Rob and I went up to Denver to watch The Hateful Eight this past weekend. It would be convenient to say that I must be
outgrowing Quentin Tarantino, but that’s not the truth. I recently re-watched Pulp Fiction and found its editing, cinematography, and writing to be just as impressive
today as they were twenty years ago.
I suggest that Tarantino hasn’t improved as he’s gotten
older; “If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean it gets better
with age, it don't”. Instead of maturing
as a writer/director, Tarantino has become increasingly obsessed with graphic
(albeit cartoonish) violence. I really
don’t understand why, perhaps it is his response to accusations of being a
maker of violent films. As the great
film critic Roger Ebert so astutely pointed out, Pulp Fiction is an effective
movie thanks to dialogue which is so disarming that the moments of violence have
greater impact.
The Hateful Eight starts out with about one hour of a
Quentin Tarantino movie that I want to watch, then quickly and completely
deteriorated into a bloodbath – and I’m not using literary flourishes. The first hour of the film centers around two
post-Civil War bounty hunters played by Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell
travelling together in a stagecoach along with a prisoner played by Jennifer
Jason Leigh. Russell brings an amalgamation
of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday to his character, while Jackson reprises his role
as Jules from Pulp Fiction. So far, so
good; we get to hear bounty hunters talking about everyday things – all very
Tarantinoesque. As a blizzard overtakes
the travelers they must take shelter at a lodge, where the remaining characters
are introduced. For a time this change
of scenery seems promising; unfortunately people start poisoning, stabbing, shooting,
and hanging each other; clever dialogue and interesting characters are replaced
by violence and blood.
If it weren’t for the existence of Django, I might have understood this drastic departure for
Tarantino; this time it just seems like pointless excess. I can forgive Tarantino for recycling some of
his own ideas and themes, but his new-found obsession with blood splatter is
annoying at best. As I’ve contemplated
the film, I remain impressed by the cinematography and setting (it was filmed
here in Colorado), I really enjoyed the first hour, but overall I was
disappointed… Quentin Tarantino can do
so much better than this.
Quentin Tarantino achieved a level of greatness when he
allowed his characters to be redeemable; Butch and Jules perform selfless acts
in Pulp Fiction… I just ran out of
examples. On the other hand is The Hateful Eight; no one deserves to
walk out of that lodge alive, and maybe I shouldn’t have expected to enjoy the
experience either.
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