We saw the “roadshow” edition of The Hateful Eight at the Cinerama, projected in 70mm as Tarantino and God intended. The eight pro­tag­o­nists are all as hateful and violent as you would expect given the title and the director. Tarantino is incapable of making a film without gratuitous violence and gore, but neither can he make a film without memorable characters who eviscerate with dialog. He continues to deliver both.

During one long day, some years after the Civil War, eight characters find themselves trapped by a blizzard in a remote inn. Two are bounty hunters, another claims to be the new sheriff of the town they’re all traveling to, the sole woman is the prisoner to be hanged, and the other four are suspicious types already at the inn. Most will die violent, bloody deaths in the next three hours of screen time, but not before we hear their back­sto­ries and learn that some are more—or less—than they seem.