Hateful Eight (Jennifer Jason Leigh) “Jim Jones at Botany Bay“

Jennifer Jason Leigh beautifully plays “Jim Jones at Botany Bay“ in the awesome crime/mystery movie ’The Hateful Eight’ by Quentin Tarantino. (2015) “Jim Jones at Botany Bay“ is a traditional Australian folk ballad dating from the early 19th-century. The narrator, Jim Jones, is found guilty of poaching and sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales. En route, his ship is attacked by pirates, but the crew holds them off. When the narrator remarks that he would rather have joined the pirates or indeed drowned at sea than gone to Botany Bay (the place of arrival for convict ships in Sydney, and an alternative name for the settlement itself), he is reminded by his captors that any mischief will be met with the whip. In the final verse, Jones describes the daily drudgery and degradation of life as a convict in Australia, and dreams of joining the bushrangers (escaped convicts turned outlaws) and taking revenge on his floggers. Australian folklorists such as Bill Scott date the song’s compos