Tarantino's The Hateful Eight

**Maximinus Thrax** · November 05, 2015, 04:05 PM

Tarantino is ripping off another man's work yet again. I recognized the setting and Samuel L. Jackson's bounty hunter character as soon I saw this trailer; this is "borrowed" straight from Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence (1968), one of the finest Spaghetti Westerns ever made. The bounty hunter there is played by Klaus Kinski, complete with frozen corpses and whatnot.

**Colossus** · November 07, 2015, 02:23 PM

You say it like Tarantino is trying to do something underhand here... he is extremely knowledgeable about Spaghetti Westerns as a genre and actively tries to reflect this is in films. He already did this in Django with respect to the exact film you mention, and has openly discussed why he did so; Corbucci is one of his foremost inspirations. Speaking of Django, do you really think someone who is trying to rip off another work would give it the same name and include a cameo from the lead actor in the former?

**Kyriakos** · November 07, 2015, 03:50 PM

The trailer itself is incredibly boring. The cast is a cemetery of actors who have been drugged along in his movies, to the point it became a comedic spectacle.

Tarantino is a has-been, and has been for a while.

**~~RubiconDecision~~** · November 07, 2015, 03:57 PM

When Tarantino "lied" and pretended he and Uma Thurman hooked up in 2003, I thought, "What a

ing creep." At the time, she was pissed, said it wasn't true, so he's at best a toad. That was when she was still married to Ethan Hawke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uma_Thurman

In a 2004 Rolling Stone cover story, Thurman and director Quentin Tarantino denied having had a romantic relationship, despite Tarantino once having told a reporter, "I'm not saying that we haven’t, and I'm not saying that we have."^[44]

**Colossus** · November 07, 2015, 04:01 PM

Yeah I do agree, this film itself looks far less engaging than some of his previous.

**Mangalore** · November 07, 2015, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by Colossus

Yeah I do agree, this film itself looks far less engaging than some of his previous.

Point there being "some". The interesting thing is that he doesn't stick to one thing so his stuff is hit and miss and some movies (e.g. Jackie Brown) seem far less impressive but are actually in themselves very well done, just not what you expected or wanted.

In a similar vein Tarantino constantly lifts stuff from the genres he does his movies in. That's his stick.

I'm also not really sold on it, but I'm not really sold on Tarantino movies half the time either way. But he knows how to do his stuff and it's his own.

**Halie Satanus** · November 07, 2015, 04:46 PM

The spaghetti western should be safe ground for Tarantino, I'm surprised he hasn't gone down this road more.

Django was ok, not up to the standard of his early movies but it was ok.

**~~RubiconDecision~~** · November 07, 2015, 05:16 PM

He peaked early with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. He went stagnant but became a chambara aficionado promoting films like Three Outlaw Samurai(1964) and more famously Harakiri (1962)[I vaguely remember him doing this and being surprised he'd been marginalized so quickly]. Then made turkeys until Uma Thurman got him re-noticed with Kill Bill (chambara research pays off).

**Maximinus Thrax** · November 07, 2015, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by Colossus

You say it like Tarantino is trying to do something underhand here...

Actually, he's doing what he knows best - creating his own product by putting together all these pieces from various movies he enjoys. Nothing new here. No wonder Tarantino is so fond of the exploitation genre, he likes exploiting other people's work.

Originally Posted by Colossus

Speaking of Django, do you really think someone who is trying to rip off another work would give it the same name and include a cameo from the lead actor in the former?

Funny that you ask that. The Django "franchise" is (in)famous for the fact that the original movie spawned no less than thirty sequels, with the sole purpose of cashing in on the success of the original Django movie. All of these movies (I think) had Django's name mentioned in the title, as well as a character that resembled Franco Nero's character, even though that character wasn't exactly supposed to be the original Django. Regarding your question, it's most likely that Tarantino used this name to pay homage to the Spaghetti Westerns films. Judging from this first trailer, his first foray into the genre seems far more original than this upcoming movie.

Originally Posted by Mangalore

In a similar vein Tarantino constantly lifts stuff from the genres he does his movies in. That's his stick.

Meaning that he literally, as well as blatantly, takes entire cinematic constructions/concepts/situations/characters and simply puts them in his own movies.

**Colossus** · November 07, 2015, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by Maximinus Thrax

Actually, he's doing what he knows best - creating his own product by putting together all these pieces from various movies he enjoys. Nothing new here.

Of course, he openly admits as such. However, that doesn't make him some cheap serial rip-off artist committing some sort of artistic crime as your opening post suggests. To me, 'ripping off' implies some sort of knock off direct to dvd copy of some recent blockbuster intended to make a quick amount of money probably from a foreign audience (and maybe that was a similar motivation for the other Django films you mention, though I don't know enough about them to comment). That is entirely different from paying homage to the classic works that have built the genres Tarantino clearly loves; I very much doubt that Tarantino's primary concern is to cash in on the success of these films. As you said, he is doing it because as an writer and director, they are what he loves and have guided his own cinematic direction.

Every film takes existing cinematic elements. That is inevitable and is just evidence of the development of the medium. It just exists on a scale from the most basic things such as cinematic techniques to the point of being a complete remake. Tarantino obviously does this heavily and in a manner designed to invoke specific moments in cinema. However, this is more sophisticated than just reusing; he can satirise and contradict genre expectations as well as reuse them. As you later point out, this is paying homage, which is how I think it is more fairly described, rather than ripping off or exploiting, which sounds wholly negative. As with doing anything in a film, this requires skill to do well, and it is on that he should be judged, not the mere fact he does it. I think everyone in this thread recognises his approach to filmmaking, but clearly have a range of opinions on how good his films are.

Bear in mind many people who watch his films have no idea where his influences are from, but still enjoy the films - it may even provoke an interest in some viewers that they never had, which I suspect would please Tarantino immensely; he clearly wants to portray the films he is influenced by in a positive light, as these are his cinematic idols after all. On the other hand, people who are familiar with the genres and with cinema history may well appreciate the references and enjoy them; it's not exactly common that modern mainstream films recall such things in quite the same way, as most films are somewhat more directed by the Hollywood accounting machine than Tarantino's. Conversely, you may appreciate the references but thing he does a poor job of utilising them, which is also entirely valid.

As Mangalore pointed out, his work is very much his own; however heavily influenced his work is by what has come before, he is also surely one of the more distinctive directors of recent years, and that is an achievement.

Originally Posted by Maximinus Thrax

Judging from this first trailer, his first foray into the genre seems far more original than this upcoming movie.

Django Unchained, Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bill are all heavily influenced by Spaghetti Westerns. His work is much much more than rehashing famous Westerns though, which is where I disagree with the 'simply' characterisation, given the combined influence of so many other genres from the past in French, Italian and Japanese cinema for example. This is an achievement; not much cinema displays such knowledge of an appreciation for the past of the medium, and I think that is to be respected.

On another note, does anyone intend to or have any interest in seeing this in 70mm, given that only a handful of cinemas are showing it in this format?

**Kyriakos** · November 08, 2015, 03:38 AM

^Nothing has to be respected if it doesn't cause interest itself, though. I mean if an author presents a short story which is liked by virtually no one (and is thought of as crap as well), it would be a really bad stance to defend it by presenting how many allusions it has to other works.

Tarantino's movies have characters asymptotically nearing 0-dimensionality. I didn't even like his first two films, which i saw as a teen. What followed them was far worse, and endlessly repetitive...

**Halie Satanus** · November 08, 2015, 05:52 AM

Yeah I do agree, this film itself looks far less engaging than some of his previous.

I was thinking the opposite. Given the premise and the small cast this is the same, or similar, set up to Reservoir Dogs, which was an homage to directors like Hitchcock, if an ultra violent take on the genre of ensemble casts with a twisting plot. He can write great dialogue all day long so a handful of characters stuck in a snow bound town all looking to kill each other could be a return to form. Or it could be an indulgent disaster. I'm hoping for the former.

Coincidently, I recently watched 'Bone Tomahawk' which had a very Tarantino esc vibe to it and starred Kurt Russell who looked very similar to his character in TH8...

.....................................

Tarantino's greatest strength is also his biggest weakness, he loves cinema but is guilty of over indulgence. It worked with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, True Romance and Natural born Killers, Dusk Till Dawn but massively over indulged with Jackie Brown and Inglorious Basterds. Kill Bill had a balance, I liked those movies but many didn't, similarly with Django Unchained. I haven't seen Grindhouse or Death Proof. When you consider how few movies he's written/directed his record is still pretty good.

In many ways he's a writer/director who makes niche/cult movies that have mass appeal, a tough trick to pull off but when he does....

**Sir Adrian** · November 08, 2015, 06:33 AM

I kinda liked the trailer. I'd rather see Kurt Russel and Sammy Jackson, even though they're as old as the universe by now, than frankly any of the younger actors.

**Kyriakos** · November 08, 2015, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by Halie Satanus

I haven't seen Grindhouse or Death Proof.

Has anyone?

**Halie Satanus** · November 08, 2015, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by Kyriakos

Has anyone?

Probably not many. But that's kind of my point in a nutshell. When I saw Reservoir Dogs it was in a run down cinema in Camden, so run down we had to wear our coats while watching the film because it was freezing, there was painting peeling in massive clumps down the wall and a strong odour of rodent urine though out. It hadn't been released in major cinema's at the time and could have easily been written off as a niche cult film. But the critics loved it and the rest was, eventually, history. Had it not been a hit I doubt Tarantino would have quit making films, but he would have struggled to get the budgets he's had.

**Halie Satanus** · December 20, 2015, 06:51 PM

I just watched this. It's good, maybe even very good. Plenty of gore and laughs and the whole cast are on top form. Without giving to much away, QT gone back very much to the tight ensemble cast divided by secrets and mistrust. Much like watching a wild west homage to Reservoir Dogs, more so because Tim Roth and Michael Madsen are two of the main characters. IMO, if RD didn't exist I dare say H8 would get very high praise from reviewers.

**gastovski** · December 21, 2015, 04:39 PM

Whatever Tarantino is doing, it's better than %90 of Hollywood crap right now.

**SturmChurro** · December 21, 2015, 05:24 PM

VeryVery good, was long, but well worth the ride. Sam Jackson was awesome in this, as he is in most things I watch him in. I really liked Walton Goggins he had a real presence on screen (in the cairrage all the way to the end). He just simply lives in all his roles as a southern guy (Justified), he is starting to become a favorite.