The Gory Tale of The Hateful Eight
Lynnette M. Booker
The Hateful Eight is a gory tale—just a story—about two bounty hunters, a fugitive prisoner, and a so-called sheriff travel to the town of Red Rock during an unexpected blizzard. To avoid being caught in the blizzard, they take shelter at Minnie’s Haberdashery in postbellum Wyoming, where they meet a motley group of men who are conspicuously untrustworthy. The bounty hunters and the sheriff soon realize the men are not who they say they are.
Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, once again, redresses the Negro (Black) role, this time in post-Civil War in America through the character Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), who is the hero in the film and exploits his power as a revered major and bounty hunter.
We meet Warren after a soaring overture while a stagecoach carrying John Ruth (Kurt Russell), a bounty hunter known as “The Hangman,” and Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a fugitive prisoner, hurtles through snow. The stagecoach halts at an unexpected barricade made of white, frost-bitten corpses with Warren patiently perched on high. Warren is stranded and needs a ride to Red Rock.
The image of a Negro man stranded with a pile of white corpses happens not to bother O.B. or Ruth, which in post-Civil War America would have been an unlikely and intolerable reality as we know it. The only thing that bothers Ruth is whether Warren, whom at the time he doesn’t recognize as an acquaintance, is going to steal Daisy, who has a $10,000 bounty on her head. After a few precautionary measures—removing of weapons, showing proof of paperwork, and answering inquisitive questions—Ruth allows Warren passage to the town of Red Rock with them where Warren is also headed to cash an $8,000 reward he has for combined corpses. Immediately Daisy voices her opinion about taking up with a “Nigger,” and instantly Ruth elbows her.
In the stagecoach, Ruth asks Warren if he can, once again, read the letter from Abraham Lincoln. Warren modestly obliges. Ruth is astonished over the letter and in excitement shows Daisy, who instantly spits on the letter. Immediately Warren punches Daisy in the face so hard that she flies out the moving stagecoach along with Ruth, who is handcuffed to her. Warren signals O.B. to halt with two pounds to the ceiling of the stagecoach. As Warren goes to rescue his letter and apologize for his negligent impulse, O.B. warns them of a man in the distance. Immediately Ruth assumes that Warren and the man are conspirators to steal his bounty on Daisy’s head. With fear and trepidation, Ruth demands Warren to put on the handcuffs, and in seconds of threat-like convincing, Warren grudgingly obliges.
The man introduces himself as Chris Mannix, an avowed racist who claims to be the new sheriff of Red Rock. Coincidentally, they are all headed to the town of Red Rock. Warren and Ruth don’t believe Mannix is the new sheriff of Red Rock because of his family’s history as Southern renegades. Despite the conspicuous coincidence, Ruth allows Mannix a ride but only under the condition that he wears handcuffs. When Mannix refuses to put on the handcuffs, Ruth makes it clear: no handcuffs—no passage.
Mannix instructs O.B. to inform the town folks in Red Rock to charge Ruth with his murder. If Ruth leaves Mannix out in the blizzard, it is like leaving him out to die, which constitutes murder. Ruth quickly ruminates over Mannix’s statement. Weighing his options, Ruth strikes an agreement with Warren that they will have each other’s back as a means of protecting each other’s possession of bounty. Ruth removes Warren’s handcuffs and allows Mannix into the stagecoach, which now heads to Minnie’s Haberdashery to seek shelter out of the storm, where they meet an assortment of inconspicuous men: the Mexican, the Englishman, the cow boy (man), and Confederate soldier.
The film makes a sharp turn into a guessing game of figuring out what is true and isn’t.
No SPOIL alerts!
The movie is a must-see—it is funny, shocking, bloody, entertaining, and has beautiful sumptuous shots, uncompromising language, and the best character of all, Daisy Domergue, whose background is mysterious yet needs no explanation. Daisy’s brutish demeanor and sadistic impulses are explanation enough to why she is being hanged. She is a character who seems expected to receive the most sympathy, perhaps because she is a woman, but happens to be the character we hate the most. Even though Domergue is subjected to the most verbal abuse and beatings that seem justifiable in every way, she shows how much stronger she is than all her male counterparts. She freely says what comes to mind and usually is pummeled for it, even once with a hot bowl of chicken stew in the face. But Daisy recovers from each blow with depraved relish (she licks her wounds with pleasure).
Once again Tarantino pushes the envelope that regards him as a lauded film maker.
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