The Hateful Eight

[rynling]

I didn't want to watch The Hateful Eight, and a friend had to bribe me with Vietnamese food to get me to go to Maryland to see it with her. By this point in my life I am sick of both the violent physical abuse of female characters and said abuse being defended by male film critics, and The Hateful Eight has plenty of both.

The movie has four female characters. Three are killed within about five minutes of being introduced, and the fourth, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, spends the entire three-hour running time (seriously?) being repeatedly threatened, struck, shot in the legs and abdomen, and then [spoiler redacted].

One might argue that the male characters are also killed, but that's usually it – they're shot or [redacted] and then they die, if not with dignity then at least without being fetishized. One male character is briefly but inhumanly brutalized, but it's interesting that his experience is associated with homosexuality, as if being driven to female-coded sexual behavior is far worse than death.

One might also argue (if one writes for The New Yorker, for example), that the male-on-female violence is not a symptom of systemic sexism in both the 1870s and the 2010s but rather an indicator of gender equality, in that a female criminal is shown receiving the same treatment as a male criminal would. This might make a compelling argument were not the male criminals in the movie (and in the American cinema industry as a whole) treated as dangerous and worthy of respect instead of as feral animals that must be beaten in order to be kept submissive.

Although let's be real bros, I am totally willing to get behind a movie (like Inglourious Basterds or Django Unchained) that shows all of its female characters being raped and/or killed if it has (a) cool cinematography, (b) a nice soundtrack, and (c) clever dialog, but The Hateful Eight has none of these things. Despite the movie's admittedly creative bloodshed and capable performances (especially from Tim Roth), I didn't think it was that interesting, and all I wanted during the last hour or so was for the remaining characters to just go ahead and shoot each other already.

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

I was also recently bribed to see The Hateful Eight but I turned down the bribe. Glad to read your review. Saves me the time and money. :)

After Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino's films have left a bad taste in my mouth ... and Inglourious Basterds annoyed the fuck out of me long before I attempted any feminist analysis of it. I guess I have been done with Tarantino's never ending adolescent phase for a very long while.

[rynling]

To me, Inglourious Basterds was more or less a vehicle for Christoph Waltz, whose bizarre comedic genius was apparently tailored to my own specific sense of black humor. My main problem with The Hateful Eight was that it just wasn't funny; and, if it contained any irony or social critique, it was lost on me. You dodged a bullet with this one, so to speak.

[renegadefolkhero]

I wasn't sure about Hateful Eight, reading this makes it an easy pass.

I think I'm done with Tarantino. The last few were really hit-or-miss for me and I don't have the patience for gratuitous violence anymore.

[rynling]

It is such an easy pass. You can sign up for it at any turnpike service area, affix it to your windshield, and then just cruise right the fuck on by.

When we walked out of the theater, I turned to my friend and said, "YOU OWE ME." She was like, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I am so so sorry." At least I got a free meal out of the experience, but it wasn't worth not being able to check in on Neko Atsume for three full hours.

[lobeliar]

The only Tarantino film I've ever seen is Pulp Fiction, which I remember watching with my family as a kid, but don't remember much of now, other than Walken's bit with the watch, and a level of violence that freaked me out just a tad. (My family was not exactly careful when it came to what media they did and did not let me consume.)

In any case, the over-the-top blood-and-gunfire funtimes that I hear characterizes Tarantino's movies has never appealed to me as an adult, so I am not familiar with any of them. I think Kill Bill involves Uma Thurman tracking down and eventually killing someone named Bill? And Inglourious Basterds involves a lot of Nazis dying? Maybe? I think Brad Pitt's in it?

[rynling]

You watched Pulp Fiction as a child? With your family?? That is hardcore, and I salute you.

Brad Pitt has turned into a damn fine actor, and it's worth watching Django Unchained for his virtuoso performance as a Southern plantation manager. Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz are also amazing, and the movie is only (lol) two hours and fifteen minutes long. It's crazy violent, but I would recommend it any day of the week over Twelve Years a Slave, because at least in Django Unchained it's the shitty white slaveowners who get their heads bashed in.

For what it's worth, an entire world of American pop culture references will open up to you if you watch Reservoir Dogs, which is actually a brilliant and entertaining (and short!) movie that happens to be streaming on Netflix (or easily pirateable).

Edited because there is apparently a correct way to spell "pirateable."

[lobeliar]

I mean, y'gotta understand, my parents were just not on top of things. There are a lot of memories that I look back on and think, "just what in the hell where you two thinking?" (The answer to that question is "nothing, really," since they spent a good portion of my childhood buzzed via Bud Light, and a longer stretch of my childhood drunk off their asses on Franzia. Parenting!)

I also watched Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal when I was...eleven? Eleven. Maybe twelve? It was basically right after Hannibal hit VHS/DVD.

Brad Pitt is one of a few very distinguished male actors who I will occasionally sigh fondly about while looking at their sufficiently pretty faces. ...And yeah, I enjoy his acting, too.

I will take your recs of Django Unchained and Reservoir Dogs under serious consideration when next I feel like watching a movie.