The Hateful Eight: The Eyepainter Fanedit (WIP)

When I first saw The Hateful Eight, I watched it in a theatre (the digital kind, not the 70mm kind, mind you). And like most of Tarantino’s filmography, I loved it. A lot. I had a good time with The Hateful Eight and I had no regrets going in.

However, a lot of other folks didn’t feel the same way, and after giving it a few rewatches (as well as a watch for both of Wraith’s edits of the film), I started to see a few cracks that needed mending. I didn’t feel like going around to try and fanfix a movie that I loved, especially since most people on fanedit.org seemed to enjoy Wraith’s edit of the film enough. However, after playing around and seeing what I could do to make The Hateful Eight a better film, I found that my approach was different enough and have decided to tackle on another fanfix for Tarantino’s 8th time in the director’s chair.

Because I live in the US, no copy of the extended roadshow edition is available, so I decided to resort to Wraith’s extended cut for the extra footage in my edit. I don’t think Wraith will mind if I used it. The rest of the edit will stem from my trusty blu-ray disc of the theatrical cut, and I believe that will suffice.

So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the stuff I’ve changed.

Wraith’s edit was a very light cut, and the only major change he made was the removal of Tarantino’s voiceover at the beginning of Domergue’s Got a Secret. For him, the voiceover was at the heart of what was wrong with The Hateful Eight. For me, however, my thoughts are more in the vein as Hannibal Lecter. “No, that is incidental.” A lot of that voiceover is classic Tarantino in the style that he goes for. The deeper issue, like in most cases, is in the structure and the way that it’s told.

I have made three major alterations from the norm with this edit to fix the structure and put it back on track. The first thing that I have done is cut out the opening scene in Last Stage to Red Rock. The problem with opening the film with that scene is that it didn’t set up anything for us. At least, anything of importance beyond introducing Russell, Jackson and Leigh. Instead, my edit begins with the close-up shots of the horses set to the Exorcist II music followed by Kurt Russell’s character asking Samuel L. Jackson about how his horse died. It really isn’t important to know how these three ended up together. They’re there, and they’re heading for a fateful encounter at Minnie’s Haberdashery. I found that this was a better way to start the film, and I also decided to move the opening credits to a later point turning what remains of the opening into a prologue of sorts. This gives the exposition more weight, including foreshadowing elements such as the Lincoln letter, “When the hangman catches you, you hang,” etc.

The second major change I’ve made is that I have moved The Four Passengers to the beginning of the film, not the end. In fact, it’s Chapter 1 now. This is the biggest alteration, and changes the film from Agatha Christie mystery into Hitchcockian thriller. Knowing who the villains are almost immediately fixes the longest and most tedious chapter, Minnie’s Haberdashery, because there is tension from the very beginning about what’s going to happen. It also simplifies the ending, as there is no “whodunnit” going on, meaning that everything now hinges on the choices that Chris Mannix has to make at the end of the film.

Another thing that should be noted is that I’ve also changed the color of The Four Passengers section from color to sepia tone, taking a reference from Kill Bill, Vol. 2, and giving it a western flavor. It also gives off a non-linear vibe at the beginning, perfect for a Tarantino film.

The third and final major change I have made is that I have added in as many of the extended roadshow scenes into the edit as I can given the changes that I have made above. The only extended roadshow scenes that didn’t make it into the cut are the ones that focus on O.B. and Warren’s financial negotiation, since the opening scene has been cut. Everything else, however, has been kept. And yes, this does mean that my edit is gonna be long at 3 hours. I’ve even kept the intermission and overture cards from Wraith’s edit, and thrown in some music from the soundtrack during the intermission for good measure too.

It is my hope that these changes create the most complete version of the film, and that they give this film the electrifying experience I had when I first saw this film in theaters back in 2015.

Current restructure

Overture
Prologue: Last Stage to Red Rock, Part II (No title)
Opening Credits
Chapter 1: The Four Passengers
Chapter 2: Last Stage to Red Rock, Part III, Son of a Gun (Titled the latter)
Chapter 3: Minnie’s Haberdashery
Intermission
Chapter 4: Domergue’s Got a Secret
Last Chapter: Black Man, White Hell
Overture/Exit Music

Changes list

– = Deleted
++ = Added
/ = Altered

– Deleted the opening panoramic shots of Wyoming that start the opening credits
– Removed the first scene in Last Stage to Red Rock
/ Opening credit music begins at the point Daisy and John Ruth are punched out of the carriage
/ Opening credits moved to the point when John Ruth tells Daisy “I’m gonna sit back on that wagon wheel, watch, and laugh.”
/ Added “Eyepainter Fanedits presents” over an orange graded still shot of John and Daisy to the start of the opening credits
/ Customized and randomized the fonts and effects for all the chapter cards for a more Tarantino-esque flavor
/ The Four Passengers is now Chapter 1
/ Changed The Four Passengers color scheme from full color to sepia tone
– Deleted the first few shots of The Four Passengers carriage, including the “Earlier that morning” shot due to the change in timeline
++ Added Roadshow extension where Oswaldo and Joe give Daisy the signal that’s she’s in the presence of friends
/ The remainder of Last Stage to Red Rock moved to the beginning of Son of a Gun
++ Added the Roadshow scene where John Ruth speculates on what surprise Daisy has for him
++ Added Roadshow extension where John Ruth forces Marquis to wear handcuffs
– Removed the first version of John and Daisy’s entrance into Minnie’s Haberdashery
/ Substituted the first entrance with the Roadshow extension where Oswaldo and Joe give Daisy the signal that’s she’s in the presence of friends
– Deleted Marquis, O.B., Chris, and Bob taking the horses back and nailing the stakes for the path
++ Added Roadshow extension where John Ruth asks about Joe Gage for the first time
++ Added Roadshow scene where Chris makes a toast to Chester Charles Smithers and the state of Georgia
++ Added Roadshow scene where John Ruth gets mad at Senor Bob over the half plucked chicken
++ Added Roadshow scene where John Ruth sees the shotgun hanging on the wall
++ Added Roadshow audio argument between Mannix and Smithers over the politics of sitting with Marquis
++ Added Roadshow Intermission
/ Added “Apple Blossom” and “Sei Cavalli” to Intermission
/ Changed “Domergue’s Got a Secret” flashback from color to black and white
++ Added Roadshow extension where Marquis asks about why John Ruth made the coffee
++ Added Roadshow extension where Joe Gage attempts to get Mannix to make a deal
++ Added Overture after the end credits as exit music
/ Added “Neve - #3” and “Now You’re All Alone” to exit music

Below is a sepia tone test of the Four Passengers section of the edit. I decided to do this in reference to the B&W chapter in Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Nothing about this is final, and the reason I’ve selected this particular scene is because it was the most G-rated scene in the chapter. Feel free to chime in if you wish.

https://youtu.be/qjm0YeCKRdA

I’ve just come up with another change. In the edit I’ve made so far, I didn’t know what to do about John and Daisy’s entrance into Minnie’s haberdashery. There are two versions of the scene. The first is the one where we don’t know who the bad guys are, and then there’s the extended scene where the bad guys give Daisy the signal over what’s going on.

Originally, both scenes were in my edit. We would start off with the extended scene at the end of The Four Passengers, just like the theatrical release, and then, when Minnie’s Haberdashery begins, we would show the same scene without the inner workings going on. I thought both scenes would provide information the viewer might need to know. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that having both was more repetitive, as we’re mostly just going through the same scene twice, just from different points of view.

So here’s what I’ve decided to change. I decided to get rid of the original first scene entirely, and I replaced it with the extended scene at the beginning of Minnie’s Haberdashery. Meanwhile, The Four Passengers ends with John Ruth kicking the door open, much like the theatrical version.

I will be updating my changes list shortly.

Got another change to report. I decided to change the flashback of Domergue’s Got a Secret to from color to black-and-white. Since I already gave The Four Passengers the sepia tone treatment, I felt that it wouldn’t hurt to take it further by doing something similar to the Domergue flashback. The main reason I don’t just go for sepia like The Four Passengers is because Tarantino is notorious for being inconsistent with the visuals, and thus, it felt more stylistically appropriate to go with B&W this time around.

I’m gonna be on vacation with my roommate and friends until Tuesday, so I will not be working on the edit until I get back. Rest assured that things are going well with the edit so far, and if things stay on their projected course, we could have a finished edit sometime in the next couple of weeks. Until then, I’ll see you guys later!

It’s been a while since I last updated everyone, so here goes.

I’m currently working on the finishing touches and gonna try to give my edit a look soon for any exporting issues I may have missed. In a nutshell, the edit is almost complete. I don’t know when I’ll start releasing it, but I’m confident it will be soon.