It’s amazing how the rightwing media will say next to nothing substantial about gun violence or police brutality (though you do get occasionally idiotic bon mots like this), but if a purveyor of fictional violence dares raise his voice about real, documented violence against citizens from those who are meant to serve and protect us, just watch how the bandwagons circle around him moving in for the kill. The police boycott ban against Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” — over the fact that the filmmaker showed up at a police brutality protest in New York — has threatened to overshadow the film itself and if you believe the New York Post, Harvey Weinstein is hopping mad at Tarantino for his unflattering, arguably irresponsible comments about police officers at said rally.
READ MORE: Quentin Tarantino Says 70mm ‘The Hateful Eight’ Will Be Longer Than Digital Version
And say what you will about Tarantino’s comments, they may have been a bit too over-the-top, but please lets never equate fictional violence with real violence: there’s zero hypocrisy from the filmmaker there, sorry (this is painfully glib). Moving off the soapbox, Tarantino’s 8th film “The Hateful Eight” takes place in Wyoming at a stagecoach stopover during a blizzard where deception and betrayal are the order of the day. The movie is almost like a Tarantino super group and features Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Demian Bichir, Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, and Bruce Dern. Here’s the official synopsis:
Set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces: Bob (Demian Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
“The Hateful Eight” is set for a release date on December 25, 2015, but only in 70 mm film format, but either way, that’s a great incentive to see it early. Otherwise, you’ve got to wait until the following year on January 8, 2016. Watch the new trailer below.
