Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Review

Title: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Year: 2019
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Country: US
Language: English

1969 was an intriguing year in the American landscape. The "Classic" Era of Hollywood has met its maker with the abominable Paint Your Wagon  whereas the fresh "New Hollywood" cinema was hitting new heights with Midnight Cowboy and Easy Rider. The political strife of the time was met with a unique hippy counter culture that preached harmony and free love. Tarantino's vision captures all this nostalgia with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (1969). 

TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore. Meanwhile Sharon Tate seeks to become a star & the Manson family grows in numbers. 

Tarantino's film is not without controversy; many feel like Bruce Lee's legacy was made a mockery of, that there's too much violence against women, and that the "twist" in the story is disrespectful to history.

In regards to Bruce Lee, I like that Tarantino took the air out of Lee's mystique. Lee has always been seen as an undefeatable hero who never handled any hardship. This film portrays the actor with an immense amount of humanity. We finally aren't pretending like he wasn't an outsider that didn't encounter racism in the Hollywood system. If Tarantino disrespected anything about Lee, it was his carefully constructed myth.

I like how Tarantino takes the air out of the Manson family's mystique as well. There are far too many documentaries that portray Manson as some sort of cunning crazed genius. In this film they're just gross hippies who dupe blind men. The violence against women, even though in real life they did kill a pregnant woman, is unsettling, but this moral ambiguity in regards to violence was certainly faithful for the setting. Watch Bonnie and Clyde (1967) or Wild Bunch (1969) for further proof. 

The "twist" in the story is meant to be a satire of classic Hollywood, wherin the Hays Code demanded a "happy ending" where the bad guy had his commupance. The "Once Upon a Time" in the title is not just there to look cute. I enjoy that Tarantino removed Tate from the horrific crime and allows Margot Robbie to play a person rather than a victim. Tate's legacy is intertwined with the Manson Family legacy (did anybody remember that she was an actress??) ...this film separates them. 

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) is a fascinating film that defies history (since when is ANY Hollywood film historically accutate?) in attempt to deconstruct myths, humanize pop culture icons and take us back to when Cinema was great.