Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

All non-Nolan related film, tv, and streaming discussions.
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BlairCo wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 8:17 pm
I can understand how Booth reacted the way he did, even then I have some problems with what killing those people meant for his character, but for Dalton, who up until that point displayed no violent inclinations whatsoever except for when he's in character for the TV Show, it did not feel consistent with his character.
Rick's temper tantrum in the trailer seems to indicate he has violent inclinations hidden beneath the surface (similar to Cliff). I see what you're getting at though even if it bothered me less.

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Rick was drunk as fuck and someone was shooting a gun off in his pool trying to murder him. Lmao.

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Allstar wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 8:47 pm
Rick was drunk as fuck and someone was shooting a gun off in his pool trying to murder him. Lmao.
I would buy him trying to punch her, or even drown her, but cooking her with a flamethrower? It just felt like Tarantino living out his violent fantasies, which normally I'm cool with, but here it stuck out like a sore thumb.

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BlairCo wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 8:58 pm
Allstar wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 8:47 pm
Rick was drunk as fuck and someone was shooting a gun off in his pool trying to murder him. Lmao.
I would buy him trying to punch her, or even drown her, but cooking her with a flamethrower? It just felt like Tarantino living out his violent fantasies, which normally I'm cool with, but here it stuck out like a sore thumb.
Well it was foreshadowed in the flashback but fair enough. It is random/hilarious he kept it in his shed. A bit far fetched? Obviously. But it was glorious/hilarious.

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Also, because there were conflicting reports that I saw: QT does have a cameo in this.

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Bacon wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 9:24 pm
Also, because there were conflicting reports that I saw: QT does have a cameo in this.
Huh? Where?

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Allstar wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 9:54 pm
Bacon wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 9:24 pm
Also, because there were conflicting reports that I saw: QT does have a cameo in this.
Huh? Where?
He’s the director in the post credit scene

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Blair,
I didn’t have a problem with Rick cooking that bitch alive in the pool, lol, that was part of the ‘fun’ for me, and almost entire theatre I’m sure cause everybody was laughing and some were clapping, probably because they knew why it felt so cathartic, but your point is valid, especially that first part where you talk about the whole movie heavily leaning onto one’s knowledge of the real life story, which I also mentioned in my comments extensively.
Another weird choice/complaint:
Kurt Russel’s character provides narration two times in the movie, I believe? Random comment at the beginning with Pacino and near the end, after timeskip. Random as fuck.

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BlairCo wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 8:58 pm
Allstar wrote:
August 15th, 2019, 8:47 pm
Rick was drunk as fuck and someone was shooting a gun off in his pool trying to murder him. Lmao.
I would buy him trying to punch her, or even drown her, but cooking her with a flamethrower? It just felt like Tarantino living out his violent fantasies, which normally I'm cool with, but here it stuck out like a sore thumb.
I'm sorry, but I think you're missing the purpose behind QT's choices there.
He uses the flamethrower because it self-reflexively allows him once again to be "the movie star" he always wished he could be, regaining usefulness once again via the proxy of his semi-failed movie career that is both literally and metaphorically embodied in the flamethrower. It is a totem for all Rick has lost, all he wished he could gain, and the tool that symbolically opens the doors of New Hollywood for him.

Of course, there's also the motif where the naturalism of Rick and Cliff's world is increasingly in dialogue with 'genre' overcoming their otherwise grounded reality. Rick and Cliff's arcs both mimic that of old Western gunslingers, while they, themselves, played old Western gunslingers. IE, Cliff's like an old retired gunslinger who gets brought to an evil gang's ranch, they hijack his stagecoach, he barely escapes in time, they invade his and his partner's homestead, and they defend themselves.

Likewise, Rick's an old gunslinger defending himself against the encroachment of civilization (ala Once Upon a Time in the West, this movie's namesake, complete with the mirroring crane shots) only to have one last hurrah.

If the flamethrower wasn't invoked, the whole thing this movie is setting up would have nowhere to go. It's the whole point.
m4,
Do you think it's a coincidence that the character who "hates Cliff" and "believes he killed his wife" is also the narrator? What do you think QT is trying to achieve in that? Is Russel an objective spectator, implying Cliff did in fact kill is wife given his omnipresent knowledge of Sharon's beat by beat the night of her near-death?

I think a big part of what this movie is investigating who we ally ourselves with and why, and what the burden of proof, knowledge or otherwise close scrutiny we require. The narration is an extension of that motif begun centrally with the ambiguity of Cliff's history with potential wife killing.

-Vader

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Vader, I must say I’m enjoying all of the commentary so far and thinking extensively about the whole movie since tonight. Can’t wait to watch it again! Need to think about that QT ranking now as well, where does it stand for me.

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