The Hateful Eight

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...

I was not optimistic for this movie. The runtime was 2hrs 48mins and I was going to have to watch it in my bunk. Nevertheless, since it was a Quentin Tarantino film, I had to give it a try. I proceeded to be enthralled for the next 2hrs and 15mins. Quentin Tarantino has this unique ability of allowing viewers to lose themselves in the worlds he creates. This is done by the impeccable set and costume design, the sound mixing and of course the camera work. With the opening shot of a man and a horse in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by snow, I was immediately reminded of the opening to Red Dead Redemption 2. Every shot was beautiful and every additional character introduced was compelling because they each had their own quirks.

As we follow the characters on a journey, avoiding a blizzard, I could not help but feel glued to my screen despite the fact that all that was happening was that the 4 of the initial 5 characters were in a small carriage together. This seems to foreshadow the fact that characters would be interacting in confined spaces with increasing tensions, which proved to be wildly entertaining.

"The man who pulls the lever that breaks your neck will be a dispassionate man. And that dispassion is the very essence of justice. For justice delivered without dispassion is always in danger of not being justice." - Oswaldo Mobray

The movie's tension steadily creeps up and ultimately, 2 characters are poisoned and it becomes a 'whodunnit'. With shifting perspectives and flashbacks in the middle to last third of the movie, it validates the long run time as such story telling should not be rushed. Furthermore, you do not see film makers taking such tangents let alone executing them well, with meaning. Thus, this was a rewarding experience. In the end, pretty much all the characters die and if there was any meaning behind the movie, (besides one intriguing quote) I have definitely missed it. However, not all movies have to teach you life lessons and I definitely would say that this was one of the most entertaining movies I've watched out of all the 10 I've seen in bunk.

9/10