Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood set in 1969 Hollywood and focuses primarily on Rick Dalton, an actor at the sunset of his career. Rick, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is floundering, a drunk and reliant on his best friend and stunt double Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt. This is not to say Cliff has his act together. On the contrary, he is nigh unemployable due to the suspicious death of his wife. The duo bobs along together, trying to keep themselves afloat.

Mingled within the tale of Dalton and Booth is the real-life thread of the Polanski’s and the timeline leading up to the death of Sharon Tate. Rafal Zawierucha and Margo Robbie were cast as the infamous couple. In this storyline, audiences get a glimpse into the Hollywood scene at the time. Most notably, a party at the Playboy Mansion where we get exposition from a convincing portrayal of Steve McQueen by Damian Lewis.

I went into the theater with certain expectations. Without question, I was going to squirm uncomfortably when bare feet were waggled in front of the camera. There was almost certainly going to be at least one blood bath and intense action sequences. The script was going to be filled with raw and punchy dialog. Don’t forget nods to the spaghetti western subgenre.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood delivered all of Tarantino’s signature elements in spades. So many foot shots. I shudder even thinking about it now. But one thing it didn’t fully deliver on was enjoyment and entertainment. I’m struggling to come up with a way to convey how the movie left me feeling.

There was a lot stuffed into the two hours and forty-minute film, but there wasn’t always something going on. The pacing of the film slogged along to the point where I started checking my watch. That might be part of the problem I’m having with unpacking everything. I’m not one to shy away from or blatantly avoid long movies. The extended run time didn’t benefit the storytelling at all. This opened up to having three concurrent storylines playing out on the silver screen.

The first was Tarantino paying homage and lip service to old Hollywood. The writer-director has made passing reference to spaghetti westerns and other classic movies. Once Upon a Time comes across as the gory, violent sibling of La La Land. Which, maybe I wouldn’t have minded if things had been edited differently.

The other two stories are sewn together poorly to make the “What if” scenario step into the big screen. I would have been more than content to sit and watch the story of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth play out without the insertion of the Polanski/Manson family story. DiCaprio and Pitt have fantastic chemistry. Both actors bring their own version of the inept anti-hero to show a genuine and fascinating relationship.

Adam and I debated on the way home if these two characters were in a closeted gay relationship. Adam thought yes, but I wasn’t so sure. There is a deep-seated love and affection the two men have for each other, which is made plain as day throughout the movie. But, from where I was sitting, it didn’t seem like a wholly romantic. I felt it was a robust platonic relationship.

Both Adam and my impressions are born from the bi-directional codependency element of their friendship. And that means either one of us could be right or it was just left up to the audience’s interpretation. Either way, they are fascinating.

That cannot be said of the characters in the Manson side of the story. All of them seemed like an afterthought. Margo Robbie’s role as Sharon Tate was reduced to a girl who liked to dance, revel in her own minor celebrity and take her shoes off in a public place. It is as if Tarantino assumed the audience ‘s knowledge of the incident would be able to fill in the blanks. Which pulled me right out of the movie because I am not overly familiar with the details of the murders.

With the movie being pulled in China, there has been a fresh buzz in the media. Tarantino has come out and refused to recut the film and bow to the country’s demand. The scene with Booth and Bruce Lee is the boiling point of contention. There is a lot of criticism about how Tarantino portrayed the martial arts master.

The scene in question is a flashback while Booth is fixing an antenna. He and Lee get into a fight on set. Cliff appears calm and laid back while Lee is portrayed as cocky and buying into his own fame. The two tussle and Booth holds his own to the point of bringing Lee down a peg or two before they are caught.

This is a work of fiction and one that takes place in an alternate 1969s Hollywood, so there is a creative license to take into account. I’m not excusing the writer-director here. The scene was intentionally added, although it was edited from the original intent after discussion with Pitt. It was a misstep and certainly an unnecessary one. Tarantino did not clarify from the outset the hyper-fictionalized realism of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this becomes gross misrepresentation of the real man being ridiculed.

The flashback would have served its purpose in highlighting Booth’s skills by inserting a mouthy and confident regular stuntman. Bruce Lee didn’t need to be added here. It just seemed to be a lament and a post mortem jab at martial arts for replacing the Western as the “it” action genre.

His portrayal of women in his latest installment is confusing. His most interesting female character in the film was Booth’s dog, Brandy. He spent more time fleshing out her character than any woman in the story, including those who were based on actual people. While I certainly enjoyed Brandy’s contribution to the story, this departure from the female characters he inserts into his storytelling left me kind of flat. Was it an intentional commentary on the time in which the film was set? Was this feedback from the Me Too movement in which he was pulled into? I would hope that its the former rather than the latter but I am not sure.

Art is supposed to leave us asking questions. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood certainly left me with many. Almost too many. It was weird leaving the theater in a fog. I would still recommend going to see the film, but I’d probably brush up on the Manson family a bit before you go.

Just as I was about to hit post on this one, I happened to come across an article announcing Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is getting a re-release with ten extra minutes added. I didn’t click in to see if there were any details about what was going to be added. The idea piques my curiosity, but I think I’ll wait to see what the difference is at home.