Tarantino Rewrites History ... Again

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2019)

In his ninth film noticeably lacking in the usual Tarantino shtick (thank God there was no Mexican stand-off!), he has produced perhaps his most intelligent film. The young and the old is a major theme that plays out throughout the film. Old Hollywood vs New Hollywood. 1969 was a year of deep change in Hollywood. Hollywood suddenly discovering that a young audience existed that did not want to see movies with middle-aged and older stars, and was struggling to urge that audience to see their movies. This is where Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) finds himself, an "old" as in 1950's, star, attempting to find a new image and shake the inescapable conviction that he is a has-been. There is a reason why one of the songs from that era, The Rolling Stones, "Out of Time," is in the movie soundtrack. Both Rick and the Old Hollywood are "out of time."
The subtext that lies underneath throughout the movie is Sharon Tate, Charlie Manson, his Family, and Sharon's Tate's entourage. Not only is Sharon Tate a neighbor but he and his stunt man, played by Brad Pitt, continually encounter Manson and his group throughout the movie. The New Hollywood lost its innocence with the Tate-LaBianca murders. There is no innocence in Rick Dalton's life, though. He's on the downslide and he knows it.
Just as Inglorious Basterds re-wrote the history of the Second World War, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood re-writes the fate of Sharon Tate and the other people on Cielo Drive that night. The title is very appropriate. This really is a fairy tale, this is not how the actual events occurred, but the way we would have liked the story to end. At the same time, this is a snap-shot of a specific time and a specific place which is stone-cold reality and spot on. Tarantino has done such a good job in showing the changing face of Hollywood that the movie can be considered to be a time capsule. If you were there you will relish the past coming back to life again; if you weren't this is the best way to depict how it was without using a Time Machine to take you back.