Kurt Russell as John "The Hangman" Ruth.
Yesterday I took up Andy's invitation for a chaps night at the flicks, and we went to see "Hateful Eight", the new offering from QT.
There was a time when I got it into my head that QT wasn't actually any good, and that it was style over substance. Last night I sat in a cinema for 3 hours and 7 minutes, for a film principally set in a single room, which had a pretty consistent pace throughout (no cars chases, no dropping photon torpedoes into ventilation shafts), and I was glued to it. There's no way that could be the case if all he was good for was style over substance. I have to say this was a magnificent piece of film making.
Would I watch it again? Probably not. But then that's true of Momento and Usual Suspects. To my mind they're fantastic films, but ones you can only see once.
In typical QT style there were liberal amounts of blood and gore, some of which had the audience laughing out loud at the sheer volume and audacity of it. There was also - and I want to use a word that is greater than 'liberal' here but can't think of one - liberal use of the n-word. Neither of these things were gratuitous, even if its use .
The major female character in the film takes a bit of a beating, but that too seems in keeping with the story. She ain't a nice person.
The performances were great, even Tim Roth's posh Englishman didn't grate as much as I thought it would. Had any of the performances not been up to it, then the film as a whole couldn't have sustained my interest.
I would suggest you go see it at the cinema, for two reasons. The first being that it's a long film, and there can be too many distractions at home which may draw you away. The second reason is that QT filmed this in 70mm Panavision, and is designed to be seen BIG. Even though it's filmed inside, the bigness of it really works well. You may have a HUGE tv at home, but there's nothing like the shared experience in front of a giant projected image.
Go see it.
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