I'm putting it in a spoiler tag in case some haven't seen the film yet:
[spoiler]
I was thinking back on how the film was announced, as a film about Tate and the Manson murders, but it felt like it's really more about Hollywood's obsession with violence. And I actually think that Tarantino, even though he is often painted as one of the main offenders, has had plenty to offer on that subject in the last decade or so. His films are often hit or miss to me, with more misses than hits, but I have to say I liked Once Upon a Time a lot. I think there's a lot of love for Hollywood and movies in there, but also a lot of contempt for the movie business and how it likes to tell lies about itself and cloak them in bright colours and nostalgia.
I liked Margot Robbie, but the film isn't really about Sharon Tate at all, and I think that some of its biggest value lies in that fact: without fetishising her death - or who her husband was - she's just not a particularly noteworthy character. Some people were complaining that she were marginalised, but I think it's because she gets to be a real person instead, who goes to the movies and has fun at parties. We get these snapshots of a normal, happy girl who nothing really happens to due to the way the ending plays out. I thought Tarantino gave her back the life that has been denied her memory in popular culture, which always obsesses over the violent way she was killed. I think I remember reading somewhere that her sister liked the portrayal a lot, and I can imagine that's partly why.
In this rewrite of history the bad guys lose and get ridiculed as they're killed off much in the same fashion as Rick Dalton disposed of comic book villains in his ridiculous war films. Cliff, bless him, can't even recall the most famous quote ever associated with the Manson murders when he talks to the police afterwards ("He said he was the devil and he was gonna do some devil shit"). It works as a depowerment of them and an empowerment of the audience, and you still also have the feeling that it's a joke at the expense of Hollywood at large and how it romanticises its past.
There's a bit of Don Quixote over Tarantino too, in the sense that he imposes his fantasy on reality. He did the same in Inglorious Basterds, where the ending significantly altered the course of history. It's almost like he's saying that the power of movies lies in that they get to decide what the story is. The beauty of telling a tale about something that never happened is that you get a chance to kill Hitler, or exact revenge on the Manson family, or give Tate her life back.
I'm not sure what else to say or think really, but I liked it. It's like a bunch of stories or viginettes that feel loosely connected, almost. I found both Leo and Brad to be pretty hilarious in it too. Especially Leo. There's something pathetic about his character that makes you feel sympathetic towards him. I laughed out loud at the scene where he, while wearing that ridiculous villain moustache, starts slapping himself in his trailer after messing up his lines and swears that he's never gonna have a drink again. And then he immediately sits down on the couch and takes a swig from his flask, and then looks at his hand in surprise and yells: "What the hell?? NO!"[/spoiler]
