Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Agatha Christie

LindaBarnard

Hello Agatha Christie fans: My name is Linda Barnard and I am a movie writer at the Toronto Star. I am doing a story on plot points/themes common to Agatha Christie that show up in Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. If any among you in this expert group have wisdom to share, I would be grateful. I am thinking of And Then There Were None, the blizzard in the Mousetrap, etc.

Griselda

Could you please outline some of the plot points/themes of The Hateful Eight.

Griselda

Sorry to be negative, but, having read WIKI about the plot of THE, I would say that it is extremely crude and bloodthristy, with little mystery, and less imagination. I have often seen similarities between Coumbo plots and AC plots, but I see no way that a film about random killings can be like an AC novel. THE is like a computer game in which people get killed in dramatic ways. AC is interested in real human dilemmas, frustrations and hypocricies, and temptation spilling over into wickedness, and how the need to conceal a crime leads to a blunting of the conscience. She likes to feature what we would call sociopaths, people with complex minds who can scheme and deceive - but there will only be one of them, usually, and the other characters are normal.. THE seems just to be about the exercise of power. Characatures of real people behave abnormally and I imagine no audience would care about these people. The idea of people all being trapped together sounds like Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None, but there the similarity ends.

Griselda

Just to say, Linda Barnard, sorry, not at all helpful of me just to sound off with my opinions. I am sure that will shortly receive a much more helpful response, as some forum members know the plot of every novel in great detail.

Both Hercule Poirot's Christmas, and A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie, feature a character who has lived in another part of the world, where social conventions are abandoned to some extent, and lives are rather wild.There is a sense of danger about them. Stephen ( and, indeed, old Mr Lee, himself), in HPC, and the old man who was murdered in APFOR. Christie is fascinated by the notion of a character who is wild, where there is a suspicion that they have done evil deeds and lived beyond the law. This seems similar to the character of the female outlaw, who in The Hateful Eight, who is intriguing because she has led such an unconventional life. In fact the female character, Pilar, in HPC, is something of an outlaw, having come from war-torn Spain, where life was cheap, and people assumed identities and broke the law to survive. Her own father had been a passionate criminal. The members of the household don't know about her past, but see elements of her wildness. I think in Peril at End House by AC, there is a lodge keeper who is sort of keeping an eye on the big house, who is Australian, and not what he seems. Perhaps this is similar to the Mexican landlord in THE.

Anubis

I do so agree, Griselda. I had the misfortune of seeing one of Mr T's movies, for lack of a more scathing term, and will never make that mistake again. However, being from Toronto, I can let you know that Ms Barnard's article appeared in the Toronto Star this morning, and she compared THE to The Mousetrap, among other things, so I guess she got her information elsewhere.

Griselda

Yes, I can't really see a similarity, but I applaud Ms Barnard's writing skills, if she can make something of a connection. My favourite AC journalist is the one in Mrs McGinty's dead, who wrote about tragic heroines mixed up in crime. I like her words to Poirot: "My dear man. No point in accuracy.Whole thing was a romantic farrago from beginning to end. I just mugged up the facts a bit and let fly with a lot of hou ha." Those were the days!