The Hateful Eight

I am a Quentin Tarantino super-fan. The “nerd” in Nerd Dad could easily refer to my love for Tarantino. I devour his movies, and anything related to him, and starve for more. I remember seeing Reservoir Dogs the first time, alone in my bedroom, when I worked at Blockbuster Video and thinking that I‘ll never see a movie that good again. I still haven’t been as blown away by a single film as I was the first time I saw Reservoir Dogs.

I saw Pulp Fiction 5 times in the theater, and used my Blockbuster connections to obtain a copy on VHS as soon as one was out. This was back when movies didn’t come out for sale right away, and a copy was over $100. I think I got a free screener of it. I love how the film is shown out of order, and the viewer needs to pay attention to what’s going on.

The guy can write. I admire his storytelling ability. I remember when I heard that he was going to adapt a story, Jackie Brown; I was disappointed because I want to see his story. Jackie Brown is Tarantino all the way. He is a huge inspiration for me and my writing, even though I can’t write the subject matter that he does. No matter what I write, it always devolves into comedy. Maybe that’s why I look up to him so much. I wish I could write the way he does.

I love his dialogue. I love the music in his films. I love the look and feel of his direction. I can’t think of another filmmaker who I feel this way about. I do love John Hughes films, but that’s apples and oranges.

Tarantino’s last film, Django Unchained, is a western. He said in an interview that his next film is also going to be a western, something like 'now that I learned how to make a western, I want to make another one.' Then I saw the news that his new film may be titled The Hateful Eight. The title alone makes me want to see it.

Then the script was leaked. All hell broke loose, and Tarantino decided that he’s not going to make it now. Hearing that there is new Tarantino material out there, bootleg or not, made me crazy that I might have the chance to view new material. I don’t care that he’s not going to make it, he wrote it. I wanted to read it.

I obtained a copy of the script (I was going to brag that I got it, and how I feel so cool to have this underground material, but with the pending lawsuit, I’ll just say that I read the script). I had always heard that Tarantino scripts were full of typos and bad grammar, and the script is full of that. It looks like it was written by a high school dropout. Oh yeah, he is. There/their/they're are all over the place wrong, he spells coffee “coffy,” and there are countless other things I could nitpick, but I got to read a new Tarantino script, and I gotta tell ya, it’s awesome.

It is only a first draft, and that is clear. I don’t know how many drafts he usually does, but I know from experience that any finished piece is worlds different from the first draft. I’m sure that the overall theme and story would remain, and it was spoiled for QT. I don’t blame him for his depression that the leak happened. I have a feeling that he just might make the film anyways, and is throwing everyone off the scent by saying he’s not going to make it. We’ll see. Even though I know the story, I’ll be there on opening weekend.