Occasionally, while watching a film on Turner Classic Movies, during the break between movies I’ve caught a wonderful montage of movies throughout history. I am always mesmerized by it. During the video, I cannot change the channel or turn off the TV. The short montage, called 100 Years At the Movies, takes the viewer through the history of movies up to 1994.
The segment begins with a movie shown in a former shoe store on April 14, 1894. Viewers watched the moving pictures through a slot, making it the first commercial movie in history. With that humble beginning, the motion picture industry has captivated viewers, making us laugh, cry, think, feel, and watch in awe.
The short film 100 Years At the Movies, takes us through that history. It features short clips from some of the greatest movies during the century. It will remind you of the joy you have received from watching movies. At the same time it will test your memory to try to name as many as you can as they quickly flash by.
Chuck Workman created 100 Years At the Movies for TCM. Check it out.
The Hateful Eight (2015), billed as the eighth film from Quentin Tarantino, is a Western set in the post-Civil War years on the American frontier. The movie stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Walton Goggins, and others. Ennio Morricone, who wrote great music for many of the classic spaghetti Westerns, provides the musical score for The Hateful Eight (although the song that Jennifer Jason Leigh sings is an old Australian folk song).
Whether or not you like the three-hour film may largely depend on how you feel about the violence and other aspects of Tarantino’s films. While most regard Pulp Fiction (1994) as a masterpiece (and I agree), his movies since Jackie Brown (1997) have delved into brutal areas that divide viewers. So, instead of a regular review, below are “8 Things About The Hateful Eight.”
1. Tarantino remains a master at building tension by featuring conversations inevitably leading up to an explosion of violence.
2. I liked Tarantino’s decision about showing the movie in Ultra Panavision 70mm. I like the format for films, although because the movie was a Western I expected more outdoor shots. Instead it was set largely indoors (“four-fifths” of the film, by one count), arguably somewhat wasting the beauty of the format.
3. But the indoor setting highlighted similarities between the approach of The Hateful Eight to Tarantino’s classic Reservoir Dogs (1992), focusing on the interactions between characters with flashbacks to solve mysteries.
4. Depending on your point of view, The Hateful Eight comments on America’s brutality, racism, and misogyny both today and in the post-Civil War frontier. Or Tarantino unnecessarily overuses the n-word and imposes violence against a woman as a sort of running joke. Or maybe it is a little of both, but the film certainly goes over the top at points.
5. Some folks loved the movie. The Guardian headlines “Tarantino triumphs with a western of wonder.” There is some talk of a Best Picture Academy Award nomination. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 75% Critics rating and a 79% Audience rating.
6. Some folks hated the movie, arguing that the movie is not about big American themes but instead is just a bunch of talk as an excuse to lead to violent killings. Matt Zoller Seitz on RogerEbert.com concludes that “there’s no detectable moral framework to speak of.” Similarly, The Atlantic calls it a “Gory Epic in Search of Meaning.” In an insightful conclusion, Seitz raises an interesting question about Tarantino: “It’s hard to shake the suspicion that, deep down, he believes in nothing but sensation, and that he’s spent the last decade or so stridently identifying with oppressed groups so that he can get a gold star for making the kinds of films he’d be making anyway.”
7. Samuel L. Jackson is a great actor who should have won an Academy Award by now.
8. The movie kept me entertained and some of it was brilliant, but some of the language and violence were unnecessarily distracting. One killing near the end was ridiculous and overly cruel, although the final scene was great. After watching the film, I felt like I needed to do something to wash my brain of all the nastiness. I went home and watched an Anthony Mann Western.
What did you think of “The Hateful Eight”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
To give you an idea of my perspective of Quentin Tarantino’s directing work so you know how to judge my take on Django Unchained (2012): I think Pulp Fiction (1994) is a masterpiece, thoroughly enjoyed Reservoir dogs (1992), and liked Jackie Brown (1997). I was not a big fan of Kill Bill 1 (2003), but liked Kill Bill 2 (2004) a little better. While Inglourious Basterds (2009) had some great moments, I could not get into rooting for the sadistic hero, as I discussed in a previous post. Because of the way Tarantino used the simplified moral landscape of good guys versus Nazis in Basterds, I was expecting more of the same using a slavery landscape in Django Unchained. Considering I also am not a big fan of movies that condone violent vengeance for solving problems, I expected not to like Django Unchained. But I liked it a lot.
Maybe I liked the new film because of my lowered expectations for a director who has yet to repeat the wonders of his early work. Maybe I liked the film’s nod to Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. Maybe the music — featuring Jim Croce, Johnny Cash and Ennio Morricone — won me over. Maybe I was just in the mood for what the film had to offer. Or maybe I found the hero’s violence less offensive because he was acting out of love and not revenge. But Django Unchained features a compelling story, great acting, and sympathetic characters with real feelings.
The movie tells the story of Django, played by Jamie Foxx, who is a slave rescued by a bounty hunter and then the two go on a quest to free Django’s wife from slavery. Christopher Waltz gives one of his best performances as the eloquent bounty hunter, and the reliable Leonardo DiCaprio stretches his acting chops to convincingly play one of the nastiest characters in recent movie history. Samuel L. Jackson also appears in an important role. While the last part of the film, where Django seeks out his wife, does not live up to the high quality of the first part of the film featuring Django’s education as a bounty hunter, the entire film is worthwhile.
The movie, which was recently nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, has generated some controversy. It is a violent film, but much of the gunfire violence from the heroes is so cartoon-ish with blood splattering everywhere and bodies flying through the air when hit by gunfire that it reminded me more of The Three Stooges type of violence (but with lots and lots more blood). On the other hand, the violence surrounding slavery is portrayed more realistically and almost unbearable to watch. While the movie does not really present a moral lesson beyond that slavery is bad, there are some moral complexities to the film, such as where Django questions his role as a bounty hunger and killing as a way of achieving his goal.
The other way the film has generated controversy is its language, and in particular its use of the n-word. I will leave it others to debate the role of such language in film, but the use of race and violence in Django Unchained has led to more debate on those issues than any other recent movie. The film even depicts the horrors of slavery more than a recent movie about the sixteenth president working to free the slaves. And it’s not a bad thing when entertainment provokes discussion of these important issues.
Conclusion? If you are planning to see a Quentin Tarantino movie, you have some idea of what to expect. And if you appreciate the actors in this film and like spaghetti westerns, you might find Django Unchained is some of Tarantino’s best work yet.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?: Rotten Tomatoes gives Django Unchained high scores, with an 89% critics rating and a 94% audience rating. Bob Cesca on the Huffington Post writes that Django Unchained is one of the most important films of the year because of its depiction of slavery. By contrast, Anthony Lane at The New Yorker praises the first half of the film depicting the liberation and education of Django, but he argues that the movie goes south in more than one way when it relocates to Mississippi. Flickering Myth makes a similar argument, noting that the back stories of some of the characters could have been developed more. E Online discusses some of the controversy generated by the film. Not surprisingly, Tarantino is enjoying the attention from the arguments about the film.
How does Django Unchained hold up next to Tarantino’s other films? Leave your two cents in the comments.
2. I liked Tarantino’s decision about showing the movie in 
