Quentin's Love Letter to the 60s
*****
I'm
a child of the Sixties. I grew up watching
the crappy westerns that permeated television - but to me they were not
crappy. Have Gun Will Travel and Branded
were among my favorites. So, when
Quentin Tarantino set his latest movie, "Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood"
in these halcyon days, I was quite excited.
I was more excited when I heard the bare minimum of the plot which
involved television westerns and the Manson Family. I said "okay, let's see how Tarantino wraps
these together." And boy, oh boy,
does he.
Up
front I will say this movie is not only one of Quentin Tarantino’s best movies.
It is certainly one of his most audacious movies, if not one of his most
personal movies - a love letter to the age of Hollywood he loves and evidently
misses. Wickedly funny yet tense owing to the movie’s time setting and my self-imposed
expectations, the first hour and a half moseyed along like the TV westerns it
so amiably recreates until it explodes in true Tarantino fashion. I sat in my seat saying "where the hell
is this movie going? Is it about
filmmaking? Is it about
Manson?" I calmed myself down and
let Tarantino take me on his ride, along with his customary foot fetishes and
references to his prior movies (Can you say Antonio Margheriti?).
However
as good as the writing and directing is, this movie truly works because of its
stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt - and a dog named Brandy that nearly
steals the show. It's been a long time
since I've enjoyed the buddy aspect of a movie as much as I did here and with
these two megastars seemingly going with the flow as equals and delivering
their best performances in years (I think both will be nominated for an Oscar
and that Pitt will win) the movie just had the easy-breezy feel of the Swinging
60s.
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| Brandy the Scene Stealing Dog |
DiCaprio
plays Rick Dalton, a soon to be over the hill television actor who had a lead
on a TV western that was long since cancelled but who has been relegated to
weekly guest spots on TV shows as the bad guy. He is the dozens of actors I
watched as a kid on TV, including Jack Cassidy, Stuart Whitman and Patrick
O’Neal who showed up as "special guest stars," but I digress. Rick
exhibits all of the insecurities you would think that a has been might exhibit.
He may or may not have been up for the lead role in The Great Escape but didn’t
get it.
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| Rick Dalton in a guest stint on the FBI and in a Western Film |
Brad
Pitt plays Cliff Booth, Rick’s best friend and stunt double. Brad Pitt is
channeling his inner Aldo Raine. Cool as a cucumber, Cliff exhibits the
machismo of the sixties- Cliff IS the Marlboro man. And while Cliff is Rick's best friend,
sometimes it appears that Rick doesn't know it.
To him, Cliff is a confidante but he is also a driver, a handyman and a
housesitter. It's not until the end of
the movie does Rick realize what a good friend Cliff has been. Cliff’s constant pep talks to Rick to boost
the latter’s confidence ("Hey! You're Rick fucking Dalton, don't you
forget it".) show that Cliff thinks they are best buds even if Rick may
look at him as a friendly employee. And
it's the relationship between the two of these guys that is the singular focus
of the picture. Everything else in the
movie drives the plot but this is a movie about friendship in a town where true
friendships are hard to come by.
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| Cliff hanging with the Manson Family |
This
movie belongs to Pitt and DiCaprio in a couple of star making performances
(ha-ha) but they are surrounded by a supporting cast that helps propel the
story along.
Margot
Robbie has a great, but smaller role, as Sharon Tate, fresh off the success of
her role in Valley of the Dolls and now in a larger funnier role in Dean Martin’s
The Wrecking Crew, which she goes into a theater to see, loving the adulation
the audience shows when her character is on the screen. More importantly she is Rick Dalton’s next
door neighbor along with her husband Roman Polanski (insert history lesson
here).
Kurt Russell, who looks like he stepped out of "Death Proof" pulls double duty as
a stunt coordinator and narrator and based on articles that I’ve read helped
give the movie its real 60s feel. There
are smaller cameos by Bruce Dern as the old creepy George Spahn who owned a
ranch where they used to film westerns but which has become a hangout for the
Manson Family; Dakota Fanning, who plays Squeaky Fromme - wow!; Timothy
Olyphant and the late great Luke Perry as a fellow actor; and, lastly but not least, Mike Moh as Bruce Lee in one of the funniest scenes in the movie. And let's not forget the appearance of smaller character actor by the name of Al Pacino. Anyone remember him?
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| Kurt Russell (of course) |
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| Mike Moh as Bruce Lee |
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| Minor Character Actor |
But
besides the writing, the direction and the acting the real star of this movie
(besides Brandy the Dog) is the
production design. I felt like I was watching a movie from the sixties. I felt
like when Brad Pitt was driving down the Hollywood Boulevard of 50 years ago, I
was there with him.. And as to the cinematography, in a thoroughly
Tarantinoesque move, DiCaprio is actually inserted into The Great Escape
speaking with the Commandant of the prison camp and speaking McQueen’s lines as
well as being inserted into an episode of the FBI. These insertions were done seamlessly,
matching the originals, giving a great air of authenticity.
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| Hollywood Boulevard Reimagined |
I,
personally, liked "Inglorious Basterds" better because well, you know, killing
Nazis is good stuff but this movie is right at the top of the Tarantino oeuvre.
I
need to see this movie again - I know there are a lot of visual and pop references
I missed while focusing on the plot. But
I also need to see it again because it was Cinema, with a capital "C".
It is pure Tarantino- unrestrained, unhinged, brutal and funny.
5/5
because why the hell not. Hey! He's
Quentin fucking Tarantino, don't you forget it.
