Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019, Quentin Tarantino)

Cliff Booth: "All right. What's the matter, partner?"

Rick Dalton: "It's official, old buddy. I'm a has-been."

I think it’s safe to say that of all the film directors that emerged from the 1990s, no one has impacted the film industry as Tarantino has (with David Fincher being second). 

This is the 9th film by the always magnificent Quentin Tarantino which perfectly encapsulates the end of the golden age of Hollywood and the transition into the new Hollywood in 1969.  There is even a perfect little scene which to me fully captures this transition, it shows a Mustang stopping at the lights (the car most guys wanted to own in the 1960s) then a VW Beatle (a car most guys would have laughed at in the '60s) also stops at the lights and completely overshadows the Mustang. Now the Beatle is cool and hip and the Mustang is yesterday's news.  

The story mainly revolves around the inseparable duo of Rick Dolton (DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Burton (Brad Pitt) in the most Tarantinoesque film to date. Rick is a once promising lead TV star of the hit show ‘Bounty Law’ along with Cliff of course. Their show ran toe to toe with another hit show at the time called Wanted: Dead or Alive (which I'm quite a fan of) staring non other than the great Steve McQueen.

However when it came to the transition from TV to film, Steve McQueen landed a role in the smash hit film The Magnificent Seven along side Yul Bryner (a remake of Akira Kurusawa’s Seven Samurai) in 1960. Rick Dalton on the other hand, didn’t make such a smooth transition, instead he drifted into numerous TV appearances (usually as the villain) on such shows as Hullabaloo, Lancer and The F.B.I.. 

As is in the films of the '60s, the good guy always wins, and you can always tell the good guy from the bad guy from the way they dress to their mannerisms, that's just the way it was, and this is how Rick was taught. Now Hollywood is changing and he's being asked to look more 'hippie' or change his hair and most of all, change his act... possibly method acting. But he finds it's not that easy to shake off, and the realism of being washed up is beginning to hit him. 

On the sideline of all this, his best friend Cliff struggles along with him but seams happy enough playing chauffeur and handyman. Asides from driving Rick around in his beautiful Cadillac coupe de Ville, Cliff ventures on his own on a couple of mini adventures, he even manages to meet the Manson family at their hideaway in a random yet hostile environment. But don't be fooled, this film is not about the Manson murders, it's about 1969, and it's done with sheer passion.  We’re not simply watching a story unravel, we’re experiencing a period in time, and relishing in its final days. 

In the midst of all this, we have many other characters in the film, of course that of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) including a wonderful scene of her viewing herself on the silver screen and smiling to a laughing audience at her 'clumsy' scenes alongside Dean Martin in The Wrecking Crew. 

Now there have been many speculations on who this duo is based on, to which many (including myself) believe it to be that of Burt Reynolds & Hal Needham (director of Smokey and the Bandit). Not only that but Burt Reynolds was a struggling actor in the late 1960s, nothing but numerous tv appearances and a steady 4 year stretch on the popular tv show Gunsmoke as Quint (whom Tarantino is allegedly named after) under his belt, his first major hit film being in 1972 with Deliverance.

One of these TV appearances being that of The F.B.I., the exact episode in which DiCaprio's face is brilliantly CGI's onto in the film. On top of this, Burt also went to Italy to make a Spaghetti Western with Sergio Corbucci, (director of the original Django and The Mercenary (which a poster can be seen when Sharon Tate goes to the Cinema)) to make Navajo Joe, the same director Rick Dalton had worked with in this film. Oh and Burt Reynolds was originally casted for this film as well before he passed.

Speaking of casting, the cast and performances here is just phenomenal, featuring Leo & Brad at the top of their game with pure onscreen duo chemistry. There's Margot Robbie of course who brings nothing but charm to Sharon Tate's character, Al Pacino as the director who approaches Rick Dalton for a career in Italy to make Spaghetti Westerns (and a poliziesco), Timothy Elephant, Damien Lewis (as Steve McQueen), Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Dakota Fanning and even the late Luke Perry. Then we of course have a few small cameos from the usual Tarantino suspects such as stunt director Zoe Bell, Michael Madsen, even a voice over by Samuel L. Jackson and a scene by Tim Roth which unfortunately didn't make it to the final cut.

This film is an absolute love letter to this period in time in Los Angeles and is probably Tarantino’s most personal film.  This is trully a picture you want to sit back to, relax, and take a trip down Hollywood in 1969. You are in for a damn treat.

Rating: A