In an acclaimed filmography wrapped in a crimson mask of blood and violence, The Hateful Eight lies as one of Quentin Tarantino's most audacious works. With almost all the events in this narrative taking place in a single room, his second attempt at a western slowly and meticulously fleshes out the anxiety and doubt of its characters, played marvelously by an all-star cast.

Accompanied by an award-winning score by the master of the sounds of the spaghetti western himself, Ennio Morricone, shot in 70mm film, and an inclusion of a 12-minute intermission in its theatrical run, one can see the great lengths Tarantino has gone to for an authentic image of old westerns. However, despite its devilish allure and its blatant love for the genre, the picture is considered by some as one of his weaker movies, which is undeservedly so. The Hateful Eight is arguably one of his most true-to-heart movies, employing the signature Tarantinoesque tropes we have come to love and aggressively driving their volume knob to their maximum settings.

What Is 'The Hateful Eight' About?

John "The Hangman" Ruth and "Crazy" Daisy Domergue looking in the same direction in The Hateful Eight
Image via The Weinstein Company

Trapped in the middle of a deadly blizzard, "The Hangman" John Ruth (Kurt Russell) together with his bounty Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), and soon to be installed Sheriff of Red Rock, Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), seek refuge from the blistering cold. As they enter a bed and breakfast cabin cheekily called a haberdashery, Warren immediately notes that things are suspicious. The owner of the cabin, Minnie, isn't there, and they are welcomed by the Mexican caretaker, Bob (Demian Bichir), the hangman of those parts Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), a cowboy seeking to visit his mother in Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and a civil war General, Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern).

As the hours tick, Ruth, Warren, and Mannix realize that these people they are stuck with aren't who they say they are, and the three of them must put aside their political differences and stick together to survive the night. Unfortunately, Smithers didn't get the memo and goes on a racially charged epithet against Warren, and he is swiftly gunned down by the black major. Tensions continue to rise to a fever-pitch, leaving the protagonists and the viewers in a brooding sense of unease. When John Ruth suddenly gets poisoned from the coffee, Domergue grabs his weapon and kills her captor. Warren and Mannix line up the survivors, and they confirm their true identities: they are members of the Domingre gang here to free Daisy, and they will leave no survivors in the wake of their rampage.

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Familiar Tarantino Movie Tropes Make 'The Hateful Eight' a Stronger Film

Channing Tatum as Jody Domergue in The Hateful Eight
Image via The Weinstein Company

As the smoke clears, The Hateful Eight offers a spirit of familiarity, much like the feeling of seeing someone we swear we know in a crowd of people. For one, it is an action-packed picture brimming with suspense that revels in its bits of self-awareness. The entire structure of the movie feels like if Tarantino imagined what Reservoir Dogs would have been like if it was set in the world of Django Unchained a mystery of people being undercover in the realm of the wild west. This also manifests in the colorful characters that talk their way endlessly around each other. Tarantino, much like other filmmakers, has a pool of favorite actors and repeatedly casts them to his own liking. What makes The Hateful Eight's characters so fascinating is not only the fact that they are played by repeat performers, but they also bring with them some of the mythos of previous Tarantino movie characters they have portrayed.

In the aftermath of Ruth's murder, Warren takes control of the situation and painstakingly dissects the events that transpired. He goes on a lengthy monologue about how Bob's presence is ultimately the one that gave it away. One can't help but see that Major Warren is a concoction of the characteristics from other Samuel L. Jackson portrayals in the Tarantinoverse. He carries the gusto and the fear-inducing talking ability of Pulp Fiction's Jules Winnfield, while being as manipulative as Jackie Brown's Ordell Robbie. Along with this, the other people in the film also are reminiscent of their previous iterations. John Ruth's recklessness and his charming charisma feels like an offshoot of Death Proof's Stuntman Mike, who now plays on the side of the protagonists. Joe Gage is a criminal without a conscience, who is very picky with his words and is the one who the ensemble is very wary of from the start, much like Reservoir Dogs' Mr. Blonde.

Perhaps even most blatant of these reprising characterizations is Tim Roth's Oswaldo Mobray. Eventually revealed as Englishman Pete Hicox, the gang member is an on-the-nose salute to Mr. Orange of Reservoir Dogs. Masquerading as someone he is not, Hicox employs smooth-talking measures to convince everybody of his new persona. Eventually, his cover eventually gets blown, and he is shot in the gut by a person defending themselves from his attempt at hijacking the situation. He bleeds out, and never gets the restitution that he came for. For those who have only seen this film from Tarantino, Hicox is merely engaging, but for those who are familiar with his oeuvre, it is thought-provoking, entrancing the viewers to once again revisit his old projects. This self-indulgent quality brings a sensation of comfort, amidst the rather disturbing and violent nature of the picture.

'The Hateful Eight' Celebrates Conventions

Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson in 'The Hateful Eight'
Image via TWC

The Hateful Eight can also be viewed as a self-indulgent celebration of Tarantino conventions, the scenes painted with the authorial strokes of a master who is aware of what makes him distinct. The aggrandization of these trademarks resulted in an expressionist experience, like a Jackson Pollock painting crafted in bullet squibs and gallons of movie-grade blood. Its scenes are talkier than the usual, with lengthy orations about the civil war, race relations, a letter from Abraham Lincoln himself, and strangely, about Warren's "big black Johnson". The idea that this proliferation of talking points would turn out to be a bore is severely mistaken. On the contrary, it makes the interactions more vivid, the motivations of each character vibrantly taking over the attention of those who are watching. This is Tarantino dialogue after all, and it just keeps getting better and better, filling the listeners' ears with wonder, intrigue, and even downright disbelief.

Moreover, the violence is also more barbaric than ever. The moment where all hell breaks loose is indicative of this craving for vicious action. Bob's face is literally blown off by Warren. As he continues to press further, Jody (Channing Tatum) is shown to be underneath the floorboards and shoots Major Warren in the groin, leading to a crossfire injuring both Hicox and Mannix. When both sides regroup, Jody surrenders and comes up to the room, only for his head to be blown off by the pistol of Major Warren, his blood engulfing the grieving face of his sister, followed by the elimination of Gage and Hicox. Aiming to kill Domergue and end this once and for all, Warren discovers that he no longer has any bullets and a frantic chase to the remaining loaded weapon results in Mannix planting a bullet straight into Daisy. In memory of John Ruth, they decide to hang Domergue and they both lie in the middle of the cabin, reading the Lincoln letter, presumably bleeding out before dawn. The aftermath of the chaos borders on bloodthirstiness, the result more reminiscent of a Mortal Kombat fatality than a Tarantino sequence. This doesn't mean that it takes away from its appeal. Rather, it is a remarkable representation of Tarantino's tendencies, still worthy of adulation even in their most excessive.

Molasses-like in pace and finding the redeemable in the most nefarious individuals, The Hateful Eight plays with truth, lies, and forging partnerships in the unlikeliest of places. Yes, some may say that this isn't exactly Quentin Tarantino's most exceptional picture, but it is a Tarantino piece nonetheless, one that relishes the self-gratification of the filmmaker's tropes. Notwithstanding the unadulterated fun it possesses and its sheer re-watch value, this nail-biting western acts as a scrapbook of a filmmaker's body of work, waiting for those in the know to appreciate it.