Have you ever wondered how harsh the showbiz industry can be?
Well folks, I for one certainly can say that you're not alone in pondering about that as I always have been curious as to what my favourite actors have to deal with in a daily basis. Now, the film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (directed by Quentin Tarantino) aims to answer that question, if the said question takes place in the golden age of Hollywood, specifically in 1969, with a huge ensemble cast starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradd Pitt, and Margot Robbie.
The comedy-drama film is composed as a homage to the golden age as mentioned earlier, showing the last few moments before massive changes occured in Hollywood, as seen in the multiple storylines of the main protagonists of the film, all boiling down in a very unlikely conclusion.
Starring fictitious character Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) with his seemingly inseperable stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) as they tread on in 1969 Hollywood as the western star loses opportunities to work as a protagonist due to the various changes happening in the showbiz industry like the changing demands from directors, leading to changing demands for a new generation of actors and actresses. Rick Dalton takes this as his downfall, like coming from the front page and ending up being a fire starter for some hobo's trash bonfire. He takes that very personally and he turns into a spiralling world of alcoholism, alongside his best bud Cliff, who himself has some secrets that he has to keep to himself, even from Rick. All hope is not lost for him as his new neighbours move in, revered actress and model Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) along with her husband Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha). Not wanting to star in "Spaghetti Westerns" (a rather racial term for western films produced by Itallians, thus the word Spaghetti, or sometimes even Macaroni), he tries his best to befriend his new neighbours.
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| Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) and Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) having a drink |
From the film showing Rick Dalton taking jobs as a secondary character in westerns, a genre that he is revered for in his prime, the film transitions to showing the daily life of his trusty stunt double, Cliff Booth. A simple man, living in his simple trailer, with his simple dog. Except for everything else he does, that is.
He is often seen driving Rick's car from set back to his home and goes on in his daily life. One day, on the other hand, as he was doing his daily routine of driving Rick's car back home he comes across a not-so-decent-looking hippie. An underage hippie, at that too. Cliff, being the good person that he is, gives her a nod as if to show that he's into her. Another instance occurs that they meet and this time Cliff gives the hippie a ride to where she needs to meet her fellow hippie friends. The girl unnamed and would rather be called "Pussycat" belongs to a certain cult of a bunch of hippies going around murdering people that goes against them, aka the Manson Family, an actual historical desert community and cult which, in real life, was highly active at the same year the film is set in. They are definitely people who you do not want to mess with, considering they will reluctantly murder you if you come so close as to even insulting one of their "famiy members".
Cliff, in one of the instances that he meets Pussycat, decides to drop her off at where the Manson Family lives, an old and washed up film set now riddled with a bunch of drugged and underaged hippies. Cliff, being a stunt double of many years and films, recognizes the old film set to be that of "Bounty Law", the fictitious western that Rick Dalton used to star in. Seeing the many hippies around, Cliff suspects that they are abusing and are taking advantage of the ranch's owner, his old buddy George Spahn.
Again, like the Manson Family, an actual person who owned THE actual Spahn Ranch who let the aforementioned family to live in his ranch, very popular as well for shooting western films. And, again, being the good guy Cliff is, he decides to have a word with George who firmly dismisses his worries, though his problems doesn't stop there as he sees a guy named "Clem" ripping one of his tires off. Pissed, Cliff beats the submission out of Clem and forces him to change his tire, which leads the hippies to call for the help of a key person in the Manson Family murders, Tex Watson. He arrives late as he sees Cliff's car head on to the road before he could do anything. Of course, this wouldn't be the last time Tex will make an appearance with Cliff on screen.
Oh, did I mention that Cliff also reminisces that one time he had a sparring match with Bruce Lee in the set of "The Green Hornet", which ends up in him getting fired, aside from the the rumors surrounding him that he murdered his own wife. He's a a war torn veteran through and through, and like soldiers after the war, he's struggling to find a well-paying job, other than being Rick's stunt double.
The movie goes back to Rick and this time around, he's back on set, but as a villain for the western show Lancer. Here, he's shown to be having a hard time memorizing his lines and characterizing for his role, as if he's in a shock that from being the main character, he's turned into a villain that changes every week, or worse case, every other episode of the show. Nevertheless, Rick Dalton gives his best performance, with a little pep talk with a younger actress on set, Trudi Fraser, played by American child actress Julia Butters.
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| Rick Dalton taking Trudi Fraser as hostage in the filming of the TV show "Lancer" |
His performance on set makes both Trudi and the director of Lancer, Sam Wanamaker, impressed. After his enthralling performance, Rick Dalton's casting agent Marvin Schwarz, protrayed none other than Al Pacino, casts Rick as Sergio Corbucci's new lead in his new Spaghetti Western titled "Nebraska Jim". All goes swimmingly in Rick and Booth's six month trip to Italy, wherein not only does he appear in Nebraska Jim but also in two additional Westerns and even a Eurospy comedy, a genre of spy films aimed at imitating James Bond and the like, often turning into a hysterical comedy of sorts. Not only that, but he also comes home with an Italian wife of his own, Francesca Capucci. Sadly, this will mark the end of the long time partnership between Rick and Booth, both personally and financially, as he wants to start anew with a family of his own.
That said, the two set out to drink, this time not because of Rick's depression and state of denial, but to commemorate all the times that they have spent together as actor and stunt double, most importantly as best friends. They get home pretty smashed and banged up, Sharon Tate and her husband goes out for dinner with their friends, whom later go back home late in the night. Booth takes his dog for a walk after smoking an LSD cigarette he bought off of a sketchy looking hippy one time he was driving home.
This being the final act of the film, we finally see the Manson Family hippies in action. Tex, Sadie, Flower Child, and Katie from arrive right outside Rick's house, which he finds utterly annoying. He makes sure to let them know by shouting them off of his lawn with their noisy car. The Manson Family backs off for a while and rethinks their plan of instead killing Rick Dalton because they agreed that it was Hollywood who taught them off all the imaginable ways there are in murdering people. Flower Child does not approve of this in every way possible, leaving behind everybody else while taking their car. Left with no other choice, Tex and his gang goes up to Rick's house and attempts to murder everyone.
Luckily enough, the first people they meet after breaking in Rick's house was Capucci and Booth, who just got back from his walk with his dog. A fight ensues between them where Capucci gets unconscious. Booth and his dog Brandy finishes both Tex and Katie while badly injuring Sadie, though Booth himself is left in an unconscious state after suffering a lot of blunt trauma and getting stabbed. Bleeding, Sadie goes outside Rick's backyard and pool, where Rick is having a drink of margaritas while playing the song "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen on his headphone on. He sees Sadie walking around, limping, blood dripping everywhere, which alarms him of the unknown mayhem that had just ensued in his household. Without a second thought, he sets off to take an actual flamethrower he kept from filming one of his World War 2 films, and incinerates the hell out of the hippie.
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| A glorious shot of dripping wet Leonardo DiCaprio, 45 years of age, shooting a flamethrower at a hippie |
The film overall doesn't shy away from the brilliance and oddity of Quentin Tarantino films. It captures the feel and looks of the late 60s, both with the setting and the culture that the characters of the film emit. Of course, another one of Quentin Tarantino's oddities is his trademark "foot shots", and this film might just top all the rest of his works with the number of shots with dirty, unadultered shots of women's feet. This is of course due to the man's foot fetish, which he never denied at one point and he makes sure that every audience of his films gets to see somebody's feet in his films.
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| Margot Robbie's feet, because just like Sharon Tate, she shares the sentiment of not liking having to wear shoes in public |
That would sum it up for my short review of the film "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" by Quentin Tarantino, and if you ask me, sure, it had its flaws and very questionnable feet shots, but I'd like to say I do believe if no other better film were made last year, this could've easily won the Oscars. It just so happens that it kinda got sandwiched in between a great foreign film and other great American made films. Comparing it to others, this would be an overall "okay" kind of film, not one that you could have sex in while watching though I could see that given at how long the film can be. But on its own, it definitely holds up to be yet another one of Tarantino's good films.
Thank you for reading my review and if you'd like to see more of my content, I'm pretty sure there are still some stuff from the past five years that you could pick up and read in my blog but be warned, those articles were written in a very different time, with a very different me. Also if you'd like me to cover some video games, films, or anything under the sun, feel free to leave a comment down below. Once again, this is NotYourOrdinarySliceOfBread, telling you guys to stay not-so-ordinary.
