Tarantino's Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2019)

I didn't expect I'm gonna like it, especially this much. Because I'm not a Tarantino fan. I mean, unlike most people who like Tarantino for his movies like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, I preferred Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Basters and of course, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, which reinvented Westerns.
And since I've mentioned westerns... lets get to the subject. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.
We can figure out from the title that it's going to concentrate (again) on something western, although the film not a western at all, it's an excellent dramedy and a tribute, first of all to the last years of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and second, to "spaghetti westerns" like Once Upon a Time in the West of the legendary Sergio Leone (which I think is mentioned in the film as well). For those who don't know, Sergio Leone is the one who invented "spaghetti western" (spaghetti being a reference to italian movies... it's obvious why they used spaghetti in the description). He (Leone) is also the one who directed some of the most popular western movies in which Clint Eastwood made his appearance, such as the "Dollars" trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, 1964), (For a Few Dollars More, 1965) and (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966) but also the "Once Upon a Time" trilogy (Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968), (Duck, You Sucker! 1971) and (Once Upon a Time in America, 1984). The latter is not a western, but one of the most appreciated movies with gangers/mobsters. About Sergio Leone can be said a lot, and only at superlative, but I'd go away from the subject of this review (to complete what I was saying, there were many other movies inspired by the title Once Upon a Time, like Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which is worth mentioning).
In fact, the movie is a tribute to the last part of the 60s, and the references in the film are numerous, and they're not connected only to the cinema. I was surprise when I saw the apparition of a young chubby girl by the name of Cass, and I realized on the spot that it was none other than the great Mama Cass from The Mamas and the Papas. Besides that, the movie is full of extremely important references from that period, like the hippie movement, the adult movie industry, Playboy and obviously, Charles Manson and his crimes.
Also related to the cinema we find many references, very important from that period, from the great Roman Polanski, Bruce Lee and even... Telly Savalas!
In fact, the entire movie is full of references, and you need to pay close attention to details, eventually watch it two or three times.
I didn't know anything about the movie before I've seen in, except from the very brief description from IMDb. But from the first moment I've started watching it, I immediately started to identify so many aspects that I can't even list here.
It is quite unusual for Tarantino's style, but in a good way. What he managed to realize with this film is incredible! After I've seen it, I started doing some research about it on IMDb and Wikipedia and I was stunned about all the incredible details of the movie. Of course, there had to be a little 'Tarantino essence' in the movie, but we can see it only towards the end of the movie, in a very, very interesting situation, but I won't mention which, otherwise it would become a spoiler, so I'll let you discover it.
The actors involved in the project aren't random. Of course, it's a Tarantino movie! DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino and Margot Robbie are just a few that most people know (especially the new generation). But other important actors got parts in this movie, such as: Emile Hirsch (which I've been watching since 2002 and who had great roles in great movies, besides his most known "Into the Wild" or the one that first made him famous, "The Girl Next Door"), Timothy Olyphant (another great actor, who also played with Emile Hirsch in "The Girl Next Door" but who also had many apparitions in movies, many of them very good), James Remar (another colleague on the set of "The Girl Next Door" and many movies in his CV. The older generation will probably remember him for his role in "The Cotton Club"), Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Luke Perry (who unfortunately died before the movie release), Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen and many others.
The music used was obviously that from the 60s, but not limited to that, because the movie also has music produced by Ennio Morricone, a giant who produced some of the greatest soundtracks for some of the greatest movies, including Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon A Time in America of Sergio Leone, but also for Roman Polanski's "Frantic". Morricone's music is present in almost all the great movies, starting from the 60s to the present. There can't be said enough about Morricone, so all I'll mention further is that he also produced the music for 6 other Tarantino movies. The rest... needs a book of about 600 pages to describe Morricone's creation).
The accuracy of all the historical aspects which we find in the movie is absolutely fascinating! Every detail, from the smallest to the most important is perfectly reproduced, and when it's not reproduced, he simply used THE ORIGINAL. It's total madness, in the best sense!
I don't think it's worth mentioning if the actors played well or other things that people are interested nowadays. What I've said here (and what real critics say) is enough.
I want to finish by saying one more thing. What Tarantino did in the last part of the movie is very emotional for the entire world, but especially for those in Hollywood and those who lived those times in Hollywood.
A masterpiece. It will be a great battle between Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman. Two giant directors bought us this year their Magnum Opus.