A Modern, Revisionist, Western Fairy Tale

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2019)

As far as I'm (and I'm sure many others are) concerned, this is a two part movie. Both are quintessentially Tarantino. The first part of the film is filled with nostalgia and entertainment. It is an almost two hour love affair with the imperfect Hollywood of the 1960s and more specifically the part of Hollywood concerned with Westerns. It is no secret that Tarantino sees the Western genre as hugely influential to himself and it seems as though he is trying to pay homage to it and the culture around the genre's production for the majority of the film. There are multiple extended scenes devoted entirely to fictitious movie scenes that do little more than give DiCaprio's character more depth. This marks the third film in a row from Tarantino that is heavily concerned with the Western genre and his second consecutive, in my opinion, to have pacing problems.
I enjoyed the drastic turn that the narrative took very much. I thought it was clever and a quality display of a classic Tarantino ending. The film switches to its second part at the distinct moment where the narrative of the past and the narrative of Rick Dalton meet. From here one out, almost all historicity is thrown out in favor a sort of retribution for the fact the American psyche has been so corrupted by the events that actually took place. The idea that I think he was trying to get at was that this was his version of a fairy tale. The film didn't feel like a typical Tarantino movie until the end and I feel as though this idea has something to do with that as is evidenced by the "Once upon a time" in the title.
I didn't dislike the first part of the movie but after watching the rest of the film it's hard for me not to have any problems with it. It doesn't feel like much of it matters in the grand scheme of the whole movie even though it takes up most of it. There were also a few characters who I felt were detrimental to the film; namely Bruce Lee and the little girl, Trudi. That's nothing against the actors (you're welcome, Trudi) that portrayed them. I just don't think their characters (among a couple others) were written well.