There’s another reason to see THE HATEFUL EIGHT in 70mm besides the fact that it, you know, will look better: it will have 12 extra minutes of material you won’t be able to see in traditional screenings.
That “roadshow version” that Tarantino’s cooking up for the 70mm exhibitions will boast both an overture and an intermission, adding up to about six minutes of screentime, and another six minutes of extended scenes that show off the Ultra Panavision lensing. Presumably, what’s added will be epic, lengthy shots that QT thinks will play better on the massive projection than at, as he says, “Hot Dog On A Stick.”
He refers to “big, long, unblinking takes,” which I assume take place outside the haberdashery and get mileage out of the film’s snowy, mountainous backdrop. Six minutes sounds like more than just longer tail ends of shots or a few added landscapes; I have to assume there’s at least one or two dialogue exchanges or character moments that will only be featured in the 70mm version, which provides more than enough reason to check it out even without the undoubtedly gorgeous presentation.
I’d put money down that all this stuff, including the overture/intermission, will be on the Blu-ray/DVD, but there’s no substitute for seeing it on the big screen on 70mm film. Tarantino himself admits that “everybody is looking to see how we do in that first two weeks,” due to the increasing inviability of shooting and exhibiting on film, but with EXTRA ENNIO MORRICONE SCORE and EXTRA ROBERT RICHARDSON 70MM PHOTOGRAPHY, how the fuck are any of us gonna pass that up?
THE HATEFUL EIGHT bundle up on Christmas Day.
