Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing, as TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore. The ninth film from the writer-director features a large ensemble cast and multiple storylines in a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood’s golden age.
F**F
A truely personal work of cinematic storytelling art
I'm no Tarantino fan, but this movie is fantastic.It is so well crafted that it definitely stands out to be the best and longest film where nothing actually happens.That said, it is a superb account of how life was for Tarentino within the Hollywood film industry in contrast to the movie stars' private lives back in the late 60s.Arguably its a tale of 2 fictional movie guys and their strong friendship (one being a TV star elevating to feature films and a washed up stuntman who can now only be a chauffeur for the TV star). We follow their story, the ups and downs of landing a number of castings and other jobs using flashback sequences to show their progress upto the current time frame of 1969. We see how, in their private lives, they cross paths with the young women of the Manson Family cult that serendipitously leads to and embroils them in that infamouly slaughter at Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills. However, Tarantino deftly reworks the nightmare scenario. The brilliance here is the elongated tension that builds throughout culminating into that event enabling a huge amount of trepidation and expectation. Thankfully Tarantino turns the tables onto the cult members instead. It is a wild scene in and of itself and a classic Tarantino climatic coda.This is most definitely his magna opus. A true personal work of cinematic storytelling art.
C**S
Great film
Happy with quality of dvd & enjoyed the film.
B**M
A Simple film: a Complex Subject
This film has been comprehensively reviewed on its release and subsequently analysed both as a film and as a portrayal of the events of 1969. The director - as I am sure everybody knows is Quinton Tarantino, and it reflects a number of his traits as a script-writer and a director. I have watched a couple of interviews given by Tarantino concerning his intentions and I think it is important to note that during production the book by Tom O'Neill, Chaos, was published and this may have influenced the final edit. Chaos presents the cases for alternative narratives of the Manson Family murders, including a number of conspiracy theories - Tom O'Neil does not commit himself to any of these - and neither does Tarantino. However both the film and the book caste some doubt upon Helter Skelter, that is the cult/ mad/ marginal view of the Manson family - a view which was very convenient for the Hollywood film and musical elite at the time.The casting illustrates the Tarantino style:a) Rick Dalton is played by DiCaprio - a washed up, slightly aging Cowboy star and even worse a TV starb) Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, his stunt double, an ex-Korean war veteran, expert at unarmed combat, also Dalton's general factotum and driver. These characters are fictional - though perhaps based on genuine heroes of 50s and 60s TVc) Sharon Tate played by Margot Robbie - obviously a real person, both remembered and to some degree mythologizedd) Charles Manson - played by Damon Herriman, who is a bit part player in the filme) other real people, Steve McQueen played by Damien Lewis, who desires Sharon Tate, but is in the 'friend zone', and who some accounts suggests was due to visit Cielo Drive on the night of the murders; Squeaky, played by Dakota Fanning, probably much more important than the official accounts portray; George Spahn, played by Bruce Dern, owner of the Spahn ranch, the usual, but not only place of abode of the Manson family; Bruce Lee played by Mike Moah, before stardom and who taught Sharon Tate some martial arts for her role in The Wrecking Crew, a Mat Helm (Dean Martin), comedy spy-spoothf) some fictional characters, James Stacey played by Timothy Oliphant, as the new kid on the block, who is displacing Dalton as a TV hero; Al Pacino as Schwarz, an agent who saves Dalton's ailing careerg) Composite characters - Pussycat, played by Maya Hawke, who represents a number of the Manson womenh) people who were not there - Sam Wannamaker played by Nicholas Hammond, who had relocated to England because he was suspected of being a Communist sympathiserThe film is often described as mixing fact and fiction, but in fact the scenes involving Sharon Tate either happened or are the things a Hollywood starlet might do; those involving Booth and Dalton are fictionalI have not seen this mentioned, but is it an accident that Booth might refer to John Wilkes Booth and Dalton to one of the Dalton gang?The film was made in 2019 exactly 50 years after the Cielo Drive massacre - surely not a coincidence. Tarantino seems to have sought and gained the approval of the Tate family for his portrayal of Sharon Tate.What happens? The first part of the film represents events dated to February 1969. We see Tate enjoying hanging out with celebrities, dancing, partying, going to see her own film (The Wrecking Crew), inhaling marijuana, socialising with Sebring, a former partner and hair-stylist, spending some time with Roman Polanski, her jet-setting superstar director husband, sleeping in late - in short enjoying the hedonistic life-style of 60s Los Angeles. Meanwhile in another Hollywood, not too far away, the jobbing actor Dalton and his stunt double Booth are auditioning for bit parts in TV westerns, net-working with agents, what today would be called 'influencers' and not getting very far. This is in fact what Charlie Manson was attempting to do throughout 1967 and 1968. These two worlds are brought together in a scene in which Booth repairs Dalton's ariel in his house on Cielo Drive which overlooks the Polanski-Tate home, when Charlie wanders up the drive and knocks on the door, which is answered by Sebring. Manson asks if he can see Terry Melcher (producer of both the Beachboys and Byrds), to be told he has moved - and that is all you see of him. The scene also highlights the fact that 'Tex', the main perpetrator of the killings fired numerous bullets on the night of the murders - bullets which were either not heard or taken to be fire-crackers by neighbours.In these scenes you find out that Dalton once lived in better times, and he owns his house on Cielo Drive because of his past earnings and he can barely pay Booth anymore. You find out a lot of the money has gone on an expensive Hollywood divorce. Booth may have solved the divorce problem - Hollywood gossip claims he killed his ex-wife, and a flash-back shows them on a yacht, arguing and Booth waving a harpoon gun. The audience also finds out that Booth is a stunt double because of his training in the Korean War, in a scene where he fights Bruce Lee. In interview Tarantino states that Lee was well known for actually striking other stuntmen and was as a consequence not very popular.Booth runs into members of the Manson family all over Hollywood. 'Pussycat' thumbs a lift, and makes it clear that sex is not simply on the agenda, but will be given away. Booth realises she is jail-bait, but when he finds out she lives on the Spahn ranch he insists on visiting as the ranch was the scene of many episodes of the TV series starring Dalton. He therefore knows George Spahn. He has a hostile reception, runs into Squeaky, who states George is alright as she "****** his brains out last night". He speaks to George, who is happy with this, but finds his car vandalised when he returns. He punches one of the male Family members (I think this is Clem, who was involved in some of the murders), forces him to repair the car and leaves. The scene accurately reflects the situation in Spahn ranch - it had a staff of ranchers, hired out horses to tourists and guided tours around the California hills. The Family tended the horses (Charlie liked horses more than he liked people), and most importantly people came and went. The Family were not a cult as the term is usually understood - lots of people freely joined and left.The second part of the film occurs in August 1969. Booth and Dalton eventually strike it lucky - Schwarz (Al Pacino) gets Dalton a staring role in a series of films in Italy, made by "the second best Spaghetti Western director". Dalton earns enough to sustain the house on Cielo Drive, pay off his debts, including to Booth. Tate and Polanski go off to Europe where Polanski is directing another film. Tate returns heavily pregnant, goes for a meal with some friends, and they return to Cielo Drive. Meanwhile Tex, Linda Kasabian, Pat Krenwinkel and Susan Aitkens are sent by Charlie to punish the inhabitants of Terry Melcher's old home. So far fact or at least as close to fact as we are likely to get. Thereafter a fictional ending. Dalton sees a car outside of his home - goes out to challenge its occupants. Tex decides to change Charlie's plan and kill Dalton and the occupants of his household with very different results. What follows is violent and may be intended to reflect the violence that occurred within the Polanski/Tate home. The murder of Sharon Tate has been portrayed on film and TV several times and Tarantino has stated that he wanted to respect her memory and the feelings of her family.There are some important structural elements within this film, all of which involve 'mirroring', and they may all relate to the central plot of fiction mirroring real events:a) Dalton and Booth mirror each other - Booth might be the man all men would like to be and Dalton how man actually are; Booth might be 'old' Hollywood and Dalton its 'new' facsimile; both explanations fall foul of the inconvenient fact that Booth is accused of killing his ex-wife - I think it is likely that Tarantino may mean to convey that old Hollywood is full of secrets and scandal, but so is new (he was in the process of cutting his ties with Harvey Weinstein at the time).b) the actors playing Polanski and Manson look very similar and in real life both were/are short men - Steve McQueen says in the film that Tate had a penchant for short men. Polanski is of course the subject of considerable animosity within Hollywood and particularly with the MeToo movementc) Most interestingly is the portrayal of Sharon Tate, as a naïve girl-child with very few lines and somewhat childish joys, and this seems to be contrasted with the prematurely adult Trudi Fraser played by Julia Butters, who was ten at the time. In what is I think the best scene in the film, Trudi is studiously learning her lines, while Dalton is reading a book, and they engage in a conversation as equals, indeed Dalton learns something about acting from Trudi. It raises questions about whether Hollywood infantilises its female stars and whether it prematurely ages its child stars; it may reflect upon how the studio stars were being swept away by 'the new wave' in the late 60s or indeed how Hollywood might be sweeping away 'the old' and replacing it with movies made 'for the modern audience' at present.Subsequent to seeing the film I have read Jeff Guinn, Manson: the life and times of Charles Manson, 2013, which tries to put these events into the social and political context of Sixties California and provides considerable background upon Manson's early life in West Virginia. It describes how Charlie used Helter Skelter to manipulate family members, but puts forward a different and in some sense of the word 'rational' explanation for the killings.
P**S
Quentin Tarantino's wonderfully evocative film - all the better for seeing again and again!
I first watched this film at the cinema and had rather mixed feelings about it at the time, but watching it again on this DVD has brought home to me how really brilliant Once Upon A Time in ... Hollywood is.Before initially seeing the film at the cinema, I had expected it to be about the Manson family killings at the home of Sharon Tate and being a Tarantino film would be quite violent and gory. How wrong could I be? Instead we have a film that focuses on a tv series actor, Rick Dalton, who is grappling with coming to terms that his career and popularity is waning and who just happens to live next door to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski on Cielo Drive in Hollywood. So, I came out of the cinema with slightly mixed feelings as my expectations had led me to expect something completely different. However, I am so glad I bought this DVD version as it has enabled me to watch the film again (and again) and marvel at its many strengths, many of which I missed the first time around.Once Upon A Time in ... Hollywood has a really authentic feel about what Los Angeles and Hollywood must have been like in 1969 with its hippy culture, movie theatres, restaurant style bars, clothes, cars, Playboy mansion parties, etc. There are many different references, some more oblique than others, to the period, such as the film posters, the black and white television shows, the ads that interrupt the music on car radio stations, depictions of film genres that were so popular at the time (e.g. Spaghetti Westerns, Kung-Fu martial arts action movies, etc.) and, of course, the music of the period (the Mamas and Papas, Deep Purple, Simon & Garfunkel, Jose Feliciano, Neil Diamond, etc).In addition, the lead actors are brilliant, creating totally believable characters: Brad Pitt as stuntman double Cliff Booth has deservedly received most of the plaudits but I think Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton and Margo Robbie as Sharon Tate are equally outstanding, as are a whole host of other famous actors who appear in the film (such as Al Pacino, Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell to name just a few).In addition, many of the scenes are so memorable but for different reasons; the brief but chilling appearance of Charles Manson as seen by a shirtless Cliff Booth who is fixing a t.v. aerial on the roof of Rick Dalton's home; the hilarious scene where Cliff Booth disagrees with Bruce Lee, Cliff Booth's visit to the Spahn Ranch where the Manson Family are living, and the tension created as the dramatic and bloody, climax approaches when Tex, Sadie and other members of the Mason Family start walking up Cielo Drive on that fateful dark, misty night.So, if you haven't seen the film or want to see it again, I highly recommend getting this DVD, turning the house lights down low and the sound volume up and let Once Upon A Time in ... Hollywood take you back to the late nineteen sixties - and if, like me, you were lucky enough to have been around at this time, let it bring back all those long forgotten memories of life in one's younger, carefree days. Thank you Quentin Tarantino for such a wonderfully evocative film.
C**T
classic.
brilliant film, liked it better the second time round.
M**T
Brilliant
As always with Tarantino, if you like it you'll probably love this offering
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