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The Great Non-Star Cast of The Hateful Eight

posted 5 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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One big reason I like this film - personal to me only I guess -- is that I think it has one of QT's best casts. Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown have even better ones, but this cast is better than those found in Kill Bill, Death Proof, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and OAITH(which rather HAS to favor Brad and Leo almost all the time, leaving little room for anybody else.)

On the other hand, this cast doesn't have a big marquee star LIKE Brad or Leo(who have three QTs between them) or DeNiro or Pacino. But the eight are great:

Samuel L. Jackson - the quintessential QT actor.

Kurt Russell -- a "second tier cult star"(The Thing, Escape from New York, Used Cars) here looking like Yosemite Sam and sounding like John Wayne.

Jennifer Jason Leigh -- a "career rescue"(see: Travolta, Grier, Forster) with a feral quality (here, she has her dad Vic Morrow's looks and Granny Clampett's accent.

Tim Roth: Never more "fun" in a QT movie, having a ball with his full-on British accent filtered through Chris Waltz and a name that just screams comedy ("Oswaldo Mobray")

Michael Madsen: a reunion with fellow Reservoir Dog Roth(and at close quarters in a roomful of characters again). The coolest guy who never became a superstar. The Roth/Madsen reunion is QT nostalgia at its finest ...23 years after Reservoir Dogs.

Walton Goggins: Heavy on the cornpone accent and, for once, a fairly sympathetic guy.

Bruce Dern: Reduced to teeny-tiny cameos in Django Unchained and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Dern here gets a full bodied role that brings forth his trademark wild-eyed intensity and fury in a frail, tuckered out body.

Demian Bichir: He plays Mexican Bob with a broad, hilarious grunt of a Mexican accent, but he's a Mexican actor so he gets to do that. He's very handsome, too.

Anyway, that's a great cast to me. No real superstars in there(though Jackson works a LOT), but each and every one of them is interesting and entertaining in his (or one time, her) role.

[–] TaRaNRoD (1579) 5 years ago

Samuel L. Jackson is actually a huge star. That being said, I see where you get at and agree with your enthousiasme.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Samuel L. Jackson is actually a huge star.

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Yes, but Jackson is kind of a "wobbler" to me. He's rather like Gene Hackman and Michael Caine were in their heyday. Works so much that he's a "star" without being the more "rare" kind of star that gets more "respect."(That was Jack Nicholson when Hackman and Caine were big.)

I would say this: Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are bigger stars than Jackson, and between the two of them, they starred in Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood -- all of which did better business than The Hateful Eight. Was it their stardom that did it? Or is The Hateful Eight not as good a movie? I think The Hateful Eight is a great movie.

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That being said, I see where you get at and agree with your enthousiasme.

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Thank you. Its really a big reason why I love The Hateful Eight. Literally each and every actor in the movie is interesting to watch and listen to(and that includes the "non-hateful eight" other actors in the movie, like "guest star" Channing Tatum and James Parks as the stagecoach driver.)

[–] TaRaNRoD (1579) 5 years ago

I absolutely love the movie as well. It's my third favourite of his after Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained.

My guess on the fact that The Hateful Eight was less successful has always been due to the more gruesome passing of the movie. But I see how your guess makes sense as well.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Well, its just a guess. I recall just being knocked out by The Hateful Eight, start to finish(the great cinematography, the great outdoor AND indoor locations, the great music) and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't a big hit.

The lack of a truly big star seemed to be part of it. Samuel L. Jackson has rarely carried a movie(Shaft recently bombed.) I love Kurt Russell, but he never got the Tom Cruise/Bruce Willis/Mel Gibson career(I know everybody but Cruise is washed up now, but they were big then.)

Its possible that its being a Western killed it. And perhaps word got out as to how violent and "mean" the movie was.

But I love it.

[–] TaRaNRoD (1579) 5 years ago

"I love Kurt Russell, but he never got the Tom Cruise/Bruce Willis/Mel Gibson career(I know everybody but Cruise is washed up now, but they were big then.)"

Yup... and yet, he is a better actor than them all... especially Cruise and Willis.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

..and...

there's a movie called "Vanilla Sky" in which Tom Cruise is the star, and Kurt Russell is the support, and they have a few scenes together, and when I saw that movie, I kept asking myself: "How come CRUISE is the star and RUSSELL is the support?"

Oh, well. Maybe Russell appeals more to men and Cruise more to women. Its a mystery.

But The Hateful Eight sadly proved that Russell is not a box office draw by himself. Whereas as Cruise reminded a reporter who told him that "Cocktail" was a lousy movie: "Yeah..but it made money. Proves I'm a star."

[–] TaRaNRoD (1579) 5 years ago

' Whereas as Cruise reminded a reporter who told him that "Cocktail" was a lousy movie: "Yeah..but it made money. Proves I'm a star." '

Did he really say that?? Wow... I knew he was an asshole and, overall, not a good person... but this doesn't help. He is SO modest.....

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

He really said that.

I suppose lots of stars have egos...but more of them hide it...

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

There's another story from the director of "American Made." I tried to re-locate it but couldn't. Goes like this though IIRC...

They filmed some scenes in small villages in Columbia. The director made a friendly wager with Cruise that the villagers wouldn't react when Cruise showed up to film scenes because they would have no idea who he was.

Cruise told Liman with straight up surety: "They'll know who I am."

Sure enough, as soon as the villagers saw Cruise, they mobbed him. Liman admitted he had seriously underestimated Cruise's global star power.

That all said, Cruise has been treated badly by the entertainment press, and even members of the public at his movie premieres. So he was probably pushing back against a reporter with an agenda. Over the years, there have been clips of him reacting with grace under fire when he has been dissed face-to-face.

He rarely does interviews or talk shows now unless it's in service of promoting a movie. Between movies now he keeps the lowest of profiles. Don't blame him.

[–] Ace_Spade (9544) 5 years ago

You're right - it's a very even ensemble, no one star has to carry the load.

[–] Heisenberg (6730) 4 years ago

Not sure I agree with you there.
I think what I got from the casting is that it's a modern, urban, one-room Poirot thriller, set in an American cabin mountain.
It's not a western really, it could work as a modern times film as well, and the cast is solid proof of that: they don't sound like they are in the west (maybe only Goggins tries), they don't move or behave like they are cowboys, they don't look the part, no matter the makeup etc.
I like most of these actors, it's a great ensemble, just not for this western setting.
Russell, Madsen, Leigh, particularly feel too modern.
It looks, as always, that Tarantino had to make his own film, in this case a western, and force famous actors into roles that are atypical and unconventional (see Waltz in Django), just 'cause he can!

[–] bobbydallas (8519) 4 years ago

k.. you totally forgot James Parks as the epic O.B.
his performance is magnificent.