The Hateful Eight

"You keep talking, Pete, and you're gonna talk yourself to death."

With a powerful blizzard approaching, 9 strangers seeks refuge in Minnie's Haberdashery.  The proprietors of the haberdashery, Minnie (Dana Gourrier) and Handsome Dave (Gene Jones), are visiting family and left their establishment in the hands of Bob (Bichir), their Mexican employee.  The other inhabitants are headed to the nearby town of Red Rock.  Bounty hunters John Ruth (Russell) and Major Marquis Warren (Jackson) are turning in bounties.  Warren's are corpses, while Ruth's is murderer Daisy Domergue (Leigh), who is handcuffed to him.  They arrived at Minnie's in a stagecoach driven by O.B. Jackson (Parks), in the company of the self-proclaimed new sheriff of Red Rock Chris Mannix (Goggins).  The hangman from Red Rock, Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), is also stranded.  Elderly General Sanford Smithers (Dern) is mourning the death of his son and preparing final arrangements for his burial.  And "cow puncher" Joe Gage (Madsen) is heading home to visit his mother.

They do not trust each other, but the blizzard forces them to co-exist.  Ruth is concerned that someone in the haberdashery is trying to free or steal his prisoner, and disarms everyone but Warren.  Warren is at odds with Mannix and Smithers, based on their actions in the Civil War.  With the battle lines drawn, can they all survive the blizzard?

This is director Quentin Tarantino's "8th" film, according to the opening credits.  If you've seen any of Tarantino's previous films, you know what to expect with this one.  Unlike his other films, this features mostly original music by composer Ennio Morricone.  They also utilized some unused songs Morricone wrote for the film The Thing (which starred Kurt Russell and served as an inspiration for this film).

Most of the film is confined to the Haberdashery, and the terrible weather outside forces the characters to remain in that space.  Early in the film, one of the characters talks about being patient, and they also ask the audience to be patient.  It takes 30 minutes to get all of the characters to the haberdashery and then utilizes the rest of it's 168 minute running time (the Roadshow version is 187 minutes) to set the stage and then repeatedly throw twists and turns and reveals (and some insight into the past).  It is a violent and bloody film, where no one is safe (so a typical Tarantino film).  There is also a significant amount of cursing throughout.

The cast is exceptional.  This is Samuel L. Jackson's 6 collaboration with Tarantino, but this is his first time to be the top billed actor.  Michael Madsen and Tim Roth both appeared in Tarantino's first film, and have each appeared in other Tarantino films (4 for Madsen, if you count Sin City, and 2 for Roth).  Russell appeared in Tarantino's Death Proof.  The rest of the cast are new.  Each character has a unique story and motivation, which is fully revealed by the end of the film, although in some cases you aren't sure if they are truthful or lying.  Each character gets a moment and the ensemble works well together.

The Hateful Eight (2015) 168 minutes
Rating: R for strong bloody violence, a scene of violent sexual content, language and some graphic nudity
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren "The Bounty Hunter
Kurt Russell as John Ruth "The Hangman"
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue "The Prisoner"
Walter Goggins as Chris Mannix "The Sheriff"
Demian Bichir as Bob "The Mexican"
Tim Roth as Oswaldo Mobray "The Little Man"
Michael Madsen as Joe Gage "The Cow Puncher"
Bruce Dern as General Sanford Smithers "The Confederate"
James Parks as O.B. Jackson