It’s the wild, wild west. And [as we all know] that’s the place where folks struggle to fit in somewhere between the rule of law and the law of the jungle. Not quite civilized and not quite not. And, when you’re a couple of bounty hunter hell bent on bringing all the particularly uncivilized scondrels to justice [for, among other things, the reward money] things can become particularly problematic.
Welcome to Minnie’s Haberdashery.
Or, rather, to Quentin Tarantino’s rendition of it. So we know it’s not going to be your ordinary haberdashery.
Then there’s this part:
The Hateful Eight (2015), according to Quentin Tarantino, was his metaphoric way of breaking down his feelings about The Thing (1982), i.e. the way he felt watching it for the first time in a movie theater. The Thing was the only film that Quentin Tarantino showed to the cast.
This is one of those films that invite us to speculate about how folks behaved back then and how they behave now. Some things change, some things don’t. Then we can bring the discussion around to one or another sociological trope or one or another political conflict. Then choose sides. And then wax philosophical about the difference between, say, civilized and uncivilized justice. The part about “the law” and such. And that brings us around to the Right Makes Might folks vs. the folks who champion democracy and the rule of law instead. That’s basically where we are historically here in America. Heading in the general direction of a more civilized democracy. Only some will never accomodate themselves to that. Not then, not now.
Or, sure, we can just refight the Civil War.
Race after all is everywhere here.
Look for lots and lots and lots of snow. Even inside the haberdashery it is snowing. It might mean something, it might mean nothing at all.
Note: There is language and dialogue here that some might find offensive.
IMDb
[b]According to the script, this film’s plot heavily references many important historic realities that occurred in the years following the Civil War, including tension and rivalry between Union and Confederate veterans, the attitude over abolishing slavery and granting blacks equal rights and the economic struggles of the southern states and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
With three words (“The Hateful Eight”) this is the longest title for a film directed by Quentin Tarantino. All the titles of his previous films only consisted of two words (i.e. Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012), and Kill Bill: Vol. 1/2 (2003).
After the script leaked online, Quentin Tarantino did not want to make the film. But after they did a brief reading of the script in L.A. the cast were stunned and got excited for the film and with Samuel L. Jackson persuading him to do this film, Tarantino accepted.
In the roadshow version, the word “nigger” is used sixty-five times, which is a little over half the use in Quentin Tarantino’s previous film Django Unchained (2012), which is said to hold the record for the movie with the most uses of the “n word.” [/b]
FAQ at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt3460252/faq?ref_=tt_faq_sm
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hateful_Eight
trailer: youtu.be/6_UI1GzaWv0
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015)
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
[b]Marquis [a bounty hunter looking up as a stagecoach comes to a halt]: Got room for one more?
…
John [a bounty hunter]: So why don’t you explain to me what an African bounty hunter’s doin’ wanderin’ around in the snow in the middle of Wyoming.
Marquis: I’m tryin’ to get a coupla’ of bounty’s to Red Rock.
John: So you still in business?
Marquis: You know I am.
…
John: Major Marquis Warren, this here is Daisy Domergue. Domergue, to you, this is Maj. Warren.
Daisy: Howdy nigger!
John: She’s a pepper, ain’t she? Now girl, don’t you know darkee’s don’t like bein’ called niggers no more. They find it offensive.
Daisy: I been called worse.
John: Now that I can believe.
…
Marquis: So you takin’ her into Red Rock to hang?
John: You bet.
Marquis: Gonna’ wait to watch it?
John: You know I am. I wanna’ hear her neck snap with my own two ears. You never wait to watch ‘em hang?
Marquis: My bounties never hang, cause I never bring ‘em in alive.
John: Never?
Marquis: Never ever. We talked about this in Chattanooga. Bringing desperate men in alive, is a good way to get yourself dead.
John: Can’t catch me sleepin’ if I don’t close my eyes.
Marquis: I don’t wanna’ work that hard.
John: No one said the job was suppose to be easy.
Marquis: No one said it was suppose to be that hard, neither.
…
Marquis: When the handbill says Dead or Alive, the rest of us shoot ya’ in the back from up on top of a perch somewhere, bring ya’ in dead over a saddle. But when John Ruth the hangman catches ya’, you don’t die by a bullet in the back. When The Hangman catches you…you hang.
Daisy: You overrate 'em nigger. I’ll give you he got guts. But in the brains department, he’s like a man who took a high dive in a low well.
[John belts her hard in the face]
John: Now Daisy, I want us to work out a signal system of communication. When I elbow you real hard in the face that means, “Shut up”.
…
Chris [sheriff]: You’re takin’ in three dead bodies and her into Red Rock to get paid, ain’t ya?
John: Yeah.
Chris [grinning]: Well, the man in Red Rock’s supposed to pay you is me, the new sheriff! So if ya’ll wanna get paid, ya’ll need to get me to Red Rock!
…
Chris: You ain’t never heard of Wellenbeck prisoner of war camp, West Virginia?
John: No Reb, I ain’t never heard of it! You bust out?
Chris: Major Marquis did more than bust out. Major Marquis had a bright idea. So bright you got to wonder, why nobody never thought about it before. Tell John Ruth about your bright idea.
Marquis: Well the whole damn place was just made out of kindling. So I burnt it down.
…
Chris: …once they started pullin’ out all the burnt bodies at Wellenbeck, seems not all of them boys were Rebs. You burnt up some of your own boys, didn’t ya’ Major? How many burnt prisoners they end up findin’? Wasn’t the final Yankee death count somethin’ like thirty-seven?
Marquis: That’s the thing about war Mannix, people die.
Chris: So ya’ chalkin’ it up to “War Is Hell”, ha? Well admittedly that’s a hard argument to argue with. But if memory serves, your side didn’t look at it that way. I think they thought, thirty-seven white men for one nigger wasn’t so hot a trade. I belive they accused you of being a kill crazy nigger who only joined the war to kill white folks and the whole Blue and Grey of it all didn’t really much matter to ya’. And that’s why they drummed your black ass outta’ the Cavalry with a yellow stripe down your back.
…
Chris [to Marquis]: You sure killed yourself your share of redskins in your day, didn’t ya’ Black Major? Cavalry tends to look kindly on that.
…
Chris: We weren’t foreign barbarians pounding on the city walls. We were your brothers. We deserved dignity in defeat.
Marquis: Just how many nigger towns did y’all sack in your fight for dignity in defeat?
Chris: My faire share, Black Major. ‘Cuz when niggers are scared, that’s when white folks are safe.
Marquis [putting the gun to Chris’s head]: You gonna talk that hateful nigger talk, you ride up top wtih O.B.
Chris: No no no no no. You got me talkin’ politics I didn’t wanna’. Like I said y’all, I’m just happy to be alive.
…
John: What’s your name, buster?
Oswaldo [smiling]: Well, it most certainly isn’t Buster.
…
Oswaldo [a hangman]: Now, you’re wanted for murder. For the sake of my analogy, let’s just assume that you did it. John Ruth wants to take you back to Red Rock to stand trail for murder. And, if you’re found guilty, the people of Red Rock will hang you in the
town square. And as the hangman, I will perform the execution. And if all those things end up taking place, that’s what civilized society calls “justice”. However, if the relatives and the loved ones of the person you murdered were outside that door right now. And after busting down that door, they drug you out in the snow and hung you up by the neck, that, we would be frontier justice. Now the good part about frontier justice is it’s very thirst quenching. The bad part is it’s apt to be Wrong as Right. But ultimately what’s the real difference between the two? The real difference is me the Hangman. To me, it dosen’t matter what you did. When I hang you, I will get no satisfaction from your death. It’s my job. I hang you in red Rock, I move on to the next town, I hang someone else there. The man who pulls the lever, that breaks your neck will be a dispassionate man. And that dispassion is the very essence of justice. For justice delivered without dispassion, is always in danger of not being justice.
…
Oswaldo: Who’s the chap with the Lincoln letter?
Chris: The Lincoln what? The letter from Abraham Lincoln? President Abraham Lincoln?
Oswaldo: Weren’t you pen pals?
Chris: With the President?
Oswaldo: I’m sorry, I heard somebody in your party had a letter from Abraham Lincoln, I assumed it was you.
John: Not him! The black fella’ in the stable.
Oswaldo: The nigger in the stable has a letter from Abraham Lincoln?!
John: Yeah.
Chris: The nigger in the stable has a letter from Abraham Lincoln?!
…
Chris: May I sit down, sir?
Sandy [confederate general]: According to the Yankees, it’s a free country.
…
Oswaldo: Gentlemen, gentlemen, I know Americans aren’t apt to let a little thing like an unconditional surrender get in the way of a good war. But I strongly suggest we don’t restage The Battle of Baton Rouge, during a blizzard in Minnie’s Haberdashery.
…
John: Yeah, Warren, that’s the problem with old men. You can kick 'em down the stairs, and say it’s an accident, but you can’t just shoot 'em.
…
John: As long as the bar’s Philadelphia I agree.
…
Joe: A bastard’s work is never done huh, John Ruth?
…
Chris: Look, considerin’ all the thing I done for money, I ain’t one to judge. But don’t you feel just the least little bad ‘bout hangin’ a woman?
Oswaldo: Till they invent a trigger a woman can’t pull, if you’re a hang man, you’re going to hang woman.
…
Chris: John Ruth, I hate to be the one to break it to ya’ but nobody in Minnie’s Haberdashery, had ever corresponded with Abraham Lincoln, Least of all, that nigger there.
John: Was all that horseshit?
Marquis: Course it was.
John: Well I guess it’s true what they say about you people. You can’t trust a fuckin’ word that comes outta’ your mouth.
Marquis: What’s the matter, John Ruth? I hurt your feelings?
John: As a matter of fact, you did.
Martquis: I know, I’m the only black son of a bitch you ever met, so I’m gonna’ cut you some slack. But you got no idea, what it’s like being a black man facin’ down America. The only time black folks are safe, is when white folks is disarmed. And this letter, had the desired effect of disarming white folks.
John: Call it what you want, I call it a dirty fuckin’ trick.
Marquis: You wanna’ know why I’d lie about something like that, white man? Got me on that stagecoach, didn’t it?
…
Marquis: Now don’t judge your boy too harshly, General. You ain’t never been cold as your boy was that day. You’d be surprised what a man that cold, would do for a blanket. Wanna know what your boy did? I took my big, black, pecker outta’ my pants. And I made him crawl through the snow on all fours over to it. Then I grabbed a hand full of that black hair on the back his head. Then I stuck my big, black Johnson right down his goddamn throat. And it was fulla’ blood, so it was warm. You bet your sweet ass it was warm. And Chester Charles Smithers, sucked on that warm black dingus for long as he could.
…
Narrator: About fifteen minutes have passed since we last left our characters. Joe Gage volunteered to take Smithers’ dead body outside. Straws were drawn to see who’d help him. O.B. lost. Chris, John Ruth and Oswaldo had a vigorous debate about the legality of the self-defense murder that just transpired. Major Marquis Warren, who was supremely confident about the legality of what just transpired ignored them, sat by himself at the table and drank brandy. Captain Chris Mannix donned the dead General’s coat and joined Oswaldo in lighting the candles and lanterns. John Ruth held the door closed while waiting for Joe Gage and O.B. To return. Bob enjoyed a Manzana Roja. Domergue, however, hasn’t moved from her spot at the community dinner table since John Ruth uncuffed her. Let’s go back a bit. Fifteen minutes ago, Major Warren shot General Smithers in front of everybody. But, about forty seconds before that, something equally important happened…but not everybody saw it. While Major Warren was captivating the crowd with tales of Black Dicks in White Mouths, Somebody poisoned the coffee. And the only one to see him do it, was Domergue. That’s why this chapter is called, “DOMERGUE’s GOT A SECRET”.
…
Daisy [to John who just realized the coffee was poisoned]: When you get to hell, John, tell ‘em Daisy sent ya’…
…
Marquis: My theory Senor Bob is you’re working with the man who poisoned the coffee. And both of you murdered Minnie and Sweet Dave, and anybody else might’a picked the wrong day to visit the Haberdashery this morning. And your intention was, at some point, ambush John Ruth and free Daisy. But you didn’t expect the blizzard, and you didn’t expect the two of us.
[indicating Chris Mannix and himself]
Marquis: That’s as far as I got. How am I doin’?
Bob: You’re a real imaginative nigger, ain’t you? So do you intend to murder me based on a far-fetched nigger theory, or can you prove it, cabron?
Marquis: It ain’t so far fetched, Senior Bob. And it’s a little bit more then my theory.
…
Marquis: How long you say you been working for Minnie’s?
Bob: Four months.
Marquis: If you would have been here two and half years ago you’d know about the sign usta’ hang above the bar. Minnie mentioned that to you?
Bob: No.
Marquis: You know what that sign said, Senior Bob? “No dogs or Mexicans allowed” Minnie hung that sign up the day she opened this Habadashery. And it hung over that bar every day till she took down, a little over two years ago. You know why she took it down? She started lettin’ in dogs.[/b]
Cue the first stagecoach…
[b]Minnie: Sweet Dave.
Sweet Dave: What?
Minnie: Ask me if my ass is fat!
Sweet Dave: It is.
Minnie: I said ask me.
Sweet Dave: Why?
Minnie: Just do it!
Sweet Dave: Is your ass fat?
Minnie: Oui. Look at that y’all, I can speak French.
…
Jody: Well old man, if you was a cat what just happened here would count as one of your nine lives. You realize how close you came to being tossed on a pile of niggers?
Sandy: Yes.
Jody: And when it comes to that pile of niggers we building out back, won’t take nothin’ to make you General of it. You believe that?
Sandy: I expect no less.
…
Jody: Now do you have any reason why you would want to interfere with me saving my sister from a hangman’s rope?
Sandy: No.
Jody: You don’t?
Sandy: No I don’t.
Jody: You sure you don’t? I mean we did just kill Minnie and Sweet Dave. And you and Sweet Dave looked mighty chummy over there.
Sandy:: I just met these people, I don’t give a damn about them! Or you, or your sister. Or any other son of a bitch in Wyoming for that matter.
Jody: That is a good answer, old man.
…
Narrator: During the next four hours, Jody and the boys chuck the bodies down the well. Put away the horses. Tidied around Minnie’s. Stash weapons for further use. And waited for John Ruth and Daisy’s Stage to arrive.
…
Daisy: Chris I’m tellin’ you, you ain’t done anything yet, we can’t forgive. So let’s make a deal?
Marquis: No deals, bitch!
Daisy: You gonna’ let that nigger speak for you, Chris?
Chris: Hold it Warren. Seein’ as she ain’t got nothin’ to sell, I’m kinda curious about her sales pitch, humor me.
…
Chris [to Daisy]: So, you were sayin’…
…
Marquis [about Daisy as she’s laying on the floor]: No, don’t shoot her!
Chris: Why the hell not?
Marquis: John Ruth…Now, John Ruth was one mighty, mighty bastard. But the last thang that bastard did before he died was save your life. We gonna die, white boy. We ain’t got no say in that. There is one thang left we have to say here; and that’s how we kill this bitch. I say shootin’s too good for her. John Ruth could’a shot her any where, any time along the way, but John Ruth was “The Hangman,” and when “The Hangman” catches you, you don’t die by no bullet. When the The Hangman catches you you hang.
Chris [quoting John]: “You only need to hang Mean Bastards. But Mean Bastards, you need to hang”.[/b]