Tarantino's bloody western chamber piece is more Agatha Christie than Sergio Leone or John Ford

Rating: 10/10 (27 July 2019)

Terrific western from writer/director Quentin Tarantino is unexpectedly more Agatha Christie than John Ford. Bounty Hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth, played by the always wonderful and sadly underused Kurt Russell, is taking in wanted criminal Daisy Domergue, the also amazing Jennifer Jason Leigh, to hang. However, a blizzard forces them to hold up at a way station with a band of nefarious types, one or more of whom aren't who they say they are and are likely looking to free Daisy. In "And Then There Were None" fashion, character begin to get offed, and to reveal much more of the plot would ruin the fun of the film. Like most Tarantino films, this one is likely not going to be for all tastes, even if the film features a stellar cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson as a fellow bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, and Tarantino even casts Matt Houston himself, Lee Horsley, as a stagecoach driver, great plotting, terrific suspense, shocking moments of violence, and as you would expect from a Tarantino film, some incredibly sharp dialogue. Comparing this film to Tarantino's other work, this one seems closest to "Reservoir Dogs" in the sense that it's a bunch of characters stuck in a confined space doing a lot of talking and tough guy posturing, leading up to a bloody climax. And boy it is a wildly bloody climax, courtesy of special effect maestro Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger. But since Dogs, Tarantino has matured as a director and continues to top himself each time out, branching out and challenging himself with something new and different with each new film and "The Hateful Eight" is no different. Also of note, the film features composer Ennio Morricone's first western score in many years and also his first American film score in quite some time (his last was "Ripley's Game" in 2002). It's a strangely moody score when I was expecting a score filled with crazy stings and whistles, ALA Sergio Leone or Sergio Corbucci. Morricone's score is more along the lines of his score for John Carpenter's "The Thing," which this film actually uses some tracks from. But the highlight of nearly all of Tarantino's film is his dialogue and this film features more verbal sparring matches than any of his films, which is endlessly delightful. From the his first film, with Mr. White and Mr. Blond facing each other down ("Are you gonna bark all day little doggie? Or are you gonna bite?"), it was clear that Tarantino knew how to use dialogue to build tension, and his skills have only gotten better since then. The way characters play with one another, trying to outsmart and outwit one another is endlessly watchable. And upon a second viewing of the film and the dialogue can be reinterpreted and takes on new meaning once the audience knows character motivations and where the story is heading. Thematically, I think Tarantino has always played with genres but with this film is commenting on modern race relations through this tale of violent bounty hunters in a post-Civil War old west. It's the racial tensions following the Civil War that Tarantino uses to put the ugly views on race front and center that you can today hear on cable news or read online just about anytime you want. Of all his films, this one seems his most mature and I think arguable his best. Still, like most of his film, they are not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a film buff, Tarantino's film vocabulary that he infuses into each of his films is utterly intoxicating.