman lets him aboard for that reason alone, despite knowing his father Erskine leads his own militia called ‘Mannix Marauders’. When Mannix recognizes Warren, he shares how he has his own $30,000 confederate bounty on him for breaking out of a prisoner of war camp and setting it on fire. At first, the Hangman would assume out of paranoia Warren and Mannix would be in cahoots with Domergue but accepts that’s not possible since the Marauder is openly racist.
‘Chapter Three: Minnie’s Haberdashery’ shows the group reach the lodge just as the blizzard worsens. Instead of seeing the hosts Minnie (Dana Gourrier) and Sweet Dave (Gene Jones), they only see a Mexican named Bob claiming to watch over the place on their behalf. Besides him, there are other people taking shelter as well: Confederate General Sanford Smithers who is planning to erect a cenotaph for his son Chester Charles (Craig Stark), a cow puncher named Joe Gage who plans to visit his mother, and Oswaldo Mobray who claims to be Red Rock’s local hangman. As OB and Mannix set up a line between the outhouse and stables, Warren picks up on how off-putting it is for Minnie to be gone and let someone else watch over the lodge. On top of that, he notices like Ruth how the front door must be nailed down and sees there is one jar of candy missing above the cupboard. The Hangman would later share with his group his paranoia that at least one of the others are in cahoots with Domergue. Daisy would end up taunting him, claim he’s right and plans to kill him in his sleep. Off of this, Ruth chooses to take the guns from both Oswaldo & Gage and has OB dump them in the outhouse. During dinner, Mannix does call out it being impossible for Warren to have a letter written to him by Lincoln; The bounty hunter admits the claim and made it to buy leeway with whites. After this, he confronts Smithers for ordering the execution of black prisoners of war at Baton Rouge. He confesses of raping and killing his son who tried to claim his bounty, before killing the general as well.
‘Chapter Four: Domergue’s Got a Secret’ would reveal that someone had poisoned the coffee during the confrontation between Smithers and Warren, but Daisy is the only one to have seen it but chooses to not tell anyone. After Gage & OB dump the general’s body outside, the latter would drink coffee with Ruth and succumb to the poison. Warren & Mannix would hold the other men at gunpoint and leave Daisy handcuffed to Ruth’s body. He shares his deduction that Bob is responsible for killing Minnie & Sweet Dave when finding blood in Sweet Dave’s chair, the one chair he knows no one ever sits on and personally knows Minnie dislikes Mexicans. Bob would have not known this because she took down her old sign ‘No dogs and Mexicans allowed’ when she started to let dogs in the lodge. With everything put together, Warren shoots off Bob’s head for his actions. Just when he threatens to force Daisy to drink the poison, Gage admits he poisoned the coffee. Just upon the confession, another man from the basement shoots Warren from below and Oswaldo shoots Mannix with a secret gun.
‘Chapter Five: The Four Passengers’ reveals the man to have been Daisy’s brother Jody. Bob, Gage & Oswaldo are all align with the Domergues as Ruth worried and were planning to free Daisy from the Hangman but were not anticipating the company of Warren & Mannix. Hours before they got there, they shot everyone but Smithers who had no association with anyone and promised to be silent for their actions; Jody shot Minnie and their stagecoach driver Ed (Lee Horsley), Bob stabbed Sweet Dave in his chair which explains the blood stains Warren would find. When he tried to shoot one of Minnie’s employees Charlie (Keith Jefferson) he only grazes his leg and hits the door lock, explaining the need to nail it shut. Gage would finish him off after killing their secondary stagecoach driver Six Horse Judy (Zoe Bell). Oswaldo would also shoot the lodge’s cook Gemma (Belinda Owino) who was giving him candy he asked for, explaining why there was one missing.
‘Last Chapter: Black Man, White Hell” would resume to the story’s present and show Warren & Mannix to be severely injured from the gunshots; Warren would be confined to a bed while Mannix leans on a chair. Oswaldo would be injured as well due to Mannix shooting back as a reflex. The sheriff would demand Jody to come out of the basement to surrender, only for him & Warren to shoot him in front of his sister. Daisy would confess her brother leads a notorious gang who will sack the town and kill whoever kills her, but she claims to call it off if Mannix kills Warren. Oswaldo would confess the three men who came with Jody have bounties of their own and have different names to be associated with, willing to give the money to Mannix if he kills Warren; Oswaldo actually goes by English Pete Hicox with a $15,000 bounty, Gage goes by Grouch Douglass with a $10,000 bounty and Bob went by the name of Marco with a $12,000 bounty. Mannix makes his choice by shooting Pete causing him to die from his wounds. When Grouch goes for a gun he stashed, the sheriff and Warren shoot him down. Just when he decides to shoot Daisy as well, he runs out of bullets. At that moment, he calls out her bluff and refuses to turn on Warren. Just when he calls out her brother’s gang to have no code of honor compared to his father, he passes out from the blood loss. Jody would take this opportunity to chop off Ruth’s cuffed hand due to Warren previously melting the key. Just when she reaches a gun, Mannix wakes up in time and shoots her in the stomach to stop her. He almost finishes her off, but Warren convinces him to hang her out of honor to Ruth, which they do with a noose. When they succeed in hanging her from the rafters, the film would end with Mannix would compliment Warren’s fake letter for its detail before they would die from their wounds as well.
THOUGHTS
I was in awe with Quentin Tarantino's filmography when I became a teenager because it broadened my mind on how creative storytelling can be. It felt like he reinvented the wheels of the western genre when he directed Django Unchained, so I was very on board with him making another of its kind for his eight directorial feature. Looking back, what he does differently is create a much different intense setting in the style of a whodunnit. The way the pieces come together is bloody fashion is all worthwhile because the delivery is put together very well. When you add an Oscar winning, compelling score from the late Ennio Morricone and impressive cinematography from Robert Richardson that gives an accurate claustrophobic feeling. All of this put together sets up an interesting take on the theme to put your differences aside to do the right thing, which is expressed to a colorful array of characters that may or may not live up to being hateful individuals. Kurt Russell set the tone on how people will do what they identify as the absolute won’t regret it. He accurately depicts John Ruth as a ruthless man who has to be in his line of work in the period he lives in, so you can’t really be surprised of the brutality he has to display towards his prisoner. This motive comes from the idea of wanting to keep his guard up no matter what, believing any act of mercy would backfire. That technically was what happened because the second he un-cuffed himself from Daisy just to eat, things fell apart. Even though he had the right to be paranoid of anyone wanting to turn on him, it’s a relief some chose to have his back even in the afterlife. Samuel L Jackson was just as bold in the role of Major Warren because despite his rightful motives, it won’t excuse him from acting cold hearted towards anyone who crosses him. I do not condone rape at all when it came to Chester, but I do respect his decision on wanting to avenge fallen brethren hence killing the general. Despite going the extra mile for a personal act of vengeance, he’s still an honorable person in his own way. He may have lied to Ruth about being pen pals with Lincoln, but the respect is still there for working in the common goal in dealing with people worse than them. Would he expect going through his own comeuppance in the process? Definitely not, but at least he pulled off doing what his acquaintance wasn’t able to do. The one character I actually felt bad for the most was OB because James Parks makes him a neutral figure who had no motives towards anyone. So when he drinks the poison with Ruth, I just knew things were gonna take a terrible turn everybody. The most questionable character I’ve been thinking about from here is Mannix because Walton Goggins doesn’t lay filters on him, which makes sense because no one really did in that period. While it’s hard to tolerate him due to being unapologetically racist like the general, the most impressive quality about him was how he had dignity for the most part. His father’s militia is not the best of its kind, but at least their motives made sense compared to Jody’s gang who truly didn’t have any. While his dislike towards Warren was obvious, he still shared respect towards the Hangman and chose to honor him until their dying breath. With all the dignity he displayed, I believe he would’ve been a decent sheriff. With some people that were filled with somewhat positive traits, it wasn’t hard to narrow down who was unquestionably bad. Jennifer Jason Leigh scores her first Oscar nominated performance as Daisy for being the baddest to the bone of a woman. She was world class at being unhinged of a schemer because she took every beating from Ruth certain she would escape from her predicament, believing her resources were gonna be out to good use. She was the worst of all because despite loving her brother Jody, who Channing Tatum got to play very well as equally diabolical for refusing to accept who’s wrong, she was still more concerned about her own survival and was willing to whatever it would take to do so. Thankfully, nothing goes according to her plan and there is one less villain to worry about. Even though her reinforcements didn’t succeed in saving her from death, you gotta admit they were close before their tide had changed. Tim Roth actually had me fooled in thinking Oswaldo/Pete was a friendly guy when he was actually another sadistic killer in disguise. Had he aimed higher towards Mannix, I’m certain he would’ve survived. Michael Madsen definitely gave that suspicious vibe out of Joe/Grouch since he tries to come off soft spoken but doesn’t go any further in pretending to be friendly when choosing to be socially distant. Had he tried that a little more, Ruth & Mannix probably would’ve not been pointing fingers at him. And as for Bob, Damian Bichir tries to make him laidback but the biggest flaw of him is his clumsiness. Had he pushed Dave off the chair, he would’ve covered his tracks better. Personally, I do think Jody should’ve known as well Daisy’s discrimination beforehand and not just Bob because if he’s the leader, he should’ve known everything there is to know of the Haberdashery. That alone would’ve bought Bob some time on how to overcome Warren. What the rest of this gang has in common was not preparing for the worst. Had they put more effort on what they were trying to do, their odds would’ve been better on what they were up to. General Smithers wasn’t even part of Jody’s gang yet Bruce Dern succeeded in making him bad for being just as selfish as those around him. He didn’t care what was going around him as long as he was left alone, and that was enough for Jody to trust him. Had he came up with a plan to avenge his so without feeling grief stricken, he likely would’ve lasted a little longer. Now while I admit I enjoyed what came from this film, there were still a couple of things that confused me as I re-watched it, making me prefer Django Unchained as Tarantino's superior western. Like why the hell would Warren throw a match in the floor of a wooden stagecoach? It looked pretty flammable when he dropped it, so he's making a pointless decision of potentially starting a fire on the stagecoach when he could've thrown it outside. It is one thing for John to not give a second thought about Warren after they first met, but how does he not know of his confederate bounty before Mannix brings it up? That sounds like a popular bounty to take advantage of. It's even more embarrassing how Daisy knew before him. Also, why would his conversation with Oswaldo about the Marquis' Lincoln letter? If Tarantino is willing to show Ruth make coffee while cuffed to Daisy, it wouldn't have been a bad idea to show that part of their first conversation. I was really hoping to not see any continuity errors, but three bothered me deeply: One in which Smithers' coat doesn't have a bullet hole after being shot by Warren, and then theres' another where two different takes are visible when Grouch is offering a peppermint stick to Judy with two different hands. The fact no one in the editing room noticed the hands were swapped is ridiculous. Another one I noticed was how Bob's left shoulder appears to be shot when Warren actually aimed at the stomach. I mean come on, it's like the makeup department couldn't place the fake blood onto his stomach and compromised with the shoulder. The craziest part is how Warren knew of Jody's gang but didn't recognize anybody until they revealed their identities. That's more insane of Ruth not recognizing them either since he's the one who captured Daisy. Considering Ruth is a well established bounty hunter, he should've been aware of gangs like Jody's and who's in them. Ignore this, then you'll still enjoy this movie for what it is. In short, The Hateful Eight is another entertaining modern western for shaking up the whodunnit atmosphere. If you like the best of both worlds, this one might be up your alley.
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