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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (7/10) by Tony Medley Runtime 159 minutes. R. This is writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s fantasy (using real names) on 1969 Hollywood and the changing of an era. Mixing real life people like Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis as an amazing lookalike), Jay Sebring (Emile Hirsch), and others with his fictional stars, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) he creates an imaginary story based on things that happened in 1969. Rick was a ‘50s western TV star who is trying to resurrect his career as a movie star and Cliff is his tough guy stuntman. It looks like Rick is loosely based on Burt Reynolds and maybe Cliff is supposed to be Burt’s stuntman, Hal Needham. Whatever, what makes this film work are the performances of Pitt and DiCaprio who are better than they have ever been (and that’s very good). There are also allusions to other things that happened in the ‘60s, like Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns that made Clint Eastwood, who played a leading role in the TV series Rawhide, a star. The recreation of the Manson Family and their abode at the Spahn Ranch is well done and gives Bruce Dern the opportunity to make a cameo as George Spahn. Dakota Fanning gives a chilling interpretation of Squeaky Fromme. I don’t know why Tarantino had to make a movie this long because the story, what there is of it, certainly doesn’t justify a movie almost three hours long. But Quentin is not known for brevity (see The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, Inglorious Basterds, all more than 2 ½ hours long). One section, in particular, stalled the pace. That was when he shows Tate going to a theater in Westwood to look at her performance in a Dean Martin movie, The Wrecking Crew. Maybe this is there to show her as somewhat of a naïf and to create sympathy for her. But it seems totally out of place as she sits in the audience and takes pleasure in its reaction to her performance. To give him credit, though, other than these scenes he keeps the pace up despite the length. It’s rated R due to language and a few revolting scenes of violence at the end. All in all it’s an entertaining piece that is memorable mainly for the performances of Pitt and DiCaprio.
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