The Hateful Eight: 8 Reasons It's Quentin Tarantino's Worst Film
5. And The N-Word Finally Feels Problematic
I'm never one to gripe about the use of profanity in a film and especially in a Tarantino but the specific racial profanity on show in The Hateful Eight finally feels problematic, even more so when you consider that the n-word has long been a controversial aspect of Tarantinos work. The director clearly loves using the word, and in a way, thats fine. This is film and the word exists its there to be used if necessary as an artistic choice. And while its always been hard to outright defend Tarantinos obsession with the word (and its clear now that it is indeed an obsession), it never felt like he was just using it for the sake of it. The line dead n*gger storage, spoken by Tarantino himself in Pulp Fiction, is tough to defend, but in the context of that films hypertrophied vernacular, it fits. It too fits when the word is repeatedly used in Django Unchained, a purposefully exploitation-like subversion of slavery. When Django spits the line the Ds silent, hillbilly, the use of the word prior is warranted, because Django has his own, better put-down to retort with. But here Tarantino really is dropping n-bombs because he can, and no amount of Civil War context can defend it. As Matt Zoller Seitz said in his review of the film: In the end, The Hateful Eight is less reminiscent of any single Western than of a certain episode of Seinfeldthe one where Bryan Cranston plays a gentile dentist who makes Jewish jokes but insists it's OK because he's converted. "I have a suspicion," Seinfeld says, that he's converted to Judaism just for the jokes..
