For New Year’s this Year I went to DC to visit with family. While visiting we went to see Quentin Tarantino's Hateful 8 shown with a 70mm projector. For those of you who don't know most theaters (almost all I would imagine at this point) use all digital projectors usually DLP.
During the Intermission my brother and I went to lobby to get ourselves a snack and he asked me what I thought of the movie so far. I told him that it was already my favorite Q.T. movie. He then mentioned that it was cool to see it in 70mm because the artifacting in the frames gave the film an authentic feel. I had noticed the the imperfections in the beginning of the movie but quickly tuned them out. It wasn't intentional it's just what you do. I told my brother that the artifacting did not add a lot to the movie for me. I told him that it may have been from years of watching online video content back in the days of dialup internet in formats like mpeg and Real. (anyone else remember that POS Real Player?) Highly compressed video formats that sacrificed so much quality to package content in a filesize somewhat suitable for transmission down POTs lines. The miniscule and momentary blips flashing on the screen did almost nothing to change the experience for me at all. After all despite the fact that its analog 70mm panavision is still a very good quality picture. I would bet that most people wouldn't even notice a difference if they weren't told in advance that it was an analog projection. Now not being a huge movie buff and admittedly not a huge Q.T. fan I mean I like him but I wouldn't say he is my favorite director or that I even have a favorite director. I assumed that It was I not my brother that was missing the point of the 70mm showing Of Q.T.’s latest film? The director was very adamant that this was the format to see this movie in. Not 3D, Not Imax but analog projection on a standard size theater screen.
Despite my earlier statement that I’m not a huge Tarantino fan I do recognize the fact that the man is a creative genius and my extremely intelligent brother who loves. QT I knew there was something that I just didn’t get. It wasn't until this evening when I woke up for work that I realized not only did I not get it in that moment but neither did my brother, or at least we hadn’t realized that we had.
Allow me to explain.
Walking into the packed theater we took our seats the lights dimmed and the movie started. No previews no commercials. from a black screen to a simple black and red image and a western themed orchestral score lasting several minutes with the word “overture” on the screen then the live action part of the movie began. No opening credits just music and color that prepared our minds to be put into a different world and not the one where the movie was taking place, but I will get back to that. why did the theater not have it usual smattering of loud over stimulating advertisements and previews for unrelated movies that invoke emotions totally at odds with the experience you are about to have? Easy 70mm film.
Because almost all theaters are digital all of that garbage is delivered to the cinemas in digital format. For this film they likely had to rent a totally different projector, pull one out of storage or be provided one by the studio or distributor for this limited release. Then pull the digital projector out of the booth replacing it with the 70mm projector. leaving the theater with no way to display any of the adverts and previews and notices that they normally have only the movie as it was released and only that.
The Hateful 8 has two distinct parts I will call them the setup and conclusion. these parts each are broken up into chapters. For the sake of this conversation the chapters are not so important. In the setup we are introduced to the characters and we begin to see what the problem is. this sets the movie up as a classic Who Done It? in this part of the movie its minimal violence for a Q.T. movie and a lot of suspense built through pure dialog.
The movie naturally separates these two parts with an intermission that you only get in the 70mm version. This is because the film real can only hold so much film the projector has to be shut off and allowed to cool so that the second spool can be loaded this gives the audience time so talk and speculate on the movie in excitement without whispering or disturbing anyone else. (Also if you had drank the Uber sized Icy you can take a much needed piss and not miss anything or if you missed lunch you and your brother can go get a drum of popcorn and misinterpret the experience you are having)
In the digital release (I assume as I have not seen it but it is supposed to have all the same content ) the way the two parts are separated is by a flashback and monolog from Samuel L Jackson. My only critique of this movie is this scene. I would have prefered to just had Jackson paint the scene with his words rather than have the flashback. To me this just breaks from the rest of the movie and seems out of place because the scene is moved away from the rest of the cast and this happens at no other time in the movie.
When you return from the intermission you get a voice over with a brief reminder as to what has transpired in the first half of the movie again I don't know if this is in the digital release but it is another nuance that transports you as the moviegoer to a different world and as I stated previously it's not the world outside of Red Rock in the movie but to a world where going to the cinema was a totally different experience a time when people went to see westerns at the local movie house. a Time when it was about the movie and the charters and about you and that is the most artful component to this movie.
Seeing Hateful 8 in 70mm if you can will give you a night at the movies that our parents may be able to remember and you may never get to experience again.
