On the Tarantino Universe with The Hateful Eight

It was said somewhere, by someone that the universe Tarantino creates for his characters is such a specific one that the characters within his films are the only people who would enjoy his films. This is a loose argument, but has some truth in it, in as much as his films, regardless of time and location, display an interconnectedness most easily found in his creations. You can easily imagine any character from any film showing up across any of Tarantino’s eight-film canon. And this is very much a determined move by Tarantino and one that he takes pleasure from. Madsen’s character from Reservoir Dogs (1992) is cousin to Travolta’s from Pulp Fiction (1994). There is no narrative function for this connection; it is purely a link for the fans, something fun for those that wish to look. For a time this universe was contemporary and reached its zenith with Pulp Fiction, a masterpiece of America cinema, then with Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) he veered off in a more fantastical direction that has, in his last three films, evolved into historical epics that take place in abstract extensions of the Tarantino universe, where Vincent Vega could stroll into Minnie’s Haberdashery of The Hateful Eight in post civil war Wyoming. Utterly inconceivable, but then so is much of Tarantino’s later work.

A who-done-it western, The Hateful Eight plays out like an Agatha Christie play where we are invited to guess the motives and find the killer. Who done it and why turns out to be not that interesting, although some of the getting there along the way is enjoyable. What The Hateful Eight is trying to say is more of a mystery. The final chapter, titled Black Man, White Hell is suggestive of a commentary on contemporary America and there is certainly some exploration of racial and sexual hierarchy with a black, Mexican and female character amongst those battling for control. Constant references to Lincoln bring a subtext of slavery too, but then all characters are irredeemable if we are to believe their back-stories, making the message hard to find. However, as has been a growing feature, these characters are increasingly cartoonish – no longer full of personality as in his early films, but crudely drawn cartoons. As the characters have become increasingly less interesting, the violence belongs more and more to animation and as in Django Unchained (2012) heads explode as everyone dies in a sea of blood. There are parts of The Hateful Eight, which are fun, but you can’t help leaving wondering what the point was.

The Hateful Eight is a stunning looking film. Tarantino’s decision to shoot in Ultra Panavision 70 is ideally suited to his landscape and interior. The very wide lens provides a real sense of the Wyoming countryside and allows the characters to move around the inside of the Haberdashery as if it were a stage. We see everyone, all the time, like a theatre and this staging is the most impressive feature of this film. The other is the use of light. Whether coming over the snow capped mountains in shades of orange and yellow or breaking through the greasy windows and gaps in the building, it is a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, at close to three hours, it is simply too long to just watch the light.