A violent western from Tarantino

Rating: 8/10 (5 April 2017)

Set in the middle of the winter in Wyoming, this western opens with Major Marquis Warren, a bounty hunter, stopping a stage coach to ask for a ride to Red Rock. Aboard the coach are fellow bounty hunter John 'The Hangman' Ruth and his prisoner Daisy Domergue. Sometime later they pick up another passenger, Chris Mannix, a former Confederate soldier who claims that he is the new sheriff of Red Rock. Unable to get to town before a blizzard strikes they stop at Minnie's Haberdashery. Here they immediately think something is wrong; there is no sign of Minnie and the story told about her absence seems unlikely. Already there are Bob, a Mexican who claims to be running the establishment in Minnie's absence; Oswaldo Mobray, who claims to be the hangman heading to Red Rock; Joe Gage, who claims to be a cowboy going home to visit his mother and General Sandy Smithers, formerly of the Confederate Army.
Here tensions rise as Ruth is convinced that one of those men is there to free his prisoner. There is also tension between Warren, a black, former Union officer, and the two former confederates. It is only a matter of time before these tensions explode into bloody violence. Before the film is over many of those present will end up dead and we will learn what happened before the stage coach arrived at Millie's.
At two hours and forty minutes in length this film is certainly rather long but I never felt bored. The opening scenes did a fine job of introducing the various characters and telling us a little about them that makes the viewer wonder if what we are told is true in some cases it is and in some cases it isn't and not always in the cases we expect. The setting is great; a single room where everybody is trapped for the duration of the blizzard provides a sense of claustrophobia that increases the tension even more. It is very much a film of two halves; the first is tense but gently paced people talk but there is little violence. The second half is far more violent; this violence is very bloody and at times very shocking. The cast does a fine job; most notably Samuel L. Jackson as Major Warren, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue and Kurt Russell as John Ruth. As one would expect from a film from Quentin Tarantino this won't be for everybody and certainly isn't for younger viewers with its extreme violence and frequent use of the racist 'N-word' not that the film is racist, just some characters. Overall I'd recommend this for fans of Tarantino's other films.