Love to hate

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2016)

In Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight," we're reminded that beyond charity work, holding hands and singing Kumbaya in a circle, nothing brings two people separated by culture, race or religion together like a common enemy.
The bulk of the film's action takes place in Minnie's Haberdashery, a refuge for every wide-brimmed, black hat wearing western supervillian. It's the kind of place where John Ruth (Kurt Russell), a bounty hunter affectionately referred to as "the hangman" because he always brings his man in alive to watch them hang, is the lesser of eight evils.
Russell plays Ruth like John Wayne's shadow--walking tall, talking slow, strong to his convictions, but wrapped in the nihilism of Eastwood's "man with no name." It's been said that Laurence Olivier could recite Shakespeare so well, it was as if he was coming up with the words himself; the same could be said of Tarantino's dialogue for Samuel L. Jackson, who delivers a monologue in this film so dastardly and wicked, that each breath should be captured and bottled up for risk of tarnishing the ozone. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Ruth's latest bounty, a cackling package of juvenile malevolence. Bruce Dern has earned his placed among the hateful eight through his prior work in westerns, as he's the first man--and one of few--to ever kill John Wayne on screen. "The Shield" alum, Walton Goggins, who reminds me of a young Bruce Dern, is terrific fun to watch as the proud, pisant son of a confederate soldier.
Whereas most Tarantino films are packed with violence from one end to the other, the violence here is more thoughtful and impactful, as dialogue becomes its wing-man, building it up until you're dying to meet it.
There is also an underlying theme of the elasticity of reality, as the film treats fiction and truth like blood and water: one drop of blood in a glass of water, and water's not water anymore; it's blood. But a drop of water in a glass of blood simply vanishes.
If "Mad Max: Fury Road" is roller coaster fun, "The Hateful Eight" is page-turner fun. As great and rollicking as the dialogue is--and this could probably work as a radio play--it's taken to another level with every crooked smile and sideways glance. And ironically, despite the heinous cast of characters, the ending to the film is somewhat sweet.
Not perfect, but all I want.
(I was fortunate enough to see the film in 70mm. It's impossible to comment on how much better it was than a digital screening, or if the film hadn't been shot with anamorphic lenses, unless I was able to see the film in that fashion. However, there was a scene when Jennifer Jason Leigh was having a Ricky Nelson from "Rio Bravo" moment, and characters were moving in the background from one side the screen to the other, back and forth. It was here the huge aspect ratio really hit me.)