Vitals

Samuel L. Jackson as Maj. Marquis Warren, bounty hunter and veteran Union Army cavalry officer

Wyoming Territory, Winter 1877

Film: The Hateful Eight
Release Date: December 25, 2015
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Courtney Hoffman

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy birthday to Samuel L. Jackson! Born December 21, 1948, the actor hustled for two decades before his breakthrough performance as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction (1994), his first of six collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, and he is currently the highest-grossing actor of all time with his films having collectively grossed more than $27 billion worldwide.

The actor’s most recent prominent role in a QT joint was the wintry western The Hateful Eight, released ten years ago this month on Christmas 2015, and an appropriate watch for tonight’s winter solstice.

Jackson leads the ensemble cast as Major Marquis Warren, a former Union Army cavalry officer now working as a bounty hunter who prides himself on his deadly reputation:

My bounties never hang, ’cause I never bring ’em in alive.

Major Warren is the first of the titular octet whom we meet, hauling three bounty corpses through Wyoming Territory when his horse gives out in a blizzard en route Red Rock. He begrudgingly accepts a ride from the passing competition, fellow bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell), who values his own contrasting reputation as “the Hangman” because he always brings his bounties in alive to be hanged. In this case, his bounty is the vicious outlaw Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who doesn’t share Ruth’s admiration for the major—driven primarily by Warren carrying a letter addressed to him from Abraham Lincoln.

Along the way, they pick up Red Rock’s purported new sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), who immediately butts heads with Warren over his father’s leadership of a Confederate militia. Ruth’s stagecoach driven by O.B. Jackson (James Parks) eventually arrives at the familiar outpost, Minnie’s Haberdashery, where they encounter a trio of strangers: hangman Oswaldo Mobrey (Tim Roth), cowboy Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and former Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern).

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What’d He Wear?

Costume designer Courtney Hoffman explained to Rachel Lee Harris for the New York Times at the time of the film’s release that Samuel L. Jackson’s wardrobe as Major Marquis Warren was informed by spaghetti westerns, specifically characters played by Lee Van Cleef, whom Hoffman describes as “that sexy silver fox who always looks perfect, his clothes fitting just the right way, a brocade gambler vest and a flat-top hat,” which seems to specifically reference Van Cleef as Colonel Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More. This inspiration explains how Warren manages to maintain his ruggedness while among the more formally dressed men holed up at Minnie’s Haberdashery, avoiding Oswaldo Mobrey’s foppish dandyism.

“Lot of hats, Señor Bob… which, if I remember correctly, was one of them bar iron rules she’d want kept up in her absence,” observes a rightfully suspicious Warren, citing Minnie’s “no hats indoors” policy. Given Minnie’s absence, Warren continues wearing his black fur felt hat, styled with a black grosgrain band, a flat, round telescope-style crown, and a wide, flat brim.

Samuel L. Jackson’s screen-worn hats were made by the southern California-based Baron Hats, who continues to offer replicas of “The Warren” in rabbit or beaver fur felt with 4″-tall crowns and 4.5″-wide brims.

Major Warren’s outerwear riffs on the U.S. Army’s contemporary greatcoat, complete with its cape and bright yellow cavalry-style piping and lining, though the details differ from Army issue. Made from a heavy navy-blue felted wool, the knee-length coat closes with five brown braided leather toggles up from the waist to the neck. The patch pockets over the hips are covered with flaps.

A broad collar covers the top of the coat and the matching cape, which is buttoned in place on the coat’s neckband. Two long braided leather bands hang down from matching patches on each side of the cape, presumably to fasten it over his chest. The cape has squared front quarters, roundly draped around the back at Jackson’s waist, covering the top of the long single vent that splits the back.

Warren fortifies against the harsh winter with a long, thick mixed gray wool scarf, likely hand-knitted with medium- to heavy-gauge yarn in a broken rib stitch. His white leather gauntlet gloves are made from a smooth, supple hide with three-point seams across the backs of each hand and extended cuffs flaring past the wrists for added protection and warmth.

The major wears a simple yet presentable clean white shirt with a spread collar and two-button barrel cuffs. His bright scarlet-red tie is fastened in a wide knot (which anticipates the Windsor style later popularized in the 1930s) and is held into place with a silver-framed, smoothly domed oval tie-pin stuck through the dimple just beneath the knot.

The fanciest part of Warren’s wardrobe may be his velvet waistcoat (vest), though even this is restrained with its black-on-black floral pattern. Five black four-hole buttons (likely horn) fasten the single-breasted front between the shawl collar and straight-cut bottom. The vest has a trio of jetted pockets—one upper pocket over the left breast and a lower pocket on each side. He keeps his pocket watch in one of these pockets, attached to a thick antiqued brass Albert-style chain composed of oval, medium-gauge links, finished with a stamped coin-shaped fob.

The major’s black flat-front trousers are actually part of a two-piece suit, glimpsed by the visible lapels of his jacket underneath his coat, though the jacket itself is never actually seen on its own. A Prop Store auction listing for one of Jackson’s complete screen-worn costumes includes a black two-button jacket, styled with the usual welted breast pocket and flapped hip pockets still standard on tailored lounge jackets today. The same listing refers to “black elasticated suspenders” that were likely used to hold these trousers up, though these are hardly (if ever) visible on screen as Warren only strips down to his shirt-sleeves and waistcoat for the final sequence.

He tucks the bottom of his trousers into black field boots made from smooth, lightly grained leather that has broken in naturally, showing creasing and rippling through the knee-high shafts rather than holding a rigid shape. The toes are rounded and blunt, not pointed or fashionably narrow, and the leather soles have a modest heel—built more for utility than riding flair.

Warren holsters his two Single Action Army revolvers butt-forward, cavalry-style, on a cartridge belt dyed in black over a natural vegetable-tanned leather base, which has worn to the point of showing its natural reddish-brown tones at the stress points. Worn at the waist, the belt shows hand-finished edges with decorative scalloped stitching, which continues onto the ranger-style front strap that fastens through a hefty silver-toned single-prong buckle in a softly angled octagonal shape. Cartridge loops are stitched around the sides and back, sized to hold the rimmed .45 Long Colt metallic cartridges for his six-shooters.

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The Gun

Major Warren has updated his sidearms since his celebrated Civil War service, now sporting a dual set of Single Action Army (SAA) revolvers. Colt developed this iconic revolver series in 1873, and it would be offered in at least thirty different calibers over the course of its pre-World War II timeframe. Nearly half of these were chambered in the venerable .45 Long Colt round, though Winchester centerfire (WCF) rounds like .32-20, .38-40, and .44-40 were also popular so gunmen could carry the same caliber ammunition for their six-shooters and lever rifles.

The original Single Action Army was configured with a 7½”-long barrel, known as the “Cavalry” model after the 5½”-barreled “Artillery” model was first shipped in 1874. By the end of the decade, Colt had also introduced a shorter 4¾” barrel, known alternately as the “Civilian”, “Gunfighter”, or “Quickdraw” model. Warren carries two nickel-plated 4¾”-barreled Single Action Army revolvers, though he also pairs one of his own with John Ruth’s  7½”-barreled Cavalry SAA in the other hand.

In the flashback where he leads General Smithers’ son Chester (Craig Stark) on a humiliating death march through the snow, Major Warren carries a Spencer repeating carbine. Introduced in 1860, the Spencer was the world’s first military repeating rifle to fire metallic cartridges, fed from a tubular magazine. The original Spencer was a carbine with a 22″-long barrel, later joined by a full-length rifle with a 30″ barrel.

Unlike the SAA, this is a weapon he would have been familiar with during the Civil War, as this early lever-action rifle chambered for the proprietary .56-56 Spencer rimfire cartridge was unofficially adopted by Union Army personnel like the controversial George Armstrong Custer. The Department of War initially denied a government contract for the Spencer, fearing soldiers would waste ammunition by firing too rapidly!

However, Honest Abe Lincoln was impressed with the Spencer and ordered General James Wolfe Ripley, then the Army’s Chief of Ordinance, to adopt the weapon. Due to General Ripley’s obstinance, the Navy was technically the first branch to formally adopt the Spencer, later followed by the Army after Ripley was ousted.

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What to Imbibe

After Major Warren shoots General Smithers, Tarantino’s narration explains that “Chris, John Ruth, and Oswaldo had a vigorous debate about the self-defense murder that just transpired. Major Marquis Warren, who was supremely confident about the legality of what just transpired, ignored them, sat at the table by himself, and drank brandy.”

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How to Get the Look

While much of Major Warren’s costume is specific to a war-hardened bounty hunter navigating a Western winter, the core of his look translates easily today. Start with a substantial navy wool coat layered over a statement piece—whether a velvet waistcoat or sport jacket—then keep everything else disciplined and timeless: a crisp white shirt, red tie, and plain black trousers, all familiar pieces still found in men’s closets nearly 150 years after Warren fatefully stumbled across John Ruth’s stagecoach.

And unless you’re actually collecting bounties or just have Raylan Givens’ confidence, you can leave the black cowboy hat and boots behind… but this is the time to dig out that scarf your aunt hand-knitted for you a few Christmases ago.

• Navy felted wool cavalry-inspired knee-length greatcoat with five toggle-button front, broad collar, flapped patch hip pockets, single vent, and attached cape with double braided-leather fasteners
• Black wool suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, and flapped hip pockets
  • Flat-front trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton shirt with spread collar and two-button cuffs
• Scarlet-red tie
  • Silver-framed domed oval tie-pin
• Black-on-black floral velvet single-breasted 5-button waistcoat with shawl collar, three jetted pockets, and straight-cut bottom
  • Pocket watch on antiqued brass oval-link Albert-style chain with stamped coin-like fob
• Black elasticized suspenders
• Black dyed leather gun-belt with silver-toned ranger-style buckle, metallic cartridge loops, and dual Single Action Army holsters
• Black smooth leather calf-high riding boots
• Black fur felt wide-brimmed hat with flat telescope-style crown and black grosgrain band
• Gray mixed wool broken rib-stitched scarf with fringed ends
• White leather gauntlet gloves with three-point seams

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

Move a little strange, you’re gonna get a bullet. Not a warning, not a question…a bullet!