If someone had asked me years ago if I wanted a modern Agatha Christie mystery set as a Western I don’t know how I would’ve responded. But after watching Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight I can safely say that I would want even more movies like this.
Tarantino is one of the most interesting and talented directors and writers of our time. His films are always so over the top and have such memorable characters along with his distinct directing style. They call back to so much film history and you can tell there is an overwhelming passion in the director about what he is putting onto the screen.
The movies been out for a while now so the rundown for those of you who haven’t seen it is pretty simple. A bounty hunter, known as the Hangman, is taking his current bounty to the town of Red Rock, Wyoming in the middle of a blizzard. Through unlikely circumstance he ends up having to hold out in a lodge with questionable characters who the Hangman feels might be there to aid in the escape of his current captured bounty.
But what this movie does so brilliantly is not give a clear perspective of who is someone you can support until the end of the movie, which even then considering the “good” guys final act is questionable. There is no one main character and the characters all bring something questionable to the table to make you think they might have something to do with it.
As with all Tarantino movies, the blood flows like water down a waterfall but unlike other works of his, the gore and deaths are a payoff and not really the main attraction here. Despite the nearly three-hour time span of this movie I still had a great time.
I’m gonna give the Hateful Eight a 8.0~8.5/10.
The Talking Gator 