"THE HATEFUL EIGHT" DVD REVIEW BY Phil Seahorn philseahorn@gmail.com www.facebook.com/seahorn epublishing www.facebook.com/phil seahorn
May 17, 2016
Theatrical release poster
Quentin Tarantino
Directed by
Produced by
Richard N. Gladstein
Stacey Sher
Shannon McIntosh Quentin Tarantino
Written by Starring
Samuel L. Jackson
Kurt Russell
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Walton Goggins
Demián Bichir
Tim Roth
Michael Madsen
Bruce Dern
James Parks
Channing Tatum
" WHEN NIGGAS ARE SCARED, THEN WHITE FOLKS ARE SAFE!" " SAY HELLO TO MAJOR ARNER". "HELLO NIGGER." " SINCE I'M THE FIRST BLACK PERSON YOU EVER TALKED TO ,I'LL CUT YOU SOME SLACK..DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS FOR A BLACK MAN TO COME AGAINST AMERICA? THE ONLY WAY A BLACK MAN FEELS SAFE IS WHEN WHITE FOLKS ARE DISARMED." "TALK THAT SASS , NIGGA! TALK THAT SASS!"
QUENTIN TARANTINO is what SPIKE LEE should have been. And that pisses the fuck out of Spike Lee, arguably Quentin Tarantino's loudest and harshest critic.
THE HATEFUL EIGHT"
With the release of “ on DVD, America can finally have in their homes the exact reason Spike and hundreds of others hate on Quentin Tarintino. If you have “THE HATEFUL EIGHT” DVD at home, you have one of the greatest movies this century has produced. Wow, all this from a fucking DVD? Well, when you have been watching, writing, drawing, analyzing, and
49 MOTHERFUCKING YEARS, and if you lack the following Hollywood and Hollywood Movies for
skills to articulate this love of American Movies in a fucking DVD review, well, that was half a century wasted. Every fucking film student needs to have this DVD. From the opening shots of the fucking DVD, I knew it was going to be another extremely interesting ride on the fucked up worldview rollercoaster ride that is a "QUENTIN TARANTINO MOVIE”. There is a definitive reason this motherfucker is studied in college courses in movie and American cinema classes in major universities all over the world.
Just from the opening, panoramic opening shot (I think I might have honestly started to cry if I had seen this in
IMAX) the photographer used
Bob Richardson, brings his decades of talent to
on this movie, the big screen in The Hateful Eight.
Richardson, with the express request of Quentin, used what is called
PANANVISION, a movie recording process which utilizes special lenses to give an incredible "3-D" feel on the movie screen.
"Ben Hur"
Such classics as used this effect, noting the famous chariot racing scenes as one of the trademark (and landmark) usage of the Panavision technology. So, when this opening scene on my DVD player showed me what I had been missing since Apartheid America (America before 1980), it all came back. I NEVER read ANYTHING about a movie I'm going to review. I go into viewing a DVD movie that I missed on the big screen completely without any knowledge of the movie, other than reading opening reviews on the movie. And I read those reviews with a grain of salt.
PANANVISION,
So, not even knowing anything about I instantly just knew that this DVD was going to be the shit when the incredible photography and imagery of the wintery mountains of Utah. Quentin (I know, first person, but I've been following and loving this guy’s work since 1992, never met him, don’t know him from “Adam”, just his work) has branded himself as Hollywood's quintessinal "noir" movie writer. Quentin hits with dialog, and, like his “HARD HITTIN NIGGAS”, he hits hard. This writing brand of Tarantino’s actually worked in the complete reverse for me in Tarantino’s earlier movie “
INGLORIUS
BASTARDS”, simply because a war movie (another genre I love) is not a "talky' movie format; more blood and guts for me. But Quentin uses dialog like a boxer uses a left hook: he hits you with words. He draws you into a movie by just what the fuck the character in the movie is just SAYING.
THAT'S the mark of a true screenwriter. So, in “The Hateful Eight” the dialog starts tight with the opening scene with dialog. Quentin shapes each movie character squarely round what he or she (the character) is going to say. So, you will start laughing your motherfucking asses off right into this DVD.
QUENTIN TARANTINO
But here is why is a triple threat: this motherfucker uses the dialog to get across American topics too taboo to see anywhere else in the American Diaspora, uses that as a vehicle for his work, then utilizes the reaction of the dialog to shape the very film he is writing, culminating in an ending to all his movies that you simply can’t anticipate. Case in point: a haberdashery that is also an inn in the middle of a blizzard on a Utah mountain with eight mystery people who end up killing each other in horrible ways. Talk about a scenario for some extremely intriguing dialog. Quentin essentially writes a train mystery here with “Hateful Eight”, except it utilized a stage coach in the opening act, and the last acts are held in the inn/haberdashery. Quentin gets an ensemble cast of actors which the actors, in turn, as we say back in the hood, “
SHOW OUT”.
Since Quentin's weapon are words, then he needed the "guns" to “fire” those words. Each and every actor in this DVD bring their “A” game. Sam, Kurt, Jennifer; all these actors bring it because of one thing and one thing ONLY:
motherfucking Quentin Tarantino movie!!!!!! Like THE COEN BROTHERS, the Hollywood brand of “Quentin Tarantino” has established such an iconic base THEY are in a
in American Cinema that actors literally beg the directors to be in them. When you watch “The Hateful Eight” you see why.
John Wayne,
Kurt Russel's character channels until Quentin emerges. So, imagine John Wayne being in a Tarantino movie when you watch this DVD. Russel, Jackson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, as a hate filled racist southern woman murderer being escorted to a place called Red Rock ( I bet if I research Tarantino movie cannon, this place has come up in his other movies before ) to be hung.
Samuel L. Jackson, the linchpin to any successful Hollywood movie, is at his best in a Quentin Tarantino movie. This role (of Major with Sam in mind.
Marquis Warren) was obviously written
Hollywood, and the American and world cinema, has recognized that Sam Jackson has gone down in Hollywood and cinema history as
“THE
HARDEST WORKING MAN IN HOLLYWOOD.” SAMUEL JACKSON NEVER TURNS DOWN A ROLE. EVER. Think about that shit sometime. As the incredible shots of Utah merge into the settings of a haberdashery inn, Quentin keeps the dialog of the DVD fast, witty, and full of social commentary on the
American Civil War.
Many panned this movie initially when I first read reviews, but I knew that because of the controversial subject matter of the script, the cries of "too much talk, not enough action" were coming from people who truly did not get what a
“ Quentin Tarantino” move is.
Tarantino’s movie is all about the dialog.
However, in the second and third act of “Eight”, Quentin gets all the gore, black humor, racial dialog, and social commentary on. However, the chapter five segment of the DVD hovers EXTRMEMELY DANGEROULSY toward copyright infringement. This segment of the DVD could have easily been an episode of
“AMERICAN HORROR STORY” right down to the fucking music used in the opening scene of Chapter Five: “The Four Passengers.” This, and a scene of Jason Leigh singing and playing the guitar was simply too strange and offsetting. (That says a lot for a Tarantino movie.) Now, there ARE some GLARING plot holes you could drive a fucking Mack truck through. One is: WHY THE FUCK DOESN'T ANYONE HAVE GUNS AT THE HABERDASHERY? Quentin goes for extreme historical accuracy in his period pieces. The West back then was a fucking nightmare, especially for women on the plains. Minnie (as the character who owns the haberdashery inn) would have had to have a stockpile of weaponry. And being a BLACK woman on the plains running a business, she would have had to shoot a motherfucker at least once a month just to stay in business!!! The other glaring plot hole is pretty fucking obvious from the beginning of the movie: WOULDN'T IT HAVE JUST BEEN EASIER TO TIE EVERYONE UP, SIT THE STORM OUT, THEN LEAVE QWITH THE WOMAN PRISONER INSTED OF KILLING EVERHING IN SIGHT, AROUSING FAR MORE SUSPICION AND PURSUIT BY AUTHORITIES??? Some of these fucking plot holes one has to surrender to a level of reality going out the fucking window, to actually enjoy ANY movie made by Quentin Tarantino, so there that is. REASONS TO BUY THIS DVD OF “THE HATEFUL EIGHT" BY QUENTIN TARANTINO:
•
Best cinematography of the Utah Mountains probably ever produced using
Panavision.
• • • • • • • • •
Excellent western. Great characters. Great acting. Strong chemistry. Incredibly engaging storyline. Lots and lots of "gonzo violence". True homage to the 70's (probably people born before 1990 will not get this aspect of the DVD at all). Brings America's racial history, especially during America’s Civil War, first and foremost. Very accurate with historical details, especially on how
"prairie women" were greeted with beatings, rapes, and generally the exact treatment to a woman as seen in this DVD.
•
Brings together iconic actors Jackson, Dern and the return of
Michael Madsen and Tim Roth. • The fucking BONUS MATERIAL is actually BONUS MATERIAL.EVERY person interested in all things
American Cinema needs to just sit there and watch this DVD and shut the fuck up.
This DVD got negative reviews in its cinematic release because of BAD TIMING.
From the second anniversary of the riots of
Ferguson,
Missouri , to more cops in America killing more "niggers' in 2016, a movie like “THE HATEFUL EIGHT" would probably not gotten better reviews and far more box office if released in another time when America is not in racial turmoil after eight (ironic) years of America’s first president of color. Quentin had already tied himself to the New York city police brutality controversy, maybe because he seems to be one of the only white people with power in America who seem to 'get' what the black experience in America is all about. Or he did it (gaining media attention for speaking out against police brutality, especially in New York) to draw more attention to his movie. Either way, with “THE HATEFUL EIGHT”, Quentin has tied himself firmly into the American Diaspora, with a great wester and social commentary DVD. SEAHORN MOVIE METER: "A+" for all the fucking reasons listed above!