The Hateful Eight
Jan. 3rd, 2016 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-04 10:05 pm (UTC)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."
no subject
Date: 2016-01-05 07:39 pm (UTC)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.