After the release of Tarantino’s latest film Once upon a Time in Hollywood’s trailer in May, Tarantino fans anxiously anticipated the release of the 60’s-set film.
The movie stars Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, a real life actress murdered by Charles Manson’s “family,” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio who plays fictional actor Rick Dalton, whose 50’s fame is fading when Sharon Tate moves in next door.
Brad Pitt plays Cliff Booth, and while most believe he is the film’s real main character, Pitt plays as Rick Dalton’s best friend, stunt man, and his errand boy.
The almost-three-hour film starts by showing different aspects of both Dalton’s and Tate’s very different lives. Dalton’s stardom seems to be coming to an end; he begins mourning the loss of his super fame, believing he is washed up. While Dalton is embracing his self-pity, Sharon Tate’s career in Hollywood is just beginning.
Into the first half of the movie, Booth shows interest in a girl who hitchhikes with some of her friends in the city. After passing on offering her rides a few times, Booth pulls over and asks where she’s headed. When she tells him she needs to get to Spahn Ranch, where she and the rest of Charles Manson’s “family” lived, he doesn’t hesitate to take her. Things begin to fall into place when it’s mentioned that the ranch was the movie set where Booth and Dalton used to work side by side.
When Booth arrives at the old movie set, he asks to see its owner, George Spahn. The tone of the movie changes from light-hearted and funny to Tarantino’s usual dark and intense theme in a matter of a few scenes as Booth walks back to his car after making sure Spahn knew these people had taken over his ranch, and realizes the family members had slashed his tires.
Blood and violence (which we expect in a Tarantino film) finally makes its way into the movie as Cliff beats the man who damaged his car until the man agrees to change the tires. By the time Manson’s second in command, Tex (played by Austin Butler), trots down to the scene, Booth is driving away, only coming into contact with them once more during the film’s ending.
The real world story goes that Manson and his family went to Tate’s house, searching for one of his old friends. When he finds out Tate and her successful, filmmaker husband, Roman Polanski, live there, Manson returns with murder on his mind. Polanski not being there at the time, Manson and his family murdered Tate and her visiting friends, smearing their blood on walls and brutally cutting the unborn child from Tate’s womb.
Tarantino’s twist in the movie is that Manson never made an appearance in this scene, and the entire murder was spontaneous. Oh, they also didn’t even try to get into Tate’s house—they aimed for Dalton’s, recognizing him after they had driven into the wrong neighborhood and Dalton yelled at them outside.
Booth, who was also at Dalton’s residence when Tex and a few females went into Dalton’s with the intention of murder, had just taken LSD and was not mentally aware of what was happening as he beats and kills the intruders with the help of his faithful dog. He emerges with a stab wound, while the three Manson family members are dead.
But the most iconic scene of the film is when Dalton is interrupted during his pool time by one of the female Manson family members. He tricks her into nearly drowning, pulls out a flamethrower he kept from a previous film role, and torches her. Classic Tarantino.
While the newest Tarantino certainly changes the course of history and offers plenty of interesting twists, it is unlike many other Tarantino films. Many fans were upset at the lack of gratuitous gore and violence, which is undoubtedly present in his other films, such as Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.
Maybe after reading this you’ll have to take a trip to 60’s Hollywood through Tarantino’s Once upon a Time in Hollywood.