I just got finished watching Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood. I actually watched the first hour of it earlier in the week. In general I don't make a habit of splitting movies into two or more nights. But this one is pretty long--about two hours plus another three quarters--and I figured I could get more out of it if I were awake for the whole thing.
More openly than he ever has before, Quentin Tarantino returns to his childhood here. The pastiches, the music, the characters drawn from media of the late 1960s. They're all things that were in the air during his formative years. Which I recognize because much of it is mine as well. He's seven years older than I am, but that's just a few rounds of syndication for a show in reruns. But yeah, the yellow TV-style closing credits give it away.
Much of it is a hangout show featuring Leonard DiCaprio's fragile prima donna actor and Brad Pitt's self-possessed stuntman/chauffeur/companion. But there's tension here, because the movie also involves the Manson family. Their presence brings part of it into the realm of thriller, if not horror. In a move that's not too surprising coming from Tarantino, the Manson matter is resolved in a different manner from actual recorded history, but it's still pretty damn gory. Anyway, the extended mid-film sequence built around Cliff's visit to the Spahn ranch is a highlight.
There's a pretty good joke built onto the end of the end credits. Hate to think how many theatregoers missed that one because they didn't stick around.
2 comments:
It won't surprise you to know we watched Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood too - not recently, but not all that long ago either. We did, however, watch all of it at once (an early dinner that evening) and by the time it finished we didn't watch the end credits. Now that you've pointed out there was something of interest there I've found an article describing the Apple cigarette commercial that poor Rick Dalton was reduced to making once his career had slid so far. It's a fact there have been a number of actors who never had the success they hoped for early on.
Unlike you and Quentin Tarantino, Jer and I were full grown adults during that era and much of the film felt false (and I don't mean the last half hour or so when the history was changed so completely by Tarantino that his ending was far happier than the horror we remembered). I must say that our overall impression was that it was boring despite the fact that technically the film was very well made and contains great cinematography along with some very good performances. I think I wouldn't be far wrong in saying for both of us our favorite character was the dog.
I have to mention one thing in particular. We thought the fight scene between Brad Pitt's character Cliff and Bruce Lee was in bad taste especially in view of the fact Lee was a martial arts legend. He even trained American stuntmen. Maybe a scene like it was essential to the plot but it seemed very disrespectful to Bruce Lee's memory to have that being the reason Cliff was blacklisted.
I do agree with you that Cliff's visit to the Spahn ranch was good.
No, it doesn't really surprise me that you'd seen it. I think we'd talked about Tarantino recently. But yeah, if I have a movie in the DVD player I'll likely let it play out. The end bit caught my attention, naturally.
The dog's a natural, I certainly can't argue with you there. It sounds like I ended up enjoying the movie more than you did. There are some things that I might not have put up with if I didn't believe I was in skilled hands. Like the sudden slapstick nature of the Manson family attacks at the end could have been off-putting, but he has a way with black humor like that.
The flashback scene with Bruce Lee was an oddball. I had to wonder if Cliff's memories were self-serving in that instance. The director's wife wanted him gone from the set because she thought he'd killed his wife, so it wouldn't surprise me if she'd had her way and he'd blown up the Bruce Lee fight to save face in his mind.
The history of the Spahn Ranch is darkly fascinating. Not surprisingly the movie wasn't actually shot there. In fact the ranch doesn't properly exist anymore, having been subsumed into California's park system. Tarantino filmed at Corriganville, which used to be owned by Crash Corrigan. It's also a park now, but has more of its old features.
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