In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.
A blood-splattered murder mystery in 19th-century Wyoming is the notional plot for Tarantino’s swaggering off-message and old-fashioned three-hour masterpiece.
In his familiar style, Tarantino uses stock characters and situations from old Westerns but pushes them to new extremes.
The Hateful Eight brands the western with a big ‘QT’. All you’d expect from a Tarantino movie and more besides. Saddle up.
Hugely entertaining, characteristically violent western from Quentin Tarantino.
For all the violence on display, Tarantino’s continued ability to sustain tension with these extended passages of dialogue underscores how much more powerful and dangerous language can be, whether in the form of a racist slur, or a few soothing words designed to create the illusion of harmony in a divided country nowhere close to being healed.
On a par with Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight starts low-key but ultimately delivers big, bold, blood-soaked rewards. Roll on, QT Western number three.
Underneath all the fun and games you glimpse the serious intentions as Tarantino mercilessly explores an America in which extreme violence and vicious racism appear to be embedded in the country’s soul.
The Hateful Eight this lot most certainly are but they are also, alas, The Tedious Eight.
Tarantino’s latest is a wild west Reservoir Dogs, full of his usual exuberant violence but lacking the element of surprise.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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