Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Aug 02, 2019 09:50

Last weekend I went to see the new Quentin Tarantino movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Some of the trailers would give one the impression that the movie is about the Sharon Tate murders and the Manson "family." It's not - although both sets of people are in the movie.

The movie is about Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth, a fading actor and his long-time stunt double. It's a long movie, frankly almost plotless. What plot there is revolves around Rick's struggles in a Hollywood that's getting out of the business of making Westerns and into more modern stuff.

Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robie (who has very few lines of dialog) is there largely for color. The Mansons are in the movie primarily to keep the audience interested. Really, the whole thing is Quentin trying to capture a time and a place.

I find my reaction to the movie confused. In many respects, it was like going to a museum to look at the old stuff. The fact that there was a plot (of sorts) going on was almost besides the point.

The closest the movie got to making any sort of point about much of anything was to highlight how random the Tate murder was. That's an interesting point, I guess, but how relevant it was to anything else I leave to others to decide.

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