I watched The Hateful Eight in 70mm

It cost me ~TWENTY DOLLARS~ to see it in 70mm.  I saw it that way because I missed out on seeing Interstellar in 70mm.  I also at least wanted to know the last film I saw on film.  I saw a showing of 1989 Batman at the Alamo Drafthouse and I'm almost certain that was just playing a Bluray.  Maybe it was 2001, but also I feel that might have been a Bluray.

I got my favorite seat for a theater experience like this.  2nd row from the back of the front section.  I want a screen to envelope me.  I want to have to pan my head to see the left and right of the screen.

I don't really like Tarantino films.  I love Jackie Brown.  I watch it at least once a year.  I always feel afterwards he's too indulgent and too obsessed with the nature of cinema.  But his obsession with cinema gives him sole leeway to be too indulgent.  The other film of his that I actually liked the first time I saw it was Deathproof.  A film that is almost entirely him being indulgent.  It is filled with these long monologues he loves.  It just actors (and himself) being mouthpieces for his monologues.  Then it has two terrific and terrifying chase sequences.  The chase sequences will always be great, the monologues on repeat are not-watchable.  Once the monologues become an issue Tarantino is lost to you.

Then his obession with cinema.  How he loves cinema.  He drops old scores into his films.  He has references all over the place in his films.  I'd rather be friends with the guy than watch his films.  After I saw Inglorious Bastards I felt like I should just give up seeing his films.  So I never saw Django Unchained.  I heard it was Tarantino being Tarantino.

Then let me say The Hateful Eight is also Tarantino being Tarantino.  He collects a great cast.  He gives them these monologues to say.  He's seen so much cinema that it just bleeds into every frame.  he doesn't need to try and reference anything, he does it naturally.  He gets Enrio Morricone to do the soundtrack.  Then he has a weird pop-song interlude in the film that stopped me.

From the start of the film I was thinking about westerns.  I was thinking about the font he was using.  I was thinking about how great westerns are frequently about weird fashion.  Yes that was a good font he chose.  Yes everyone's outfits are perfect to give them more character.  I was thinking if I was going to remember Morricone's score after the film ended (I didn't.)

I was thinking how the actors all have great stage presence and other films they had been in.  I was thinking about what I was going to write about the film.  I didn't go into it thinking I would write words about it.  I saw 100 films last year, most of them did not inspire multple paragraphs in me.  Before the intermission I was thinking about writing this post.

And I felt Tarantino's hands all over it.  Being indulgent.  I will put this here.  I will use this actor.  Micheal Madson doesn't have to say anything to know that he's a bastard, and yet you want to like him.  I wanted to call it a mystery or suspense but I didn't care about the actual mystery or the suspense.  My mind was wandering all over the film except about the events happening on the screen.

Which is what happens when I watch Tarantino.  I'm thinking about everything about the film except the actual film.  I have no stake in any of the characters.  The reveals are just another point in the movie.  Tarantino sure does love Title Cards and I'm not sure why they are here outside of a convenient break scene.

Huh the Weinstein's Executive Produced this and didn't real him in?  Isn't that what they are notorious for doing?  They are known to butcher cut films down.  Yet here is their name on an almost 3 hour film.  That's strange.  But if anyone gets to be indulgent it's Tarantino.  He loves cinema.

I did not love this film.  It was not worth TWENTY DOLLARS.  But I do have a last film I saw on film story.