🏆 GREAT MOVIE 🏆
IMDb 7.6 Rotten Tomatoes 85%
18 | 2h 41min | Comedy, Drama | USA
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie
Set in 1969 Los Angeles, the film follows a fading character actor and his stunt double as they navigate the rapidly changing film industry, with the looming threat of the Tate-LaBianca Murders hanging overhead. It features "multiple storylines in a modern fairy tale tribute to the final moments of Hollywood's golden age."
Ingenious.
Plot
In February 1969, Hollywood actor Rick Dalton, star of 1950s Western television series Bounty Law, fears his career is fading. Casting director Marvin Schwarz recommends he make Spaghetti Westerns in Italy, which Dalton feels are beneath him. Dalton's best friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth—a war veteran skilled in hand-to-hand combat who lives in a trailer with his pit bull, Brandy—drives Dalton around Los Angeles because Dalton's driver's license has been suspended due to his DUI arrests. Booth struggles to find stunt work because of rumours he murdered his wife. Actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, have moved next door to Dalton, who dreams of befriending them to revive his acting career. That night, Tate and Polanski attend a celebrity-filled party at the Playboy Mansion.
The next day, Booth reminisces about a sparring contest he had with Bruce Lee on the set of The Green Hornet which resulted in Booth being fired. Meanwhile, Charlie stops by the Polanski residence looking for Terry Melcher, who used to live there, but is turned away by Jay Sebring. Tate goes for errands and stops at a movie theatre to watch herself in the film The Wrecking Crew.
Dalton is cast to play the villain in the pilot of Western television series Lancer and strikes up a conversation with his eight-year-old co-star, Trudi Fraser. During filming, Dalton struggles to remember his lines and suffers a violent breakdown later in his trailer as a result. He subsequently delivers a strong performance that impresses Fraser and the director, Sam Wanamaker, bolstering his confidence.
Booth picks up a female hitchhiker named "Pussycat" and takes her to Spahn Ranch, where Booth once worked on the set of Bounty Law. He takes notice of the many "hippies" living there (the Manson Family). Suspecting they may be taking advantage of the ranch's owner, George Spahn, Booth insists on checking on him despite "Squeaky"'s objections. Booth finally speaks with Spahn, who dismisses his concerns. Upon leaving, Booth discovers that "Clem" has punctured a tire on Dalton's car. Booth beats him and forces him to change the tire. "Tex" is summoned to deal with the situation, but he arrives as Booth is driving away.
After watching Dalton's guest performance on an episode of The F.B.I., Schwarz books him as the lead in Sergio Corbucci's next Spaghetti Western, Nebraska Jim. Dalton takes Booth with him for a six-month stint in Italy, during which time he films two additional Westerns and a Euro-spy comedy, and marries Italian starlet Francesca Capucci. Dalton informs Booth he can no longer afford his services.
On the evening of August 8, 1969, their first day back in Los Angeles, Dalton and Booth go out for drinks to commemorate their time working together and then return to Dalton's house. Tate and Sebring go out for dinner with friends and then return to Tate's house. Booth smokes an LSD-laced cigarette purchased earlier from a hippy girl and takes Brandy for a walk while Dalton prepares drinks. Manson Family members "Tex", "Sadie", "Katie", and "Flowerchild" arrive outside in preparation to murder everyone in Tate's house, but Dalton hears their noisy muffler and orders them off his street. Recognizing Dalton, the Family members change their plans and decide to kill him instead, after "Sadie" reasons that Hollywood has "taught them to murder". "Flowerchild" deserts the group, speeding off with their car. Breaking into Dalton's house, they confront Capucci and Booth inside. Booth recognizes "Tex" from his visit to Spahn Ranch and orders Brandy to attack. Together they kill "Tex" and injure "Sadie", though Booth is stabbed in the right thigh and passes out after killing "Katie". "Sadie" stumbles outside, alarming Dalton, who was in his pool listening to music on headphones, oblivious to the melee inside. Dalton retrieves a flamethrower previously used in a movie and incinerates "Sadie". After Booth is taken away in an ambulance to receive treatment for his injuries, Sebring engages Dalton in conversation outside and Dalton receives an invitation for a drink with Tate and her friends at her house, which he accepts.
What the critics said...
"I love this movie... When [director Quentin Tarantino] pulls the ripcord and it goes bananas, it is just so much fun."
-- Tim Cogshell, FilmWeek
"This is a film set in a stunningly evoked Hollywood past. It can also be read as a commentary on Hollywood present."
-- Wendy Ide, Observer (UK)
"Love it or loathe it, it's worth appreciating how rare it now is to have an original movie produced on such a lavish scale."
-- Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro (UK)
"It is Tarantino's best, bravest and most confrontationally impudent movie since Pulp Fiction."
-- Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
"The plot is a tapestry template that drops in characters like shining beads and watches the story weave slowly around them."
-- Kevin Maher, Times (UK)
"As one might expect from Mr. Tarantino's previous films, his new one is violent as well as tender, plus terrifically funny. Yet this virtuoso piece of storytelling also offers intricate instruction on the pervasiveness of violence in popular culture."
-- Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal