The Current Cinema - An A-Z guide to ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (Quentin Tarantino, USA, 2019)

Quentin Tarantino

A for Alcohol a giant amount of which is consumed throughout the movie

B for Bounty Law a TV series of the kind made by Warner Bros and others in the 50s. It lasted two seasons and after it Rick Dalton’s career goes into decline…also for Brandy, Cliff Booth’s dog.

C  is for Cinephilia This film drips in it. Maybe someone should start a competition to list all the film references. Probably need to wait for the DVD and the pause button. Since writing that I have come across this terrific piece by Jeff Smith on David Bordwell's blog Observations on film art which must not be read until you have seen the movie. …C is also for Clu Gulagher long ago a great one shot role in Siegel’s The Killers then a million near-bit parts. He’s the bookstore owner but I only learned that from IMDb?.... also for (Mama) Cass on the periphery of the Playboy Mansion party… also for (Sergio) Corbucci correctly dubbed ‘the second greatest director of Spaghetti westerns’.

D for (Rick) Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio)  a fading star …also for Drugs a massive amount of which are ingested during the movie…..and for (Bruce) Dern a brilliant turn as the owner of a Hollywood movie set ranch that has seen better days and has now been taken over by the Manson family…for Debate (not controversy). There is not universal enthusiasm for this movie. Opinions range from A O Scott in the New York Times to Rich Juzniak in Jezebel. Beware of reading reviews in advance.  They may give away something that makes the film.  

E for (Clint) Eastwood and by association Lee Van Cleef, Lex Barker and all the other then middling names, to say nothing of Eli Wallach and Rod Steiger, who took the Italian and German and Spanish money on offer to make westerns in Europe. Their ghosts hover over the scenes where Rick goes to Italy and Spain to make four movies in six months. QT couldn’t contain himself however and had to also put Rick into one of those 60s Italian crime thrillers by the likes of Fernando Di Leo just to show off a bit more.

F for FBI. Tarantino, according to my impeccable sources, apparently located the same two trucks used by the show for his re-invention of the episode guest-starring Rick Dalton. Or that may be instant Tarantino urban myth…. F is also for Flamethrower. The joke was set up about two hours before.

G for The Great Escape which Rick Dalton was up for while Steve McQueen dithered. Apparently Tarantino removed the photo-shopped scenes from the movie for the Cannes screening but put them back in later. They are quite droll.

 

H for (Damon) Herriman and a memorable mini-moment as Charles Manson (left)....also for another Oz actor (Nicholas) Hammond for what a cinephiliac friend describes rightly as his great impersonation of Sam Wanamaker, the former blacklisted actor now directing scuzzy westerns.

I for Intertwining the various real-life actors in Hollywood back in the day. Most notable are Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Mike Moh enjoying himself immensely as Bruce Lee until Cliff Booth takes him down in a casual fight while the actors are having lunch.

J for Jay Sebring. It takes Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis) at the Playboy party to explain just what was going on in the menage involving Sebring, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski…..and you have to be paying attention to follow it…..also for Julia Butters (below with DiCaprio), a child actor who has a phenomenal scene with Di Caprio

K for Killer. One flashback explains much about Cliff Booth when we learn the story of how his wife was killed. Sets up the finale.

L for (Damian) Lewis whose impersonation of Steve McQueen is another one of those turns  which reminds you just how good classically trained Brit actors can be. I thought the hair was a bit longer than I remember but Lewis has ‘got’ McQueen’s look down perfectly.

M for (Charles Manson) and the greatest Mislead in recent cinema. Tempting to list as well under S for Saving Grace

N for Nine. Having turned his gaze no further than the neighbourhood is there any chance that QT can come up again and get into double figures. IMDb tells us he has announced three more movies Django/Zorro, Kill Bill Vol 3  and  Untitled Star Trek Project. 

 

Mike Moh as Bruce Lee (see I)

O for “Once Upon a Time… a title that also comes up on Inglourious Basterds  as “Once Upon a Time in Nazi Germany.”

P for (Al) Pacino who, in the guise of a producer telling Rick what should be his next career move spells out the slow downfall of so many Hollywood actors who had a hit TV series and then nobody wanted to know them. Pacino is at his fattest ever seen. See also E.

Q for (Margaret) Qualley (left), brilliant as the Manson family member and street urchin who keeps running into Cliff Booth and finally gets him to the Spahn Ranch

R for (Margot) Robbie. My first reaction was that if Sharon Tate really was a ditzy Hollywood blonde then Margot nails it. But I'm in a rush to re-evaluate after reading Jeff Smith (q.v. on Bordwell's blog, link above, who says: "Margot Robbie’s performance as Tate is extraordinary. She reminds modern viewers of the verve, spirit, and sensuality that Sharon brought to the screen. Yet it is the image of Tate as a tragically murdered heroine that Tarantino, like Mark Macpherson in Laura, appears to have fallen in love with. And it is this image that continues to haunt me some fifty years after Tate’s death." 

S for Stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), the smartest, coolest, handsomest man in the room and for whom the long build-up for the finale with his dog and Tex, the Manson family member, is very funny indeed.

T for Timothy (Olyphant). First time I think I’ve noticed him since Justified. 

U for the USA. Only in…

V for Video Store where QT accumulated his encyclopaedic knowledge (on display) of every kind of movie…. 

W for Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino. It’s all his own work, his own memories, his own take on Hollywood from the 50s to the end of the 60s. Maybe its fantasy but you don’t stop watching

 

Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate

X for the MPAA Rating it didn’t get notwithstanding the finale 

Y for Young Millenials who may well measure the progress of their life according to the nine Tarantino steps taken over 25 years since Reservoir Dogs.

Z for Rafal Zawierucha (who?) who plays Roman Polanski  and for Zzzzz…this film takes a long time to tell the tale.