Film Review: "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" ****

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood ****

First of all… let me say this loud and clear: This review contains SPOILERS! Lots of them. I think in order to talk about this particular film, you have to talk about the ending of the film. It is not possible to discuss the depth and point of the film without it. So, you have been warned! 

“This just may be my masterpiece.” - Lt. Aldo Raine, Inglorious Bastards.

Quentin Tarantino, long known as the bad boy of Hollywood, a director who was willing to push the envelope of filmmaking in every way he could (narratively, structurally, how many homages he could jam into one film, violence, nonsensical but whimsical dialogue), has finally grown up. I believe Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood to be his most mature film. I do mean it as a compliment much more than I mean it as an insult to his previous works. Quentin’s energy and enthusiasm for cinema fueled all of his earlier films. There was a childish joy and abandonment to how he created and structured his stories. As a result, he has made some masterpieces (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol 2, Django Unchained) and some interesting stylistic experiments (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill Vol 1, Inglorious Bastards). Even his one film that I despised, The Hateful Eight, I found wonderfully shot and paced. But in those films, there is also at times the voice of an adolescent. A film nut who is sad that we do not always recognize his genius. Look at the grandiose statements in Inglorious Bastards: “Americans do not respect their directors,” “this just may be my masterpiece,” and even cinema kills Hitler. Yet, in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, I think he’s done something much more mature. He approaches his subject not from the nostalgia and joy of a fan boy, but rather, from the perspective of a lover of classic cinema and for once a critic. 

The film begins with flare, two friends, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) riding in a car intercut with Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) and his young wife, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) arriving in an airport to a flank of paparazzi. The intercut suggests a connection between these two pairs of characters. Indeed there is. Although Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate are never developed as characters, they represent the fame that both Rick and Cliff crave. There is a suggestion that Cliff is the “house wife” of Rick, the artist and the person who goes along with the artist. With that idea, the film then slowly builds. This is Tarantino’s most methodical and least paced film; I think it’s brilliant. 

Tarantino doesn’t recreate the time or era in which the film is set, but rather, he recreates how Hollywood portrayed that day-in-age. The use of the projection screen while driving at times evokes Hitchcock and other directors who famously used them in car sequences. 

Rick, as played by Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his best performances, is a mess of a man. He is pathetic and we are meant to understand that. He stutters because his life is falling apart. He once starred in a TV show, Bounty Law, but those days are long since past. In the beginning of the movie, he meets Al Pacino’s Marvin Schwarzs, a film producer, who reveals to Rick in a brutal sequence that his dreams are behind him. Rick can no longer play the hero, but only use his fame as the character from the Bounty Law to land roles as a villain who always loses. The realization to Rick is devastating and true. Playing up his pathetic qualities, Rick cannot drive. Cars, often seen as a euphemism for male genitals, are not in his control anymore. He can’t use them. His house is decorated with posters of his previous films. Even his driveway has a painting of himself. Here is a man whose life is not what he dreamed it would be and cannot control his rage and sadness and so tries to surround himself by the fantasy that he has had a great career. 

Rick is made even more pathetic by needing Cliff. Cliff is his stunt double, who once had a career, doing what “men are supposed to do”, but is nothing anymore. Notice in the opening interview on set that the reporter asks Rick to explain what Cliff does. That’s how unimportant Cliff is. As a result, Cliff’s only dream in life comes from being close to the approximation of greatness. He needs to be at Rick’s side. Willing to drive him anywhere he needs to go. Willing to repair his antenna when it breaks, even willing to save the day. He stores his drugs at Rick’s house because he doesn’t think getting high at home would  be good for him. He wants to live there. He needs Rick to be anyone and by extension, Rick needs him to remind himself that there are people lower than him. A quotation from one of William Faulkner’s novels Absalom, Absalom comes to mind: “Colonel Sutpen was not a man who could stand his own company.” This is true about Rick. When he is by himself, he realizes how low he is… only when Cliff is around, does he feel that he is worth something. 

To emphasize this, compare the two homes that Rick and Cliff live in. Rick lives in the heart of Hollywood, next to Roman Polanski (“the hottest director in town”) who he hopes will notice him. Another dream. Then we see Cliff’s … trailer… Quentin Tarantino has a love for disgusting trailers and this one rivals Budd’s from Kill Bill Vol 2. It is a nasty, disgusting place. No wonder Cliff likes being around Rick. One of the best shots in the film comes when Cliff is driving home and we realize he lives outside of Hollywood, next to an oil rig, but behind a drive-in movie theater. As the camera cranes up and over the movie theater, we see the projector, projecting directly into the audiences’ eyes. We are blinded by the light. We are meant to understand that Hollywood is a fantasy that keeps people from dealing with the reality in front of them. It allows people to dream big. Dreams that in reality are never going to come true, and thus, when they don’t, the heartbreak and heartache and anger come. 

Another such instance of a fantasy occurs when Tarantino does a fascinating thing with the character of Bruce Lee (Mike Moh). I understand the criticism involved with how Bruce Lee is portrayed. He is portrayed in Cliff’s flashback as an asshole who loses a fight to an untrained white man. Bruce Lee was/is one of the greatest fighters ever. He would not lose a fight to Cliff. So why is this sequence in the film? I think Tarantino is again telling us to realize that this flashback is indeed a fantasy. The damage to the car is ridiculous as is the conversation with Janet, a producer, after the fight. When we see Bruce in other sequences working with Sharon Tate or someone else, they are joyous and happy. It seems like because Cliff uses this fantasy to pull up his own masculinity; he sees his “victory” over Bruce Lee as being worthy of losing his job. 

Now I don’t want to play out that their relationship is solely masochistic. They also do care about each other. There is a genuinely affection for each other that has morphed over time into an unhealthy codependency. The sequences of the two of them hanging out feel real, as if two friends are simply spending time together. 

In the middle of the story, two arches begin to take shape. The first is Cliff’s journey to Charles Manson’s home at Spahn Ranch. Ironic that it is a run down old western film lot; a place where dreams used to be made, but now, is populated by the demented children of Charles Manson. Quentin Tarantino wisely chooses not to put Charles on screen for more than a moment, but instead focuses on the effect he had on others. Before Cliff picks up the hitchhiking Pussycat (Margaret Qualley), he sees her sitting in front of a building whose sign reads “Pandora’s Box”. Exploring the destruction of dreams is unleashing horrific events on everyone. The scene where Cliff goes to the ranch is one of Tarantino’s best as well as one of Brad Pitt’s amazing acting moments. Cliff demands to see George (Bruce Dern), who owns Spahn ranch, and they used to know each other. The resulting conversation between the two reveals another man, George, who is living in a fantasy. He believes that Squeaky Fromme (who will go on to attempt to assassinate President Ford) actually loves him. We know, she doesn’t. 

These scenes are juxtaposed against Rick acting in one more TV special where he is playing the villain. DiCaprio may never have been a better actor than in this scene. In the first sequence, he acts so poorly we recognize that Rick is indeed a bad actor. It is so hard to portray a bad actor without acting badly yourself. He does it masterfully. To recognize that we believe this is a fantasy, Quentin Tarantino doesn’t show the crew members filming the scene, but rather, shoots it as if it is actually happening, until a voice comes from off screen telling Rick he missed a line.We believe the fantasy, but his poor acting pulls him/us out of it. After enduring that horrible string of moments, Rick returns to his trailer and has a breakdown that is beautifully executed. Cut quickly to show the different emotions raging through him. Prior to this sequence, he talks to a young girl playing a role in the film and that is some of the best writing that Quentin has ever done. The scene following his breakdown is with the little girl. Rick does a brilliant job in acting with her. This is not an unreal development. It’s not like Rick in one scene is a different person than in the other. But here, he is channeling his own demons. This is the first time we see the light in Rick that would have made him a good actor, but it simply was not to be. He cries afterwards knowing that he isn’t going to achieve what he wanted. His dream is dying. 

Even when Rick achieves some form of his dream, traveling to Italy to make Spaghetti Westerns, being followed by the Paparazzi, even coming back with an Italian wife, there is something missing. It isn’t fulfilling. He has still failed. Yet, to let us know that he is “achieving his dream” his return sequence is shot almost identically to the Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate entrance in the beginning of the film. He finally has it… too bad he still is so angry. 

Then, the movie takes an interesting turn. It is the night of the Manson families’ attack and suddenly a voice over begins. The voice over tracks the exact movements and time of Sharon Tate and her four friends as well as Rick and Cliff on the night of the murders. It feels more like a documentary than a film. The night gets closer to the murders and then Cliff starts smoking a cigarette laced with acid and the voice over suddenly stops. We all know what happens historically. The Manson family break in and murder a pregnant Sharon Tate and all of her friends. That horrific crime… doesn’t happen in this film. Instead, we get a fantasy sequence. Tarantino playing his cards close doesn’t reveal that it is fantasy. When the Manson gang invades Rick’s home rather than Sharon Tate’s it appears to be alternate history. But then, the fight happens. The fight is as gory… well no… it’s not Kill Bill but it is violent and comic. When one of the Manson gang who has had her nose crushed, been devoured by a dog, stabbed, runs out into the pool screaming, Rick, who was lazily relaxing in his pool, runs to the shed and produces a flamethrower from the garage. The one he used in a movie he made and we have seen previously. If anyone thinks that this is real at this point… you may be as high as Cliff was when this sequence occurred. 

Throughout the movie, Quentin letts the characters lie before showing us the truth in a quick cut. For example, Rick saying that his car is in the shop so he’s getting a lift from Cliff. It then cuts to Rick in a drunk driving crash which permanently lost him his license. Again, the fantasy is what is important. And here, at the end, the ultimate fantasy happens. After the Manson gang has failed and been brutally stopped by Rick and Cliff, Rick meets one of Sharon’s friends at the gate of her house. Her friend recognizes him and tells him how much he loves Bounty Law. Rick becomes the recognizable star he always sought to be. The movie ends with him going into Sharon’s house while being praised for being a hero and being accepted by Hollywood’s best. Obviously, we know, this is a fantasy. It then ends with… “Once Upon a time… in Hollywood”.

So, what is Quentin saying with this film? The “Once Upon a Time” title of course refers to both Once Upon a Time in the West, since Rick is indeed a western actor, but it also refers to the beginning of a fairy tale. I think the “...” in the title is incredibly important. It’s a pause before it says that the fantasy is indeed Hollywood itself. Everything piece of the film draws itself into the fantasy that is Hollywood. Tarantino has meticulously created the fake movies that Rick has starred in with stunning Hollywood realism. I believe that this is Tarantino’s most mature film because it is criticizing the white male problem of our time. White men have for so long been told they could be whatever they want and when it doesn’t happen anger, sadness, depression take over.  Rick and Cliff never believed their lives would be like this. They believed they would be better, that they would have more, but they can’t face that reality and so the fantasy continues. This is one explanation for why we are having so many instances of domestic terrorism. Almost all of these acts are carried out by white men who blame the failure of their lives on others: women, minorities, immigrants, Jews. 

Now, I don’t believe Quentin offers a solution. Spike Lee did not offer one in Do the Right Thing, but just as Spike explored all of the issues in Do the Right Thing so has Quentin here. Rick remains a pathetic man, even more pathetic that at the end, he has to live in a fantasy in which he is a hero, while, in reality, Sharon Tate dies at the hands of the Manson Family. 

Indeed, this may be Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece.