And for the true cineaste, there is really nothing not to love about The Hateful Eight, the ibidem installment of the Quentin Tarantino canon. Couple that with a score from fettuccine west's best sounds provider Ennio Morricone, a near nonagenarian who has still by all such means certainly 'got it.' Eternal applause for Tarantino's hark back trimmings in Ultra Panavision 70 no less and a modern mosey to the OK corrals of television yore with its unique paean to oaters in the likes of Law of the Plainsman, The Virginian and Bonanza all captured only as they ever could in Tarantino's singular sensational way.
The film upon its release received much flak over concerns of misogyny but Jennifer Jason Leigh has so lovingly debunked all that mishegoss with her declaration that 'nobody writes for women' quite like Quentin Tarantino. As a devastatingly dangerous Daisy Domergue ,she may be beaten and bloodied but oh my is this demented dame unbowed. Through the peril a'plenty she is the perpetual Phoenix rising and though she may be guilty of a mighty checkered past and the many misgiving; namingly murder - there is still room in your ticker for a little pathos for her.
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| A pitstop en route to Red Rock jail (Russell and Leigh) |
And yes for the faint of heart there may be some moments jarring that come with a mite of the ol' ultra-violence but hopefully you have been reared on Sergio Corbucci and Sam Peckinpah's nitrate adventures so that they may help ease you in to a few of said sanguinary sequences.Though I still must admonish you to leave that nice bowl of ravioli in marinara for later.
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| Michael Madsen taking a Missouri break. |
Now if you just so happen to be a fan of the drawing-room mystery genre you will be delighted to be apprised that this film hosts a veritable Christie mystery unfolding, for Tarantino knows how to serve up one helluva power-packed pastiche. And this is spoken from one of his erstwhile naysayers , your humble narrator here has been admittedly less than kind in the past lambasting some of the director's earlier works, but have since recovered with epiphany and am happy to emphatically exclaim that Tarantino is the reel McCoy
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| It takes a village - and only sixty -two million big ones to make The Hateful Eight |
And if you enjoyed John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger, you may just get a copious tickling out of some of the cast denizens appearing so unrecognizable. Samuel L. Jackson seems to be channeling the visage of Morgan Freeman; is that Bruce Dern there sitting in the recliner or is it Donald Sutherland. And why does Walton Goggins look more like the young Bruce Dern and or the late Warren Oates? It's a mystery challenger to stymie Dorothy Kilgallen. Kurt Russell - are you sure ?. And only Miss Jason Leigh can still be fetching with all those battle scars sported - that is, in a Linda Blair as Regan Macneil sort of a way.
And thank the maker cinematographer Robert Richardson's mama didn't take his Kodachrome away. Monet's ' The Magpie' comes to life in this frosty frontier filmed in Colorado insinuating the wilds of Wyoming.
Now why don't you mosey yourself down to the next showing of this fine, fine feature and if I may recommend the roadshow rendition for the more persnickety purist.