The 145-Year-Old Martin Guitar Kurt Russell Smashed on the Set of the Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarintino’s The Hateful Eight is a master piece neo-Western movie with a stacked cast, intriguing plot, and his quintessential smooth-talking dialogue. Bottom line, it’s a great movie and performed well during awards season and at the box office. However, some devout music lovers view the movie as problematic, and it’s thanks to the destruction of a music relic.

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For a bit a context, Martin & Company is the most reputable brand of acoustic guitars on the market. Since its founding in 1833, nearly every single major musician has played a Martin Guitar because, well, they’re the best.

That being so, Tarantino wanted to feature a historically accurate and reputable guitar in his film. So, he successfully procured a 145-year-old Martin guitar on loan from the Martin museum in order to use it as a prop in The Hateful Eight. However, thanks to a grave mistake, that guitar never made it back to the museum.

An Accident or a Directorial Decision—What Happened to the Martin?

In the film, Kurt Russell’s character snatches the guitar away from Jennifer Jason Lee’s character and breaks it into a thousand pieces. Though, before Russell broke the guitar, the props department planned on switching out the priceless Martin with a prop. Matter of fact, the prop team made six doubles to ensure this wouldn’t happen. However, it didn’t, and Russell went on recalling that Tarantino told him to keep acting no matter what.

Regarding the smashing of the priceless musical relic, Russell recalled, “On that day, I said, ‘How far do you want me to go?’ [Tarantino] said, ‘Just go until I say stop.’” “I said, ‘So if you don’t say stop I smash the guitar?’ He said, ‘Yep, great, just keep going.’” Russell continued, “I just kept going and going and going, and I took the thing and I said the line—music time’s over, or whatever it was – and I said, yeah, he wants me to smash it, so I smashed the guitar,” concluded Russell per Focus.

That is exactly what Russell did, and when his character did the deed, Leigh was stunned. It is unclear if this was an accident or a deliberate decision, though, regardless, Martin guitar was furious. So furious that they stated they would never lend another guitar to a film again, and they haven’t since, nor will they likely never again.

AOL BUILD Series: Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, And Demian Bichir “The Hateful Eight” via Getty Images