The Hateful Eight. 2015. USA. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. With Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Channing Tatum. 35mm. 168 min.
Quentin Tarantino had been jonesing for years to work with Ennio Morricone, having quoted his music in films like Inglourious Basterds and Kill Bill, when at long last he received a full-blown score for The Hateful Eight, an homage to the Spaghetti Westerns of the three Sergios (Leone, Solima, and Corbucci, all represented in this exhibition)—and in particular The Great Silence, Corbucci’s similarly claustrophobic tale of bounty hunters adrift in a blizzard. Morricone, who recycles bits of his music for The Thing and Exorcist II: The Heretic, builds suspense through the tinkles of a music box, sinewy clarinet lines, and insistent bass drums (shades here of The Untouchables), his piece “Sangue e neve” (or “Blood and Snow”) ominously leading us toward Tarantino’s inevitable explosive climax.