Okay now I'm really bummed that this has been scrapped. It's pretty fantastic and draws all the best of that classic QT tension that we've seen in his films, most effectively in the Basterd's pub scene, and a heap of juicy characters to boot. Great western who-dunnit that I wish Tarantino would change his mind about.

I read up to the last two 'episodes' of the five, so basically the last 40 pages, the climax, remain.

Brief thoughts: Django Unchained wasn't a Western. Sure, it took place in that era, with those costumes, and those shootouts, but the characters bore little similarity to those in the genre. The plot, while concerning bounty hunters, has almost no precedence. The score only occasionally uses anything close to the music featured in a spaghetti western, music that's heard in the Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds films. But, more than anything, it lacks the anti-hero. The moral ambiguity of the West is only passively mentioned. The Hateful Eight reverses everything I just described. As the title implies, no character is necessarily worthy of admiring, and each of them beset upon themselves intense moral uncertainty. Right and wrong is the subject of the day, and how little each of these men seem to know of the difference between them is constantly explored. That is the heart of a Western, and it's everything I hoped Django would be. As many of you have read, The Hateful Eight almost resembles a stage play in its use of only two prime locations. At first I was worried, hoping the film could capture the operatic tone of the Spaghetti Westerns Tarantino mimicked so beautifully in the opening of Inglourious Basterds and moments of Kill Bill and Django. However, as the script unfolds, it became an unnecessary concern. The scale of the film is profound, even if the location is not. How and why that comes to be I won't explain here, but it's damn smart screenwriting.

I'll be horribly upset if this doesn't get made. I love Tarantino, and I have much affection for each of his films. If he decides to make the Hateful Eight into a film, and he directs it with the confidence and competence we know he's capable, and if the final 39 pages maintain or expand upon the quality of the previous 107, it could make a go at being one of my favorite Tarantinos. I say my favorite and not best, since to some the small and dry context will be seen as an imposition or a straight jacket rather than a small space featuring big ideas and action.

Whatever he does next, I can't imagine it being this good.


-Vader

@Vader182:

That's the reason I am so enraged, man. I want this film on the big screen. That 70mm magic.

Vader182 wrote:
Brief thoughts: Django Unchained wasn't a Western. Sure, it took place in that era, with those costumes, and those shootouts, but the characters bore little similarity to those in the genre. The plot, while concerning bounty hunters, has almost no precedence.

You know you could've just said it's the German fairy tale of Broomhilda. Like Tarantino explains to you in the first quarter of the film.

Vader182 wrote:Brief thoughts: Django Unchained wasn't a Western. Sure, it took place in that era, with those costumes, and those shootouts, but the characters bore little similarity to those in the genre. The plot, while concerning bounty hunters, has almost no precedence. The score only occasionally uses anything close to the music featured in a spaghetti western, music that's heard in the Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds films.

Well, Django was never supposed to be a Western in a traditional sense. He was always trying to mix a bunch of things together. Also what talli said.

I'll be horribly upset if this doesn't get made.

You called him doing another Western "boring" at first. Be careful what you wish for.


Have a couple of questions though...

1. Is this a complete ensemble piece where there is no main character? That is what I imagine.
2. Can you guess which roles Dern, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen were up for?
3. Did you get a feeling other roles were written for some of Tarantino's regulars (Uma, Samuel L., Waltz ect.).

Thanks!

Allstar wrote:

Vader182 wrote:Brief thoughts: Django Unchained wasn't a Western. Sure, it took place in that era, with those costumes, and those shootouts, but the characters bore little similarity to those in the genre. The plot, while concerning bounty hunters, has almost no precedence. The score only occasionally uses anything close to the music featured in a spaghetti western, music that's heard in the Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds films.

Well, Django was never supposed to be a Western in a traditional sense. He was always trying to mix a bunch of things together. Also what talli said.

I'll be horribly upset if this doesn't get made.

You called him doing another Western "boring" at first. Be careful what you wish for.


Have a couple of questions though...

1. Is this a complete ensemble piece where there is no main character? That is what I imagine.
2. Can you guess which roles Dern, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen were up for?
3. Did you get a feeling other roles were written for some of Tarantino's regulars (Uma, Samuel L., Waltz ect.).

Thanks!

Yeah yeah it's a "southern" blahblah. Thing is, he still runs around town calling it a western, when in terms of characters and style, it's really his third 'most' Western film, behind Basterds and Volume 2. And, yes, I said another Western would be boring. This isn't.

and, it's very clear who Madsen/Roth/Dern are supposed to play, and it's pretty clear
But yeah, it's the closest to an ensemble piece he's ever really had, and many of these are quite juicy roles.


-Vader

Vader182 wrote:and, it's very clear who Madsen/Roth/Dern are supposed to play, and it's pretty clear

Samuel L Jackson plays what could arguably be called the lead (but not really)

But yeah, it's the closest to an ensemble piece he's ever really had, and many of these are quite juicy roles.


-Vader

Can you give me the character names for each actor? I want to envision them while I read the script. Also any important female roles? I know this is rare for Westerns but you never know with QT.

Allstar wrote:

Vader182 wrote:and, it's very clear who Madsen/Roth/Dern are supposed to play, and it's pretty clear

Samuel L Jackson plays what could arguably be called the lead (but not really)

But yeah, it's the closest to an ensemble piece he's ever really had, and many of these are quite juicy roles.


-Vader

Can you give me the character names for each actor? I want to envision them while I read the script. Also any important female roles? I know this is rare for Westerns but you never know with QT.

There are a few female roles, but one is very important and is there throughout the film. Names/characters go as follow:

ChristNolan wrote:

John Ruth: Madsen
Major Marquis Warren: Sam Jackson
Daisy Dermogue: ??? Very rough outlaw type broad, I'll let you go with whoever you want there.
O.B: Anyone
Chris Mannix: Tim Roth
Bob: Christoph Waltz
General Sanders: Bruce Dern
Oswaldo Mobray: Thought this could also be Waltz
Joe Gage: Thought this could also be Roth
And there are a few other characters but thats the main ones.

Thanks!

Daisy may just have been written for Uma based off the description. God, I hope QT has a change of heart and makes this.