Acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino has found a nice groove making period pieces in recent years. Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and his newest film The Hateful Eight, all take place in a time far removed from our own. However, despite their time period, Tarantino has an ability to make it all feel modern and relevant.
After making two truly sprawling epics, it looks as if Tarantino is dialing back the scale this time around and telling a more intimate tale. Judging by the trailer, there won’t be many locations or set pieces. It is slightly underwhelming, since it is always nice to see a director stretch their canvas even farther. However, with all that being said, this movie is shot beautifully and Tarantino rarely, if ever, has disappointed. This movie actually feels closer to his debut movie, Reservoir Dogs, where most of the action took place inside of a single warehouse. Which means that he has to have a dynamic script with engaging dialogue and characters, a creative cinematographer, and a cast that is as interesting to watch as any special effect in order to anchor the film.
In a time when Hollywood is always looking for the next big thing or actor, Tarantino takes a look into his own film past and brings along many familiar faces from his own movies, such as Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, and more. It also should be noted that it seems that no one in the primary cast is younger than 45. Which is a rarity in movie making and it is hard to imagine any other filmmaker being able to have the clout to pull it off or to get the studio’s blessing. Especially since many of the roles could seemingly have been pulled off with younger actors.
It looks as if Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson will be anchoring the film. Russell is having a bit of a career resurgence after his appearance in one of the biggest movies of the year, Furious 7. Seeing Snake Plissken’s face in a starring role is a comforting and welcome sight and that mustache might be worth the price of admission itself. You can say what you want about Jackson mailing in his performances in other movies. However, you can’t say that about his appearances in films that were guided by Tarantino, such as Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained. So it will be fun to see what kind of character that the two have created this time around. There is still plenty of time before the movie’s Christmas Day opening, so we will be bringing you all the latest. Enjoy the trailer.
Official Synopsis:
In “The Hateful Eight,” set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
The Hateful Eight opens on December 25th, 2015.
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Source: Weinstein Company