Quentin Tarantino Managed To Pull This Together

Rating: 8/10 (9 August 2019)

I have to be honest and say that at about the halfway point of this movie I was truly wondering what all the hype was about. It was mildly to moderately interesting to watch the story of "Rick Dalton" play out. Played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Dalton was a fading star in late 1960's Hollywood. He'd been a mega-TV star of one of television's ubiquitous western series of the time, but then made the mistake of trying to venture into movies, resulting in the cancellation of his series and him being reduced to guest appearances on various TV shows and, ultimately, to spaghetti westerns. His story - along with that of his stuntman Cliff (Brad Pitt) - was interesting (and even somewhat sad) but wasn't really that enthralling. DiCaprio and Pitt both did good jobs in their respective roles, but I wasn't understanding the hype. Although, right from the start there was an angle; a hook. It turned out that Dalton's next door neighbours were Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate - and this movie was set in 1969. So you knew there had to be some connection coming to the Manson family murders. That angle really was what held my attention. I wanted to see how the stories were going to intertwine - and the movie starts to take a more ominous turn when Cliff finally encounters the Manson family after picking up a hitch-hiker who was a member.
It's really at that point that Tarantino's unique touch takes over the movie, and what had been a relatively sedate and somewhat sad reflection on what appeared to be the closing chapter's of Dalton's acting career became a wild ride to the finish. The connection to the Manson family murders comes in the last 20-25 minutes of the movie - but not in the way you expect. This movie constructs an alternate history. The Manson family invades not the Polanski-Tate house, but Dalton's house - and Cliff, Rick and Cliff's faithful dog take them on and do away with them in a violent and bloody fashion that - for all its violence and bloodiness - actually had me laughing out loud at those last few scenes, especially when Rick torches one of them with the flame thrower he had kept as a souvenir from one of his movies. It was indeed a wild ride, closing with Rick being invited to hang out with Sharon tate and her friends after they found out what had happened. It was really a fascinating piece of alternative history, well crafted by Tarantino and there's no possible way that you as a viewer can take your eyes off the screen for those last 20 minutes as the confrontation between the Manson family and Dalton's group escalates in a weirdly hilarious fashion.
But perhaps the greatest tribute I can pay to this movie is that while the first half or so wasn't particularly exciting, there was always enough going on to hold my attention. Whle there were times that I found myself wondering where this was going, it never got boring to me, and I was actually shocked to discover - when I checked the time after it ended - that this movie was close to three hours long. It didn't feel it. So it was extremely well paced and it built very deliberately to that unforgettable conclusion. It's very well done. I've had mixed responses to tarantino's films. Some I've liked very much, others have left me cold. But I'd say that "Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood" is the best Tarantino film I've seen. (8/10)