The Hateful Eight

Firstly let’s get it straight that ‘The Hateful Eight’ is by no means a bad film, in fact it is quite fantastic. The cast for one are impeccable and on fire, especially Sam Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The first half of the film is full of what we have come to expect from a Tarantino picture, a lot of fast talking despicable characters, profanity and extraneous gabbing. It is so beautifully written and put together that one just marvels at the delight of it all, the talent on and off screen. Over the three hour running time the tension swells and the niceties begin to be abandoned as in classic Tarantino style, the talking turns to blood, and violence and chaos ensues. The final thirty minutes are very satisfying and entertaining. The 70mm cinematography is stunning and gives a great weight and cinematic power to every frame, every wide shot or extreme close up. The whole thing is quilted in a threatening Ennio Morricone score that is more horror movie than spaghetti western; it pulses along eerily, developing the underlying murderous intent of everyone onscreen, setting the stage for the bloodshed that will inevitably come. The whole thing is so beautifully crafted, but is it that interesting to watch, as a film? The problem is simply that the story is far too slim to warrant its three hour run time.

Tarantino is a great writer and truly gifted film maker, no one knows that more than Tarantino himself. It has always been his writing and his screenplays in particular that have been his selling point, his films are defined from their use of language and the way in which the characters speak. Over the course of his career this has become more omnipresent and as his films and celebrated status have amassed success his penchant rambling dialogue and character monologues have just got longer and denser and more literary. Since ‘Inglorious Bastards’ this literary trend of Tarantino’s writing has become all pervasive and defining of his work, whereby narrative and plot are not as important as character and dialogue and the cinematic tension developed between the two. Some can say this has always been the case with Tarantino’s films but his earlier work from ‘Reservoir Dogs’ through to ‘Kill Bill’ although very heavy on a theatrical perversion with wordplay, all had a greater cinematic momentum that drove the narrative. In Tarantino’s later years it has become apparent that the writing has become the most sacred aspect of his process and the cinematic end product is almost secondary to the source material.

Tarantino’s preciousness around his screenplays is much like that of a novelist or a playwright, he regards them in that light, his writing process is no different to if he were writing a novel and in the case of his most recent work they have become far richer, denser and situational rather than adhering to a cinematic plot based framework. The chapter headings that Tarantino has always used now make a lot more sense as each scene plays out like a chapter of a novel, and in a novel they would be even more captivating. Both ‘Inglorious Bastards’ and ‘Django Unchained’ were heavily built around single scenes of extraordinary length, dedicated to dialogue, with very little action or momentum on screen, and reverential dedication to mounting tension. These films successfully pulled this off for they also displayed the director’s usual dynamic approach to film making, the history and wonder of cinema up there on screen with them giving even greater weight to written word, both harmoniously nurturing the other. This time Tarantino has clearly been so occupied with the writing that none of the usual cinematic flair is up there on screen. For a western - the genre that Tarantino holds most dear - there is little of the genre on screen, a trait not often something one can criticise Tarantino for. ‘The Hateful Eight’ is nowhere near as affecting as Bastards or Django, its suspense and tension not as palpable as Christoph Waltz’s opening scene in Bastards or Dicaprio’s speech about old Ben at the dinner table. In the ‘Hateful Eight’ there is a lot of talking and a lot of violence but the threat of violence and that sinister urge never brews so deliciously the way it does in Bastards or Django. It remains flat, this I am sure is because of the sedentary setting of almost the entire film. The characters have no where to go, therefore it is impossible to take the audience somewhere else either.

In the case of ‘The Hateful Eight’ it is this preoccupation and love affair Tarantino has for the novelistic approach to screenwriting that is its downfall. The Hateful Eight is on paper a very simple story of a bounty hunter transporting a fugitive to hang, who with six other characters find themselves trapped at an inn during a wild blizzard and they must all tolerate each others company for the rest of the film. There is murder mystery at the heart of the story and a whodunit plot device, but as for story it is as simple as it gets. It does not demand a three hour run time, if it ran for one hundred minutes like ‘Reservoir Dogs’ also a situational thriller, the film would have been far more compelling. The film doesn’t have any momentum, any driving force that directs the narrative and takes the audience on a journey from beginning to end. It is the assumption of Tarantino that because he knows his writing is so good, and all the Oscars and awards, not to mention flawless back catalogue, will give great evidence for that being the case, it isn’t enough if the story isn’t strong enough. There isn’t a story here worth telling, there isn’t a story that is captivating to an audience or characters anyone can route for and invest in emotionally. The history of cinema differs to theatre in that it has always been structured around a three act structure and centred around a heroes journey, when this trend is abandoned it never tends to work in the favour of mass success. That’s not to say ‘The Hateful Eight’ won’t make a lot of money, I’m sure it will, it is a Tarantino film after all, but it is impossible to ignore the disappointment audiences have had after having seen the film. It is impossible to shift that feeling that you didn’t see a movie; you just saw a play on screen.

Tarantino has stated that he intends to make ten movies, he now only has two more left to make, and after that he wants to write novels and direct plays. It is evident that this is the direction he intends to go, his screenplays and his writing process is no longer aimed at modern cinema audiences, he writes as a novelist, and as a novelist you are under no hurried pressure to do anything, the same narrative structure is not essential when writing a novel, it is a far looser and freer medium of story telling whereby characters and story can be developed over a much greater period of time. In cinema you only have two hours to captivate an audience and take them on a journey. It isn’t a problem if a film has a certain theatricality to it or evokes the feeling of a stage play, many films do it and do it well. There are many interior set dramas that borrow heavily from theatre and novels for that matter but it is always to what extent that keeps a film with its feet firmly in the realm of the cinematic. ‘The Hateful Eight’ is far too literary and is evidently a stage play so why make it a film, why not stage it as a one act play and let chaos ensue? I’m positive it would have a far greater affect.

I don’t think for a second that Tarantino has lost his love affair with cinema; however it is becoming increasingly clear that as a writer he doesn’t appear to be fulfilled writing for modern cinematic audiences. There is a light frothy nature to writing a Hollywood screenplay compared to the works of William Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams. Tarantino, I feel, fancies himself as the latter; he considers himself a great writer and wants to be remembered as such, to go down in the history books for having a God given talent for writing and perhaps that talent is just too big for the confines of the silver screen and is screaming to be let loose. Perhaps the stage is where he will go, where the dialogue can roam rampant and free without having to answer to critics arguing the lack of narrative or plot. There doesn’t need to be onstage nor in a novel, but in cinema, in the current Hollywood mould that we all consume movies, it is essential for at least a tenuous narrative plot to be present, which in The Hateful Eight is scarcely found. I feel as Tarantino ponders his next move and his next picture he should question, do I want to be remembered as a great film maker or a great writer? Nobody doubts either.