That said, for the purposes of this review, I did watch a different version of the movie, this one the so-called Netflix "mini-series" version, which runs a bit longer than the original, and presumably also includes the footage included in the "Roadshow" version. I'll judge that version vs. the original one, and let you know if it's worth going out of your way to see it, especially if you've already seen the theatrical cut.
For those who missed my initial review, you can read that here. For the rest, without further ado, here is my revised, second-opinion look at Quentin Tarantino's eighth film, appropriately-titled...
After the back-to-back career highs of Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino began his customary break while he decided what to do next. Initially, his first thought was to do something he hadn't considered for some time, a sequel- not since leaving in a sort of backdoor to do a follow-up to his opus Kill Bill, that is, via an inference to the possibility of Vernita Green's daughter coming after the Bride, aka Beatrix Kiddo, for revenge when she was older.
He had, however, pondered doing a prequel to both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction called The Vega Brothers, revolving around, respectively, Vic (Michael Madsen) and Vincent (John Travolta) Vega, before both actors aged out of the roles and QT had to scrap the idea. But Django Unchained had proved so popular with both audiences and critics alike that he seriously considered doing a direct follow-up right away.
That script was to become The Hateful Eight, but Tarantino ultimately opted to jettison the Django character from the proceedings, once he realized it would be somewhat of a betrayal of the character, who he had already established as being moralistically sound. He has maintained that he might still do something in the future with the character, notably the prospect of a Django/Zorro crossover story, which has already been made into a comic book and may still become a film on down the line.
As it turned out, there was nothing moralistically sound about any of the main characters of The Hateful Eight- hence the title- so QT took Django out, and instead created a juicy role for longtime collaborator Samuel L. Jackson, for which he would finally receive top billing for the first time in one of Tarantino's films, despite their frequent collaborations in the past. Hell, it was the least he could do after Jackson's reprehensible character in Django, which even Jackson had misgivings about.
Alas, the film almost didn't happen when the script was leaked online, leading Tarantino to consider dropping the idea altogether. However, after staging a live reading of the material at the United Artists Theater in LA, featuring many of the actors that would go on to be in the actual film, it went over so well that he reconsidered.
Instead of publishing it as a novel, as he had been thinking of doing, he opted to rewrite the material and give it a new ending, doing a few more drafts, this time only giving the script to his most trusted friends, many of them actors he'd worked with previously and was planning on casting in the film, to ensure nothing leaked.
Indeed, the resulting film would kind of end up playing like a sort of all-star Tarantino line-up, featuring many actors he'd worked with in the past, including Kurt Russell (Death Proof), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill), Tim Roth (Dogs, Pulp Fiction) and Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, Lee Horsley, James Parks and Dana Gourrier (all from Django)- plus a cameo from fan fave Zoë Bell for good measure.
Newcomers to the fold included: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Demián Bichir, Channing Tatum and Gene Jones. Leigh had been kicking around Hollywood since the 70's, when she landed her first role at the ripe old age of nine in 1973, in the film Death of a Stranger (aka The Execution). Her first major movie role was in the cult favorite slasher film Eyes of a Stranger in 1981, after any number of TV appearances throughout the 70's, notably the lead in a TV-movie about anorexia, The Best Little Girl in the World.
Her big break came with the classic teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in which she managed to pull focus from co-star Phoebe Cates- no mean feat, if you've seen that film, given Cates' legendary pool scene. Leigh specialized in oft-damaged characters and it would become a hallmark of her career that would directly lead to Tarantino giving her the pivotal role of Daisy Domergue, after an impromptu mini-film festival of her work that also included Georgia, eXistenZ and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.
Others considered for the hotly-contested role include: Robin Wright, Geena Davis, Hilary Swank, and Demi Moore. Tarantino also mulled over going younger with the casting, considering Michelle Williams, Evan Rachel Wood, Jennifer Lawrence and Battlestar Galactica star Katee Sackhoff, the last of which was so strong in her audition that she nearly landed the role before Tarantino opted to stick with his initial instinct of skewing older with it and awarded it to Leigh.
Smart move, as the actress ended up getting an Oscar nomination for her efforts, though she didn't win. Leigh has been a solid, reliable actress for decades now, so it's nice to finally see her get some long-deserved recognition for it, regardless. She really is one of those rare actresses not afraid to really go for it.
Some of her films worth a look, many of which are stone-cold classics, include: Easy Money, Grandview U.S.A. (the trailer for this one is amazingly 80's), Flesh + Blood, The Hitcher, Sister Sister (with Pulp Fiction vet Eric Stoltz), Heart of Midnight, The Big Picture, Last Exit to Brooklyn (she's something in that one), Miami Blues, Backdraft (also with Russell), Rush, Single White Female (with Jackie Brown's Bridget Fonda), Short Cuts, Dolores Claiborne, Kansas City, Bastard Out of Carolina, The Anniversary Party (which she co-directed with co-star Alan Cumming), Road to Perdition, In the Cut, The Machinist, Palindromes, Greenberg (which she co-wrote), Morgan, LBJ, Good Time, Annihilation (see review here) and White Boy Rick.
Demián Bichir, who played the piano-playing Bob, is a Mexican actor that first came to Tarantino's attention via friend and fellow director Robert Rodriguez, who cast him in his Grindhouse spin-off, Machete Kills. I probably first saw Bichir in the Wild at Heart spin-off, Perdita Durango, aka Dance with the Devil, an underrated cult flick with an excellent cast that includes Rosie Perez, Javier Bardem, James Gandolfini and shock rocker Screamin' Jay Hawkins. He was also good in the Showtime flick In the Time of Butterflies, co-starring Rodriguez favorite Salma Hayek.
Other attention-getting roles followed, including a plum role as Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh's Che, the titular role in Hidalgo, an Oscar-nominated turn in A Better Life, and a supporting part in Oliver Stone's over-the-top Savages. However, it was his part on the TV show Weeds (also with Leigh) that really landed in earnest for me. After that, I started actively seeking out stuff he was in, with the American adaptation of a Danish/Swedish show, The Bridge, being a particular favorite, featuring a stand-out performance by Inglourious Basterds star Diane Kruger.
Other notable films include: Solo, Gimme the Power, Don't Tempt Me, American Visa, The Heat, Dom Hemingway, Death in Buenos Aires, Good Kids, Lowriders, 7:19, Alien: Covenant and The Nun (see review here). He can currently be seen on the TV show Grand Hotel and will appear in the latest installment of the Grudge horror film series, as well as Godzilla vs. Kong, the latest in Legendary Pictures' so-called "Monsterverse" and a spin-off/sequel to both King Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Channing Tatum, who plays Daisy's brother, Jody, was born in Cullman, Alabama, not far from where I currently live myself, in Birmingham. Having been there, though, I can see why he left- last I checked, it was a dry county, though that may have changed in more recent years. But I remember having to stop for alcohol way outside city limits before we went to a party there because they didn't sell it, period. Once that party ran out of alcohol, they were truly out of alcohol. Fail. 😒
Anyway, as a teen he moved to Tampa, Florida, where I also have kin to this day, having grown up in and around that state. It was there that Channing, after dropping out of college in West Virginia, he began stripping, an experience that would later lead to the semi-autobiographical film Magic Mike, which was also shot in Florida. Always athletic, he made his film debut, appropriately enough, in Coach Carter, a film about the rare basketball team coach that put grades above championships, starring none other than Samuel L. Jackson in the titular role.
However, it was his dancing skills that led to his big breakthrough, in the dance film Step Up, a huge hit that also led Tatum to his first wife, fellow actor/dancer Jenna Dewan. His career rose even higher with the surprise smash 21 Jump Street, released in 2012, the same year as Magic Mike. Tatum produced both films as well, which spawned one sequel each, to date.
Other notable films include: Havoc, She's the Man, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Battle in Seattle, Stop-Loss, Fighting, Public Enemies, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Dear John, The Son of No One, The Eagle, 10 Years (with Death Proof star Rosario Dawson), Haywire (with Basterds star Michael Fassbender), The Vow, Side Effects, This is the End, White House Down (with Django star Jamie Foxx), Don Jon, Foxcatcher, Jupiter Ascending, Logan Lucky, Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Hail Caesar!
Finally, there's character actor Gene Jones, as Sweet Dave, General Smithers' ill-fated chess partner. Jones first caught people's attention in his various roles in the enormously popular Ken Burns documentary, The Civil War, though his career didn't take off in earnest until he landed a memorable role in the Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men, as a store clerk that almost runs afoul of fate via Javier Bardem's coin-flipping hitman.
In addition to a lot of voice-over work, including more documentaries with Burns, Moore can also be seen in Working it Out, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Oz the Great and Powerful (see review here), A Merry Friggin' Christmas, Dementia, Uncaged, HBO's Vinyl (he played the legendary Colonel Tom Parker, of Elvis fame), Katie Says Goodbye, The Strange Ones, Bug, The Old Man & The Gun, The Standoff at Sparrow Creek and Texas Cotton. However, his best role to date is in Ti West's mesmerizing The Sacrament, where he played a fictionalized version of the notorious Jim Jones. (Read more about that one here.)
As I went into more detail about my feelings about the film in my initial review, I won't repeat myself here, except to say that I did watch the "miniseries" version of the film on Netflix, which features bonus footage and differently edited scenes, and is broken into four "chapters," not unlike some of QT's other films, notably Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. TBH, this being only the second time I have watched the film, I would have been hard-pressed to tell you what was "new" and what wasn't, and actually had to consult online resources to figure it out.
That's basically my way of saying that the new material doesn't add much to the proceedings, and those tempted to re-watch the whole thing to see the new footage should be aware that there's not as much of it as one might think, given that each episode runs around fifty minutes or so. In actuality, each episode features the title credits and the end credits in full each time, plus a brief replay of where one left off in the previous episode, thus padding each episode considerably by several minutes more than one would think.
I will say that it plays better as individual episodes on the whole, as it allows one to more naturally take breaks and take a time out from what was already a really long movie. That said, the film wasn't really meant to be this way, and it shows by the abrupt way each episode ends, which is rarely on a proper cliffhanger and more akin to simply evenly dividing everything up in a logical way that doesn't necessarily serve the film's best interests. So, yeah, the approach has its good points and its bad points.
Overall, though, I can't say it changed my opinion of the movie much. The simple truth is, of all of Tarantino's efforts to date, this one came the closest to leaving me completely cold- not ironically, given the film's setting, I suppose. It's brilliantly acted, of course, as is par for the course for a QT film, but it's also way too long for no good reason, and to no good end, either.
The mystery aspect isn't that much of a mystery- either the guys at Minnie's Haberdashery are in on a scheme with Daisy, or they aren't- that's about it. The only real question is who will be left standing in the end, and the answer is also obvious if you've ever seen a Tarantino film- not many. It's basically, as I said in my other review, The Thing meets Reservoir Dogs. As such, it's the first QT film that really feels like he's repeating himself. Maybe that script was best left unmade, after all.
It wouldn't be so bad if Tarantino hadn't already been saying to anyone that would listen that he was only doing ten films, then he was done. He hasn't denied he might still do some television or streaming material in the future- he obviously has a working relationship with Netflix, and if this is any indication, it may point the way towards a potential future for him when he finishes his final film. It just sucks that this film is kind of meh, at least in comparison to his other stuff, when he only has a couple more left to go.
Audiences also felt a bit indifferent to the film, which only grossed $54 million in the States and Canada, on a roughly $44 million dollar budget, a real comedown from the highs of Tarantino's prior two films. It did fare a bit better elsewhere, grossing over $100 million, but $154 million is still small potatoes compared to his bigger hits. That said, at least it wasn't a complete belly flop like Grindhouse- though, quite frankly, I like that one far better.
Still, the score by the legendary Ennio Morricone is fantastic, as is the other music in the film- including great use of The Last House on the Left's "Now You're All Alone" by that film's star, David Hess- and lest we forget, said score won Morricone his very first Oscar for Best Score, though he had won an honorary achievement award for his overall contributions to film music in 2007.
Interestingly, Morricone never saw the film before writing the score, and only provided enough music for a fraction of the film, necessitating Tarantino to use some music cues from Morricone's previous work once again, including several tracks from the aforementioned The Thing and one from, of all things, the much-ballyhooed Exorcist II: The Heretic. (Click on the titles for links to those scores, which are both worth a listen, especially the latter, which is bonkers even by Morricone standards- the Carpenter score, though, admittedly sounds like, well, Carpenter.)
Be that as it may, the score Morricone did write is well-worth hearing, and I highly recommend the soundtrack for film score lovers, although those who prefer QT's more wide-ranging soundtracks may be a little disappointed, I suppose, as the ratio of proper score to his more trademark quirky tracks is significantly higher.
That said, as per usual, the music Tarantino did select outside of Morricone's contributions works like a charm, and it was great hearing Morricone in a film again for the first time in I don't know how long. Given that a lot of his scores were for movies before my time, I can't say I'd heard much of his work via the big screen before this film, so that alone was almost worth seeing it for- or hearing it, as it were.
Looking back at his resume, I saw Wolf as a kid, before I knew who he was, and The Thing in a revival theatre after I was aware of his work, but that's about it. My home entertainment system isn't exactly Dolby-worthy, nor has it ever been, lol, so yeah, it was great hearing Morricone blasted through a theater's considerably more impressive sound system.
All in all, The Hateful Eight is a watchable, reasonably engaging film that is a little too long for its own good, but gets the job done for Tarantino fans. Others may find it less engaging, but I can't imagine anyone watching this without being mildly interested in seeing it in the first place. If it doesn't sound like your cup of coffee, then don't be surprised if it goes down like the one that takes down John Ruth.
Would Tarantino redeem himself with his next effort, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, supposedly his next-to-last-film? Join me next time, for the final installment to my ongoing series on Tarantino's work, complete with my definitive personal ranking of his work, and thanks, as ever, for reading! 😉
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