Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, July 26, 2019) Movie • Page 41

I'd watch a ton more of those musical numbers like the one he had in this movie though haha.

 

And slowly plop out a can of dog food into a bowl?

 

haha, the second time he did it in Rick's house that elicited some "ughs" from the audience, especially after Cliff took a lick. And yes, I did have a craving for dog food after that.

 

I’m still bitter that Kurt Russel wasn’t playing Stuntman Mike in this

 

I find this theory both interesting and compelling. Thoughts?

A Theory About The Ending Of ’Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’

 

Nah.

Cliff notices his hand while he’s making the dog food, and starts waving it around, so clearly he’s tripping and seeing something, but we don’t see it. We just see his hand moving around normally. So I don’t see the ending as through Cliff’s eyes. That being said, the film has third person narration and flashbacks of uncertain truth, Tarantino is very obviously playing with what’s real and how stories are told and get fabled. So I’m open to lots of interpretations of what’s happening. But when that writer started talking about Cliff really being out in the woods tripping when the movie was showing us him in Rick’s home interacting with the cultists, the piece lost me.

 

Yeah, the reason I think it has some validity is that the whole ending feels a little like dream fulfillment - Cliff is the badass hero who saves the day without breaking a sweat - Rick gets to flame throw one of them and then go meet Tate and possibly revitalize his career. It's an awfully "pat" ending for these 2 guys.

Where it loses me is that if it was Cliff's POV from tripping balls then we wouldn't have the Rick scene at all as Cliff is already gone in the ambulance.

It does make me wonder what the purpose was of the acid cigarette at all, though. If not for this author's reasoning, why else does he need to be tripping? Just for humor's sake ?

 

I think the acid loosened his inhibitions so he was just in the moment

 

Yeah I read this earlier. I’m glad it helps him enjoy the movie more but it’s full of holes.

 

Bruce Lee's daughter criticises Tarantino's depiction of her father in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

 

Yeah, as an Asian American myself, that was the one thing about the movie I really disliked.

 

as an Asian American myself I'm kind of bored with Bruce Lee being the one go-to paragon for As-Am masculinity, so it didn't really bother me

plus like others have noted it is all relayed to us in the form of a Cliff flashback

I get why others might be bugged though

 

Also anyone who has done acid knows that theory makes ZERO sense.

 

The Bruce Lee scene felt like it was from another movie

 

That scene being from Pitt's perspective totally makes it work better for me. Everyone else is crazy, he's the only cool one.

 

I get that it's a flashback, but rather than have him be the only POC character, couldn't Tarantino have used any other well-known action actor from that time? This film is his biggest love-letter to Hollywood yet, but that scene in particular just felt so mean-spirited.

 

I think he wants to use Bruce Lee because he was the "karate coordinator" for the Sharon Tate film, The Wrecking Crew that she watches in the theater

Ties all the storywebs together in a way

Plus then we get that great crosscutting between Sharon learning the choreography from Bruce, the actual footage of it in The Wrecking Crew, and Sharon doing the choreography along with the film in the theater

 

Oh yeah, okay, that makes sense. Still don't like it, though.

 

K. Austin Collins, one of the greatest working critics, just published an excellent piece on the film:

Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood Is Yet Another Tarantino Revenge Fantasy

 

It’s also worth noting that The Green Hornet was a fairly popular show at the time and he was one of the stars, he was wearing his costume for his character in the scene.

 

yeah acid isn't gonna make you think you're in a totally different place than you are lol

 

Also, in addition to what @Aregala said, they were flashing back to why Kurt Russell and Zoe Bell had problems with Cliff, which stemmed from an incident that occurred while Rick was guest starring on Green Hornet. That was that incident.

 

Can’t blame her. Bruce wasn’t an arrogant guy and many audience members may think he was.

 

Re: Bruce Lee in the film, the Sharon Tate flashback may not have had any dialogue but it textured him and made him look sweet and supportive and solid, which juxtaposes nicely against Cliff’s recollection, so I don’t think his portrayal is as simple as some paint it