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Opening with the first Western film score by Ennio Morricone in forty years, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight immediately asserts itself as something special. Shot in “glorious 70mm” the landscapes pop unlike few films from the contemporary era. Visually, Hateful Eight calls back to the stunning cinematography of classic Westerns such as Shane (1953) and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971). A winter dreamland that quickly becomes Hell frozen over, Tarantino’s eighth film is a cinematic event. However, in typical Tarantino fashion, there is much more to the film as it carries a near three-hour running time (or just over three hours, depending on which version you’re able to see).

Now, in order to best understand The Hateful Eight, one has to view it from two separate perspectives: the first being a slow boiling, ultra-bloody, and conversation heavy Western; the second being Tarantino’s cinematic interpretation of John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).

As a Western, it’s revisionist, as a Tarantino film, it’s his usual form of hyper-stylization - yet restrained in a way due to its chamber setting (the single central location calls back to Reservoir Dogs [1992]). Just as John Ford had his communities, Tarantino has created his own. However, within the claustrophobic confines of Minnie’s Haberdashery, Tarantino surpasses Ford as he evolves his community into a nation, and as the film takes place shortly after the Civil War, it’s a nation divided. Split into North and South, the characters mingle and deliver the Tarantino-esque soliloquies and conversations that audiences have come to expect, all the while tackling subjects such as the abolishment of slavery, jingoism, and Southern economics in the Reconstruction era.

While the aforementioned has daring potential, dialogue wise it is Tarantino at his weakest and most infantile. For whatever reason, there is the continuation of this seemingly troubling infatuation that Tarantino has come to have for the racial epithet that is, “nigger.” As previously seen in Django Unchained (2012), the form of hate speech was used freely and justified as “part of the era,” – which is still debatable - yet it is used so frequently in Hateful Eight that it feels as if it has replaced feet as Tarantino’s predominant fetish. Along with this, is a monologue delivered by Major Maqruis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), that is at first a powerful attack against generational racism, which quickly devolves into childish profanities and an absurd reliance on sexual victimization. Of course, if one wants a morally commendable film they should venture elsewhere than Tarantino, but even when compared to the rest of his canon – The Hateful Eight is a distinct new low.

Split into two acts, The Hateful Eight finally takes off after about ninety-minutes of the aforementioned tiring dialogue. The redeeming aspect of the first half is, of course, the performances. The titular “hateful eight” are a fantastic ensemble and the way in which they are able to elevate Tarantino’s material is a powerful feat. However, once the second act begins and the intrigue and paranoia brim to the top, The Hateful Eight finally becomes the film it was destined to be: a wonderfully deplorable pageant of over-the-top violence in which bullets explode rather than penetrate.

This second act is a fantastic platform for Tarantino to exhibit his greatest strengths and surprisingly – especially when compared to the first half – some of his most mature work to date. The reliance on previous works melts away as the snow pummels harder, and Tarantino – for better or worse – plays with all a full deck. Utilizing the classic broken narrative style, he manages to raise the level of tension to an absurd level that, as a cinephile, is a pleasure to endure. Unfortunately, the dénouement brings the film to a bit of a halt which tilts the film back towards the awkward pacing of the first act. However, when The Hateful Eight is good, it’s some of the best filmmaking of the year. Now, for the second perspective.

As stated by Tarantino, The Hateful Eight is his, “metaphoric way of breaking down his feelings about The Thing (1982).” Having viewed both films, the similarities between The Thing and The Hateful Eight are blatantly obvious. For those who have not though, a brief rundown is that both films: take place within a winter environment in which the weather is a villain in its own right; paranoia runs rampant as no one is who they appear to be, and everyone is trapped in a central location therefore forcing them to seek out the actual identities of each other. In this sense, The Hateful Eight is a masterful exercise in interpretation.

While The Thing is a film that pits humans against monsters that share their appearance, Hateful Eight is a film in which the characters are so morally reprehensible, that they are all monsters. Running on the same “no one gets out alive” mantra that makes The Thing such an atmospheric ride, Hateful Eight’s negation of moral ambiguity makes for an even more thrilling ride as you don’t care if anyone survives at all. No one has any idea who – if anyone at all – will live or die. This lack of assurance makes the film(s) have real stakes, and as The Thing’s R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) says, “No one trusts anybody now.” This revolving notion of truth is played with brilliantly by Tarantino as trust becomes a greater commodity than the bounties at stake as it can be the deciding factor over whether one survives the night.

In this sense, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is “the thing” of Hateful Eight as she quietly bides her time in Minnie’s Haberdashery as John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and Major Marquis Warren attempt to figure out just who exactly she has pulled into her web of deceit. Perhaps the greatest difference between the two films then, is that while “the thing” in The Thing threatens the safety of the entire world, Daisy only threatens the worlds of the characters, which to this ragtag group of selfish bastards, is far more important than the greater picture.

Overall, The Hateful Eight works on a multitude of levels, yet finds trouble in many others. It’s a mixed bag that is equal parts thrilling and mind-numbingly dull. Yet, would it be a Tarantino film without such divineness? If anything, The Hateful Eight serves as a powerful reminder that the art-cinema is as prevalent as ever, and is a gorgeously shot, wonderfully scored Western. Just as the film has two acts, Tarantino seems to bring two sides of himself to the film as well: one, an auteur at the absolute top of his game; the other, an unfortunately infantile filmmaker that seems more concerned with unsettling and unfunny crude and racial humor than scripting a well-paced feature. Above all, while The Hateful Eight may fail to work as a cohesive whole, the titular group of performers are worth the price of admission alone as they are a truly hateful and entertaining bunch.

For more reviews, Cryptic Celluloid.