Realism matters when making a film, but sometimes the pursuit of authenticity can have unexpected consequences. That was certainly the case on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, when a rare 1870 Martin was brought onto the set for a scene in which Kurt Russell’s character smashes a guitar against a wooden support.
The incident occurs when John “the Hangman” Ruth, played by Russell, becomes angry with the guitar playing of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Daisy Domergue. He takes the acoustic guitar from her and smashes it against a wooden support, to Leigh’s very real shock and dismay.
The story at the time of the film’s 2015 release was that a prop guitar had been prepared for the scene. Russell was supposed to mime destroying the vintage instrument, at which point Tarantino would yell “cut” and a dummy guitar would be substituted for the destruction. But, allegedly, a miscommunication resulted in Russell destroying the actual vintage Martin.
Dick Boak doesn’t believe it. Boak was Martin’s in-house historian at the time of the filming. In a new interview with the Gear Gab Podcast with Eric Dahl, he suggests the destruction may not have been an accident after all.
“Tarantino filmed it at night on purpose so that the guitar tech wouldn’t be there,” Boak claims. “He [the tech] had gone home, and they never brought the papier-mâché guitars out. They just had the regular guitar.
“She [Leigh] played her little thing, and Kurt Russell grabbed it out of her hands. Tarantino wanted to get the genuine reaction out of her. And yeah, he did. I’ll never forget it, you know — the reaction on her face and everything from that.”
The incident divided opinion among the personnel at Martin. Upon learning that a 145-year-old acoustic had been destroyed, Boak says he “was so upset,” and even “thought I would even get fired over this.”
Chris Martin, the firm’s then-CEO, however, viewed the incident more positively.
“He was terrific,” Boak recalls. “He said, ‘It’s fantastic. It’s going to be in a famous movie. The publicity value in the movie is greater than the guitar could ever be.”
Pre-war Martins are an extremely rare commodity in the 21st century. That’s why, when Joe Bonamassa discovered a “museum-grade” 1941 Martin, he called it “the honor of a lifetime.” For context, the guitar Kurt Russell destroyed was 70 years older. A 19th-century Martin could be worth as much as $15,000 today.
But Chris Martin was right. The story boosted the brand’s profile, and the remains of the guitar became a curiosity in their own right. At NAMM 2024, the remnants were put on display at the Martin booth for visitors to admire — and perhaps wince at.
Authenticity has long been important to filmmakers, even when it comes at a cost. That’s why, when filming the Oscar-winning Sinners, composer Ludwig Göransson scoured the globe for 1930s Dobro guitars.
A 2024 interview with Russell offered further insight into the guitar’s unexpected afterlife. He revealed that Leigh had been drawn to the 1870 Martin and had used it to practice the folk tune “Jim Jones at Botany Bay” ahead of filming.
“No one ever said it was 145 years old,” he said. “It was [just] a Martin. Then comes the day to shoot it, and I couldn’t imagine they were going to use that guitar.”
“When we did the take, you can even see it. I kind of give it an extra beat,” he adds. And it’s true: Russell can be seen looking off set, seemingly waiting for a nod of approval before swinging the guitar violently into a wooden pillar.
“I go ahead and smash the guitar,” he continues. “When I grab her and sit her down, I can tell she’s not happy about this. It’s like: Something’s wrong. So as soon as it’s over, I say, ‘Tell me that’s not the guitar you’ve been practicing with,’ and she [nods].
“I only felt bad about that [Leigh being upset],” he adds. “I didn’t give a shit about the guitar.”
If the guitar was worth $15,000 in one piece, its story has apparently caused its value to skyrocket to around $40,000-$45,000 — at least according to Russell. Not bad for what is essentially a pile of wooden debris.
Still, it has a long way to go before it eclipses Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E as the world’s most expensive acoustic guitar. Cobain’s guitar sold at auction for $6.01 million in 2020. Only three guitars have sold for more, and all three were part of Jim Irsay’s bumper auction last November.
