The Sunday Mail
FORGET the Christopher Nolans, Martin Scorsese and Spike Lees of this world — Quentin Tarantino is the guy I want to pen and eventually direct my life story.
The story will not be some deep insight into my travels from some high density neighbourhood to the leafy suburbs of Harare or the thrills and spills of journalism. Instead it will be a messy, bloody and satirical look into the difference between the man I was and the man I aspired to be.
Most importantly, his main job will be to just make me look good. Dreams aside, Tarantino’s latest offering, “The Hateful Eight”, is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece and has every element of what makes him one of the greatest minds in the business.
By now, one would have to be completely dense not to have figured out that I am an unapologetic fan of the man and his works. It is with that in mind that as you go through this week’s instalment of “The Big and Small Screen”; you take everything I write with a pinch of salt because Tarantino’s magic is not for everyone.
It is an acquired taste, one that I have spent years learning, appreciating and to some extent applying in my own life.
“The Hateful Eight” tells the story of two famous bounty hunters, John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) as they navigate the snowy Old West to deliver their bounties to a town called Red Rock.
Warren’s bounties are all dead, while Ruth is transporting a woman by the name Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is set to be hung for murder.
The two also come across a sheriff by the name Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) and the three take refuge at a nearby inn where they meet more strangers who allege to be going to the same town.
What follows is exquisite dialogue, lots of guns and shooting; all of which seem to revolve around the live bounty that Ruth and Warren are carrying. The movie is not perfect by any means and one would not have to go far to find any faults or demerits.
A classic example can be found in the simplistic and somewhat vague title or the loose and thinly veiled plot.
The trick to understanding any Tarantino film is the simple fact that the guy does not care what people think about his films. One has to approach the film with an open mind, something all die-hard fans of the man will surely know by now.
For the past 24 years, this has been both his greatest strength and his biggest weakness. Critics usually do not know what to make of his films and his propensity for blood and violence.
As far as “The Hateful Eight” goes, Tarantino, like many times before, nails it in the casting department. Jackson is at his best swearing and delivering every line with so much unbridled intensity.
Russell gives a throwback performance and matches Samuel L Jackson’s intensity word for word and line for line.
However, the breakaway stars of this movie are the pair of Leigh and Woggins. For a movie that has a cast of 18 — performances, delivery and dialogue play a huge part in the movie and I have to say that the guys nailed it.
Leigh has over 15 award nominations for her role as the dastardly Daisy Domergue including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She might have lost to Kate Winslet at the Golden Globes, but she is my sure odds on favourite at the Oscars.
In the directorial chair, Tarantino really outdid himself and I do not think I have enough space to convey just how much I enjoyed his works here.
The opening scene is a thing of beauty as he paints an immaculate landscape of the Old West using Wyoming as a subject matter and the score dictates the tone of the entire movie.
You do not find such attention to detail in the movie business these days. Attempts to define or classify this movie into one specific genre would be a waste of time as Tarantino draws tenets from almost every single genre – mashing it up into a 120-minute masterpiece.
“Hateful Eight” is a spaghetti Western at its very core but tends to yonder back and forth from satire, black comedy, slapstick comedy, drama and a little thriller here and there. Like I mentioned earlier on, critics do not really understand Tarantino and his vision, something that might actually explain why “The Hateful Eight” has not had that much impact at the Oscars.
The film only received three nominations in Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Music (Original Score) and Cinematography categories. With all the hullabaloo about a “white Oscars” this and lack of diversity that, I think missing out on this year’s Oscars may be a good thing, should they fail to win. After all, who would want to be tainted by being associated with that mess?
