For anyone who missed it, Quentin Tarantino's latest film was
released last week. Despite being his eight project (as is momentously announced during
the 70s-styled opening credits), of the purportedly ten films that he will
make, its setting and set-up seem to be thoroughly reminiscent of his
breakthrough film, Reservoir Dogs. However, there are also a great many
differences with his early work. For starters, the film has none of the speed, energy
or vibrancy that was present in his first films. This film is overindulgent and
loves itself so much that it takes 167 minutes (187 in the 70mm version) to
reach its conclusion. Especially the dialogue scenes, for which Tarantino is
famed, take their sweet sweet time, often without adding any greater dramatic
effect.
Although there are some great performances (particularly by Bruce Dern),
this might be Tarantino's most overacted film. Along with its single-location setting
of Minnie's Haberdashery, this makes the film extremely theatrical and not in
a good way. The film often alienates its viewer by tearing him or her away from
the immersive movie-going experience with its unnatural acting, odd casting and artificial and unnecessarily repetitive dialogue. This is not an
intellectual or self-reflexive exercise by its director, but a result of some
very ill judged choices. One striking moment is the unfortunate cameo by
stunt-driver turned actress Zoë Bell, who previously worked with Tarantino for
Death Proof, another fiasco of a film. Her acting is so ridiculously chipper,
completely over-the-top and awkwardly grating against the style and tone of the
rest of the film, that it made me behold the scene in what can only be
described as appalled shock.
Her presence, fortunately, is very brief, as is that of two
other women who appear in this film. The only woman who has a part of some
significance is Daisy Domergue, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. And here we
arrive at the film's most onerous problem: its intrinsic misogyny. From the
very first scene Daisy is horrifically beaten, bashed and knocked about. This
while receiving various forms of verbal abuse, often by means of the ubiquitous
use of the word "bitch". In fact, Tarantino has stated that he wanted
to break one of cinema's last taboos, that of hitting a woman in the face. To
shock the audience is an admirable intention, yet what happens here is that her
beatings are being played for comedic effect. This panders to the misogynist
"let's punish the woman who talks back"-feeling that is consciously or subconsciously
present in a mostly male audience, guffawing while the rebellious woman is
dealt with in a way "she deserves".
It has been said that the character of Daisy should be seen
alongside the other mistreated character in the film, Marquis Warren,
played by Samuel L. Jackson. Marquis is just as frequently verbally abused with
the n-word, yet unlike Daisy, he gets his revenge in a glorious ten-minute monologue
of violence and delirious excess. Daisy never gets a similar moment of
retribution. In fact, her character's death is the only one that is revelled
in, purposefully prolonged, while other characters, with which we are supposed
to identify, rejoice. Why should we celebrate a woman's torture and death in
this way? Supposedly because she is "hateful", just like the other
characters in this film. She is a racist, it's true, but so is over half of the
characters in this film. It is implied that she has done terrible things, yet
none of these are ever expanded upon. The crime that she has been convicted of
is merely being a gang member.
Unlike the ridiculously gory effects, the obviously laughable racism,
the other aspect that is played for shock, its sexism, takes a much more
sinister form. It actively encourages the audience to feel enmity towards this woman above all other characters. She is a
strong, tough and defiant woman, the only female role of substance in this
film, who can therefore be identified with womankind as a whole. The film
becomes hateful in a way that is no longer funny or exploitative in a
grindhouse-film-style, it becomes precisely what misogynist means: it vigorously
hates women and promotes the hatred of women.
