Discussing
The Hateful Eight’s Missing Man of Sorrows

In Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, even an explicit visual reference to Christ fails to evoke much meaning.

I agree that Tarantino envisioned this film (mainly) as a giddy bloodfest, more than he did as a historical morality play about The Reconstruction Era, or as an existential examination on the nature of judgement, mercy and punishment. HOWEVER, I would like to offer O.B. Jackson, not as your man of sorrows, but as the character who represents whatever beating heart this film has and makes it a bit more worthy of consideration than you are advocating for.

The Hateful Eight employs more than 8 characters, so not everyone on screen is hateful (by the film's standards). O.B. (for me) is a clear candidate for the non-hateful camp. He is a man who is not hated by any party in the cabin (perhaps liked by all) and yet ends up as a casual sacrifice to the machinations and whims of characters and forces that he does not seem to comprehend or care much about. He is the one who has to do all the tasks no one else cares to do and must shoulder the burden and responsibility of everyone else's carelessness and violence. If I ever felt pity or sorrow in this movie it was at his death and the death of Minnie and her crew.

I couldn't help but think of O.B. at those bookends and see the cabin as the result of humanity let loose. There is a great line in No Country for Old Men where Tommy Lee Jones recounts a story of a callous murderer and says that just to be a part of this world, "a man would have to put his soul at hazard". This sinful world is calling for it's wage from the day we are born, we are surrounded by its fruits in endless ways.

I think what I took away from the bookends is that there have been countless people who have suffered the consequences of this world's brokenness. I think Tarantino sees Jesus as a man like O.B., perhaps one who took more of a stand against the injustices that were going on in that cabin, but he suffered the same fate. I think the piece the film is missing is found in seeing Jesus' death as one of great purpose. I think in that way, the film is profound in a way that may not have even been intended. The power is in how you interpret the first few seconds of the film and if it can offer any hope for what follows, which (as I look around me today) is a pretty sorrowful but astute representation of what is playing out in our country today. For me, the image of Christ means something, and the bloodshed is happening in the shadow of his cross. Your man of sorrow is in the film and watching over it all.

In Reply to Keith K. (comment #27803)
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Great thoughts, Keith, and well-stated. Obviously O.B. didn't register as strongly for me (poor guy: if he had just been able to stay inside, maybe he wouldn't have needed that cup of coffee!), but I do like your reading. Thanks for sharing.

Great Comments. I also appreciated O.B. He certainly was a suffering servant, maybe a beast of burden in the manner of Bresson's Balthazar, having to put up with all that weather etc.

Agreed to all Josh. I was really disappointed in this film but I can't tell if that is this film being darker or me maturing in my taste.

I think my biggest disappointment was in how the first half of the film DID seem to set up some genuinely interesting ideas about America's past (specifically with the Lincoln letter, why Samuel L.'s character said he needed it, and how Russell's character needed that lie to be true).

But the last hour annihilated any bigger point or purpose. At least previously the gratuitous revenge was toward nazis and slave owners and - while not Biblical - a bit more understandable in its anger.

But why in this film? To what end was all that anger? I left feeling gross and hollowed out.

In Reply to Josh (comment #27815)
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In The Hateful Eight, it seemed as if the anger and violence was an end in itself. I've heard from others who found much resonance in the Lincoln letter, but it registered to me like a too-neat screenwriting conceit that didn't ultimately bear much thematic weight.