"The Hateful 8" (2015) non-70mm screening

I really wanted to love this movie, since it starts off strong and becomes a rambling mess in between. Is the resolution satisfying. It’s angry and mean. Director Quentin Tarantino…in his 8^th movie, directs this movie with a great deal of respect for the genre of big movies. Shot in Ultra-Panavision, it’s glorious color and depth is a marvel to watch. It’s the same lenses that shot “Ben Hur” so it better be epic. Nope, it’s essentially a Agatha Christie rip. Like “Murder On The Orient Express” it involves a collection of odd characters that may or may not be in-cahoots with Daisy, a girl who has been apprehended by a bounty hunter who is determined to see her hang at a nearby town. A blizzard traps them at a haberdashery. Where everyone soon becomes suspects to either the freeing of Daisy, or collecting on the bounty. Along the way, the bounty hunter picks up a runaway calvary soldier with a violent past. Played by Samuel L. Jackson. Mayhem and violence to follow.

What they don’t warn you about this movie is…it’s got an agenda, but not sure what it is. Just that you feel it’s trying to say something about race relations. It’s clunky and not intelligently formed. Instead, Tarantino chucks the n-bombs as if he were being paid for each one he could throw in Yes, it’s the sign of those times, however, to put modern needle drop music in, sort of reminds you that sometimes it isn’t the most necessary. It’s uncomfortable and almost justifies the violence.

The same thing occurred in “Inglorious Basterds” & “Django Unchained.” It’s cathartic to see Nazis get their face blown up, or slaveowners get their dicks shot off. But in this movie, there is the added shame of forced fellatio story before he murders a Confederate that goes into a new level of cartoonish. Is it uncomfortable and funny, or funny and uncomfortable? Who knows? It’s not a good feeling. It’s confusing. And you can almost hear Tarantino giddy with joy as he’s filming and writing something that is sort of…immature. I get why the foreign press loves it. It’s Americans being clowns. It doesn’t fit the story. Other than to set up the next gruesome event.

By the time the dust settles, I’m not sure I care about anything or anyone. Great scenes, but not a complete movie. Fantastic technical achievement, I just really wished it was for a different movie.