The man who pulls the lever that breaks your neck will be a dispassionate man,and that dispassion is the very essence of justice."

Rating: 9/10 (24 December 2015)

After enjoying the Spaghetti Western Mandingo remixed offered in Django Unchained,I was pleased to discover that writer/director Quentin Tarantino was returning to the Western with his next project,which led to me getting ready to find out how hateful the eight could be.
The plot:
Planning to collect the bounty for outlaw Daisy "The Prisoner" Domergue,John "The Hangman" Ruth decides to hire a carriage to the town of Red Rock,so that he can bring Daisy in without getting attention from her gang.On the way to Red Rock, Ruth runs into Major Marquis "The Bounty Hunter" Warren,a former army Major who is looking for a ride to Red Rock so that he can collect the bounty on 3 outlaws he has just killed. Inviting Warren along,the group soon find themselves stuck in a blizzard,which leads to Ruth deciding that they will stay at a nearby "safe house" until the weather calms down. Expecting to find no one else at their chosen "safe house" the gang are met by three strangers,who all appear to be rather keen on Daisy.
View on the film:
Opening with a carriage being driven through snow,Quentin Tarantino & cinematographer Robert Richardson cast the Western across a vast canvas,as perfectly held wide shots display the endless snowstorm hitting the characters as Ennio Morricone sweet jazzy score flames up in the background.Along with the "classical" wide shots,Tarantino also displays an expert eye for the use of stylish slo-mo to make the quick-fire shoot-outs fire up the screen,whilst also each sudden burst of stillness to punctuate the nervous tension.
Toning down the cool cat off-the-cuff one liners that became his trademark,the screenplay by Tarantino takes great care in keeping the dialogue pinned to the doubts that the characters have for each other,as each sharp exchange is wrapped in bleak dread. Separating the movie into chapters, Tarantino unleashes a gripping (and bloody) murder mystery against a Western backdrop,as the isolated location allows Tarantino to deconstruct the events which led to them all being stuck together,whilst also filling the place with shady creeps who do sly deadly tricks that would make "the butler did it" proud.
Marking his mark as Detective Shane Vendrell in the excellent,gritty TV series The Shield, Walton Goggins gives an excellent performance as Sheriff Chris Mannix,thanks to Goggins giving Mannix a rough,Old Testament view of justice which gets burnt at the edges by the offers that the other 7 strangers give him.Pulling along a great Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue,Kurt Russell gives a wonderfully gruff,big beast performance as John Ruth,whose every howl and determination to get the bounty fills the room.Showing that he can still hit every line Tarantino writes with delicious glee, Samuel (Yel) L. Jackson gives a marvellous performance as Major Marquis Warren,whose war-torn body Jackson shows hides a quick-witted mind which is matched by Warren's brutal delivery of violence,as the hateful eight each reveal how hateful they can be.