Movie Review | The Hateful Eight

There’s not many contemporary directors that haven’t made a bad film.  While I enjoy the later works of Ridley Scott and Tim Burton, they are shadows when compared to Alien and Beetlejuice.  Quintin Tarantino is my one exception.  Some of his films are better than others, but I wouldn’t call any terrible.

                I was first introduced to Tarantino by Kill Bill.  Before then, I’d heard his name only in passing.  His love letter to 70’s martial arts exploitation films created a fan, and my adoration grew with each subsequent film.  Django Unchained was the first I saw in theaters.  While a little overlong in places, I didn’t have major issues.  When I heard about his next film, my interested was more than peaked, especially when I heard it was another period piece.  Sadly, I didn’t get to watch it in theaters—a fact I retroactively kick myself for—but when I did finally watch, I savored.

                Released in 2015, The Hateful Eight is a western thriller, and Tarantino’s eighth film (yes, Kill Bill only counts as one).  Set in Wyoming a decade following the Civil War, the film revolves around a group of strangers stranded in a haberdashery by a blizzard.  Two of the strangers are famous bounty hunters, with one bringing in an infamous outlaw to hang.  As the film progresses, The Hangman begins to suspect that not everyone there is trustworthy.  The tension and paranoia build, leading to a gory climax.

                The first time I watched the film, I noticed a vague similarity to John Carpenter’s The Thing.  Both films revolve around a group of strangers isolated by nature who are slowly gripped by mistrust and paranoia.  Kurt Russell stars in both, and at one point disarms several characters out of self-preservation.  Ennio Morricone also scored both films, with his compositions completing each one’s tone.  According to Tarantino, this similarity is intentional, as it was his way of deconstructing how he felt when first watching The Thing, albeit with his usual flair. 

                The acting is great all around.  The supporting cast perform well, even though most of the characters are nothing.  Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell and Michael Madsen give performances we’ve come to expect, especially in a Tarantino film.  Bruce Dern is alright as Col Smithers, and Damián Bichir is intentionally awkward as Senor Bob, leading to chuckle worthy moments.  Tim Roth steals his scenes as the delightfully foppish Oswaldo Mobray.  Although subtle by comparison, Jennifer Jason Leigh gives the best performance as Daisy, ranging from sympathetic to detestable.  Russell means to see her hang, but they have an interesting relationship, backed by the pairs chemistry.  It’s not romantic, but at times borders on an old married couple.  Quintin cast Leigh because he needed a great actress in the role; he made the perfect choice. 

                Daisy plays a guitar in one scene, which was loaned to the production by the Martin Guitar Museum.  Six stunt replicas were built for the ending moment, but none were used.  Due to a misunderstanding, Kurt Russell grabbed and destroyed the antique before he could be stopped.  Leighs shocked reaction in the final film is from this take, explaining its authenticity.  The Martin Museum no longer loans guitars to film shoots. 

                While the film is long, Fred Raskin’s editing paces it well.  The opening credits and a later drive scene drag, but they allow the audience to take in the setting and its accompanying isolation.  We know our characters are snowbound, and if anything goes awry there’s no help coming.  It’s all on them.  Morricone’s score compliments this feeling, allowing the tension to build as the plot progresses.  Tarantino claimed some of the compositions are unused compositions from The Thing; if so, it was wise for Morricone to use them here, as they fit. 

                Courtney Hoffman handled wardrobe.  Having worked on Django Unchained, she was the obvious choice for another period piece, allowing a sense of aesthetic continuity.  The costumes feel like a natural forward progression from Django. 

                If there’s any aspect I’m not a fan of, it’s Major Warren’s story.  While it serves a purpose in allowing the Major to kill Col Smithers—even though he baited him—it undermines the preceding moment.  Tarantino had stoked tension between the two, built on animosity from the Civil War.  They were close to blows, but dinner conversation and a shared history brought the pair together.  They had a tender moment of brotherhood, and it deteriorated into typical Tarantino fodder.  While the resulting scene is entertaining, it could have been more, although Tarantino would have had to alter one following plot element. 

                The film contains Tarantino’s usual tropes:  long-takes, language, explicit violence—effects handled by The Walking Dead’s Greg Nicotero—Red Apple Tobacco, and non-linier story telling.  This last aspect is especially important, as the third act contains a twist that necessitates a flashback.  Knowing Tarantino, I should have seen part of this twist coming, but it surprised me during my first viewing.  It leads to a tense, gory ending.  While it might not please everyone, not all endings should be happy.  It’s the ending the film deserved and earned.

                While not my favorite entry in his filmography—that honor currently goes to Pulp Fiction—The Hateful Eight is close.  While made more for entertainment, it’s a great example of how the elements of mis-en-scene blend together to form an excellent film.  4 cups of well water coffee out of 5.

Escape from Alcatraz (1979) Movie Review

“No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz...and no one ever will.”

That is the tagline of today's film, Escape from Alcatraz. Released in 1979, the film is a dramatization of the infamous 1962 Alcatraz prison break executed by Frank Morris and brothers Clarence & John Anglin. The inmates escaped by each removing an air-vent grate, making their way to the roof via an unused service corridor and a ventilation shaft. Once on the ground the trio scaled a fence, making their way to the water. Once there the prisoners blew up an escape raft constructed from rubber raincoats and contact cement. None of the three were ever seen again, and it is presumed they drowned.

Before getting to the heart of the review, I first have to disclose something I noticed while watching the film for the first time: several moments reminded me of The Shawshank Redemption, from the friendly inmate with a pet to our protagonist pushing a book cart; both also include escapes, but they are done in drastically different ways. Considering there is a fifteen year release window between the films this is either my brain noting random similarities or Frank Darabont included several homages to this film in his own.

From the beginning it is obvious that the audience is meant to sympathize with Frank Morris, played by Clint Eastwood. His past isn't touched on much, other than he has spent time in other prisions and that this played a part in his current placement on the Rock. Despite this, both director Don Siegal and Eastwood do a good job of making the audience sympathize with this career criminal, partially with what he has to put up with inside the prison: an inmate who wants “salad,” extreme punishments for self-defense, and a no-nonsense warden bent on preserving the rock's no escape record.

While Eastwood is not winning any Oscar's for his acting, his style is perfect for Morris. In an interview he once said Morris “was a reclusive type guy. He had no education, but according to prison records, he had an I.Q. of 148. He could have been a success in life if he had channeled his pursuits a little differently,” which sums the character up perfectly. Eastwood's summation is most evident in the scenes in which he has no dialogue, where he has to sell this point with nothing but body language.

Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau play the Anglin brothers. While it is nice to see them, and they play their roles fine they really do not have much to do. Other then the climactic escape most of their scenes are spent conversing with Eastwood, who devises and delegates every element of the plan.

Patrick McGoohan is perfectly cast as the warden. While he only has a handful of scenes he does not waste a single second of screen time. The way McGoohan annunicates his lines gives the audience clear insight into what kind of a no-nonsense man his character is. Like most movie wardens he does make the inmates lives hell at times by flexing his authority, but in the case of Doc (played by Roberts Blossom) it is simply because he paints a portrait of him. Why would he do that? What harm does a picture cause? It's not like he painted him Picasso style. One could think a man of the warden's stature would be flattered that one of his charges painted him in such a stylish manner.

After the escape the Warden has a moment on Angel Island involving a flower that can be looked at a few ways. One interpretation is that he is recognizes and admire's Morris's  ingenuity and is allowing the three to escape under the cover of death; The other interpretation is that the Warden is humiliated that these three pulled something like this over on him from within the Rock's walls, but does't want the world to know about his blunder.

The script was written by Richard Tuggle, based on J. Campbell Bruce's 1963 book chronicling the escape. Tuggle spent about six months researching and writing before he went to the Writers Guild, hoping to find an agent who would accept unsolicited manuscripts. He was unlucky in that department, but he managed to get in contact with Don Siegel's agent, telling him a white-lie about meeting the director at a party. Siegel soon read the script and passed it onto Eastwood. In 84 Tuggle would direct Eastwood in the crime-drama, Tightrope.

While it did not occur during Morris's time on the Rock, an inmate actually did cut off several fingers with a hatchet like Doc does in the film. Angered with the policy of strict silence at all times, inmate Rufe Persfal cut off four fingers, hoping the action would get him transferred off the Rock.

The prison was shut down following the escape. Part of the justification was the damage salt-water saturation had done to the buildings, while the other part was cost; it cost $10 a day to house an inmate while others cost about $3. After closing, the prison became a tourist destination, which continued during filming; it became such a distraction that a majority of filming was moved to night shoots.

Larry Hankin's character (Charley Butts) is based on prisoner Allen West, an accomplice of Morris and the Anglin Brothers. While his film counterpart developed cold feet at the last minute, West was unable to get through his vent the night of the escape. He subsequently told the FBI details in the aftermath.

In the early 2000's the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters proved that the home-made raft escape was theoretically possible. Recreating the raft with materials the inmates had access to in the 60's, Adam, Jamie and a random crew member successful traversed the cold waters of San Francisco bay, landing on the Marin Headlands instead of Angel Island; their reasoning was that it would have been smarter to use the currants to aid the escape rather than fighting the currants.

While not a classic and overly dramatized at points, Escape from Alcatraz is a well-made, and shows that the filmmakers handled the subject-matter seriously. It gets the audience to dwell and think about what life is like for inmates on the inside—an issue that people still argue back and forth about—without coming off as unnecessarily pretentious. It also makes one wonder what exactly happened to the three that night, a question that will most likely never have an definitive answer. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.