The Guitar Destroyed in THE HATEFUL EIGHT Was Actually on Loan From a Museum

After seeing their 146-year-old Martin guitar destroyed on screen by Kurt Russell in The Hateful Eight, C.F. Martin and Co. is pissed. Reverb says museum director Dick Boak, who loaned the guitar to Quentin Tarantino and crew was originally told the guitar was destroyed due to an "on set accident." Now having seen the film, Boak is more upset about how the "accident" came to be.

“We assumed that a scaffolding or something fell on it. We understand that things happen, but at the same time we can’t take this lightly. All this about the guitar being smashed being written into the script and that somebody just didn’t tell the actor, this is all new information to us. We didn’t know anything about the script or Kurt Russell not being told that it was a priceless, irreplaceable artifact from the Martin Museum.”

Money has been paid, but Boak says the loss is immeasurable. It isn't about the money, it's about the meaning of history, and of a guitar being kept in great condition for that long. The time and effort on upkeep alone makes it priceless.

I don't think Boak is in the wrong for being upset, and I do agree the circumstances are suspect. We hear on set stories all the time of how something was changed to elicit a real response from the actors, and given the scene and circumstance... I wouldn't be surprised if someone "forgot" to tell Russell it wasn't a prop.

I really hope that's not the case, given that Quentin Tarantino is such an advocate for the preservation of classic films and what-not. It would be really dickish to demand respect for the old ways of your genre while ignoring others.