The Hateful Eight and the 1870 Martin acoustic guitar

... a sad story: an unfortunate mishappen or... purest Tarantino's pulp?

Amidst all the violence in Quentin Tarantino’s latest film “The Hateful Eight” is the scene in which John Ruth, played by Kurt Russell, grabs a guitar from Daisy Domergue, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and smashes it, eliciting horror.

 My pal Lo walking along the impressive screen at the 70mm Arcadia movie theatre in Melzo, Italy.

 The good  ol' 1870 Martin guitar (or its copy)... few moments before being crashed!

 The guitar's last singing, before being crashed... not so strangely, as I'm listening now to the OST, the song and crash were left both on movie and soundtrack, as well... a memento imperituro;-)

“What was supposed to happen was we were supposed to go up to that point, cut and trade guitars and smash the double,” explains the film’s Academy Award-winning sound mixer Mark Ulano, as quoted in SSNInsider.com. “Well, somehow that didn’t get communicated to Kurt, so when you see that happen on the frame, Jennifer’s reaction is genuine.”

Classical guitars in the Martin Museum.
Photo by Edward Blake.

The victim was an authentic Martin from the 1870s, on loan from the Martin Guitar Museum, Ulano said, and everyone was pretty freaked out when they realized what happened. “Tarantino was in a corner of the room with a funny curl on his lips, because he got something out of it with the performance,” Ulano added...

Really too bad as the poor guitar is in a desperate unrepairable status.

Will have my 70mm "The Hateful Eight" in 70mm gloriousness on next Saturday...

Thanking The Reverb Tank and Chris McMahon...

P.S. - thanking my friend Lo, re-re-reading the several reviews on the Web, the guitar-crashing was filmed thrice and the misunderstanding which caused the crashing of three guitars (and the faulty feedback and communication between troupe crew, director and actors)  was why also the original vintage Martin's was destroyed... to be honest, when I was watching the movie in gorgeous 70 mm, and already aware of the mishappen, I had a gut-feeling the guitar shown on the screen wasn't that guitar! A scoop;-)... as a scholar and collector of vintage acoustic guitars, I noticed the body of the guitar strummed by Daisy had a tad too deep sides/body, something which wasn't compatible with a parlor guitar from the 1870... so, unfortunately, I dare affirming the guitar crashed in the movie isn't the Martin's... if I'm wrong, please correct me.