Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)

 Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"

Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker who likes to shake up expectations of traditional genres and turn them on their head. With his 2019 film "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood," he recontextualizes themes and ideas found with Western films, particularly Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West." Although "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" is not a Western in any sense, the sensibility and visual aesthetic pays homage to the genre. 

The film takes place in 1969 and centers on Rick Dalton, a TV Western star reconciling with the dissipation of his career. His right-hand-man and stunt double, Cliff Booth, aids Rick in his attempts to regain his former glory and find the spark of acting once again. They are neighbors with Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski - the former being the famed Hollywood actor who was brutally murdered by the Manson family - the tragedy of which the entire film is speeding towards. 

The thematic underpinnings of a typical Western deal with the slow decay of a way of life, the changing of a landscape, and the eventual dissipation of the 'Old West.' Tarantino takes these structural themes and repurposes them - the ending of Rick's career, the fading away of the Golden Age of Hollywood and the ushering in of New Hollywood, the closing of the Swingin' 60s, and the eventual tragedy of Sharon Tate. As a viewer, we see all these concepts coming to an eventual close. 

Perhaps Tarantino metatextaully injects a bit of his own fading obscurity into the narrative - the idea that he is growing older and his work will become less relevant. After all, he claims he is only making 10 films in his entire career. And with "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" being his 9th, he seems to be reconciling with the eventual closure of that chapter. This may even be narratively relevant to the changing landscape of Hollywood in 2019. With the burgeoning of 'streaming,' the nature of film and television is changing permanently - similarly to how the 'Golden Age' of Hollywood was replaced by New Hollywood. 

However, because Tarantino is such a revisionist, he flips these ideas on their head. To Tarantino, the cinema screen is a sacred place. It's a place where the Old West still exists, where Rick Dalton's career doesn't have to end, where the Golden Age doesn't have to come to a close, and where Sharon Tate doesn't have to meet a tragic end. The film screen is a magical fantasy, hence the "Once Upon a Time..." moniker.

With "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood," Tarantino reconciles the fading of Hollywood, his career, and perhaps even his own mortality by using the tableau of cinema to make them live forevermore. The Old West is alive and well in the immortality of the moving image. Tarantino's ninth film is a love letter (as much as I hate to use that phrase) to Hollywood and film. More importantly, it's a happy ending in a world full of bitter finality.