Warning: This text contains "spoilers"
"What mercy did you give my daughter when she begged you to spare her life?" Doris Tate asked in court in 1984 when it was decided whether Tex Watson, convicted of murdering her daughter Sharon fifteen years earlier, would be released on parole. "What mercy did you give my daughter when she begged you: 'Let me give birth to my child for two more weeks, and then kill me.'" How can anyone make this premise and this historical event into a Tarantino absurd, illogical, funny and an especially bitter and sad film? None other than Quentin Tarantino. Only he is ready to endure accusations of being racist, sexist and disrespecting the life and work of Bruce Lee.
Tarantino sets the action of his ninth feature film in 1969, which many critics even today say was the golden age of Hollywood, although most of them do not remember that time. John Carpenter once said that the greatest satisfaction in Hollywood is that "you can still meet and collaborate with people who worked with John Ford or Howard Hawks on the set of your movie." That makes you a part of history." Tarantino, as well as many other and much younger filmmakers, must have had various lighting, make-up and decorators in their crews who once worked with Carpenter, George Lucas or Martin Scorsese, and those directors, again, worked with some other make-up and lighting artists from Frank Capra's or Orson Welles' teams. All of them together are part of history. Just like today's film workers, after all.
In 1969, Sharon Tate was a rising star. Two years earlier for the movie Valley of the Dolls she was nominated for a Golden Globe, and in 1968 she proved herself as a comedian in the film Breakers where she played alongside Dean Martin, and was taught martial arts by Bruce Lee. Breakers literally broke all the box offices in cinemas that year. She married the Polish Roman Polanski, Oscar winner, big star of Hollywood in the sixties, director Rosemary's babies i Knife in the water, the best Polish film until the appearance of Krzysztof Kieslowski. In a Tarantino movie Once upon a time in Hollywood Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is an actor of B movies, B television series, dangerously close to the age of forty, he has always played villains, his career is increasingly uncertain, he drinks too much bourbon to remember the lyrics and is the first neighbor of the Polanski-Tate couple in love. The arrival of this jet-set party-goer couple at the end of the hippie sixties, as well as their relaxed lounges in the immediate neighborhood of Dalton, only rubs salt into the wound of his extremely precarious acting career. Dalton's personal double and stuntman, driver and babysitter is World War II veteran Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, a man with the same or similar problems as his employer, only with the stability of a self-conscious failure and occasional controlled outbursts of anger. Dalton describes him as "more than a friend, less than a wife." Dalton is frustrated by filming pilot episodes of shows that never air or if they do go into regular production, his role is assigned to another villain. He can no longer include his friend Cliff in every production because he does not have the former power in Hollywood, and Cliff is too unstable and prone to incidents. One of the most criticized scenes in the film is the fight between Bruce Lee and Brad Pitt, aka Cliff Booth, which does not correspond to the image of the Chinese martial arts master that viewers are used to. The only difference between Dicarpio and Pete is that the latter doesn't cause trouble for no great reason. Both are fantastic in their roles – DiCaprio playing an actor who occasionally stutters and a staunch tobacconist wary when he gets the chance to engage in sexual contact with a girl he thinks is underage.
It is this woman of uncertain age, Tsica Maca (played by the excellent Margaret Qualey), who connects the actor and his double with the group organized, indoctrinated and placed in a lonely location by Charles Manson. After being sentenced to life in prison for instrumentalizing four young people to commit terrible crimes (including the murder of Sharon Tate), that man will become almost an icon of American (and world and crazy) pop culture in an extremely irrational way. Manson appears very briefly in Tarantino's film (played by Damon Herriman), but the spirit of the cult leader who forced his followers to kill members of the upper class lest it be interpreted as an act of terrorism by the then notorious militant group the Black Panthers is present throughout. On the other hand, Tarantino has neither the time nor the nerve to deal with Charles Manson's insane ideology and plan to cause a racial war, which he named after a song with The white album The Beatles Helter Skelter.
In the movie Once upon a time in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino shows not only his broad and detailed knowledge of cinematography, especially Hollywood. He couldn't resist, so in one scene, which was unusual for him, he inserted an eight-year-old little girl who stars in the pilot show together with DiCaprio. When the girl (Quentin Tarantino's apparent alter ego) tells DiCaprio that his acting is the best of all time, a shaken Leonardo sheds a tear. He needed support so badly. Suzu will be released by many fans of the series Beverly Hills which this summer is experiencing its second, somewhat restless youth. Namely, the troubled and honest rebel Dylan, portrayed by Luke Perry, died this spring. He was left with a small, endearing and final directorial role in a fake western pilot series.
Tarantino, a sincere lover of the film, all the while portrays the bare and harsh reality of Hollywood with great empathy for the losers, but also unquestionable respect for those who succeed. He portrays the relationship of Sharon Tate (a ravishing Margot Robbie) with Roman Polanski exactly as many of their friends and acquaintances described it - full of mutual love, trust and a vague sympathy for strangers. Sharon Tate hung out with those young people who would soon become icons of world cinema: Warren Beatty, Jacqueline Bizet, Joan Collins, Mia Farrow, Steve McQueen, Peter Sellers. Tarantino couldn't resist, so he invited the Polanski couple to a party in the Playboy Villa, although Hugh Hefner is not there, Steve McQueen explains Sharon Tate's relationship with the men she used to date and with her current husband Roman Polanski through an unfocused lens. "Only I never had a chance," McQueen reportedly bitterly seethed in Tarantino's blurb version of the Playboy party.
If we have to make a ranking list, then this is Quentin Tarantino's best film so far, precisely because it is only in the last 45 minutes that he resembles the Tarantino we are used to. Only, we are not used to him being this emotional. And intimate. In every frame of the film Once upon a time in Hollywood one can see sincere compassion for his heroes. Even if it didn't seem like it. Although he still insisted on quick, not very meaningful dialogues, but when it comes to Sharon Tate, he is ready to forget everything, correct everything and boldly ask the question to all of us: "What if Sharon Tate had stayed alive?"
Her son Paul Richard Polanski would have turned 50 these days.
Published in "Vremen" no. 1494, August 22, 2019.
