I wrote about my complex feelings about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and it seems like, yet again, I’m stuck in a battle against what I hope this movie is versus what the movie is promoting. The film’s poster has been released, and it features Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth and Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton.
And … that’s it.
This July, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt star together in Quentin Tarantino’s #OnceUponATimeInHollywood. pic.twitter.com/HD6OSSGgad
— Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (@OnceInHollywood) March 18, 2019
To be fair, we’ve gotten a glimpse at Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate already.
SHARON TATE #OnceUponATimeInHollywood pic.twitter.com/qgR5oQWzUb
— Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (@OnceInHollywood) August 6, 2018
The thing is, most of the information we have about that time in Hollywood and the Manson murders doesn’t give Sharon Tate her own story. She is constantly a side story within a bigger film and, with this movie, I thought it was finally going to be a bit different. Instead, the first poster for the movie is Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, two men who are, arguably, on a dry spell, coming back?
Margot Robbie is currently what I would deem as “Hollywood’s It Girl.” She’s in everything, she has her own production company, and she was nominated for an Oscar in 2018. While Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are still huge stars, they’re not the hot commodity currently that Margot Robbie is.
But, if Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth are the main characters, why even bother trying to tie in the Sharon Tate story? According to the synopsis of the film, it isn’t a true story, but Tarantino is bringing in one of the most notorious stories in Hollywood? For what, dramatic effect? I know that Tarantino is a truly wonderful filmmaker, but I’m afraid of what he’s going to do with Tate’s murder.
What I loved about Charlie Says, a movie that hasn’t been released yet, is that we saw very little of the actual murder of Sharon Tate. It wasn’t violent, wasn’t glorifying her death—just telling the story of it. So, to say I’m a little worried about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood would be an understatement.
This poster is just reinforcing the idea that this movie is going to feature Sharon Tate as Dalton’s neighbor, but we may not get that much of her story. The way Tarantino has described it is that Dalton and Booth are the main characters, who meet their neighbor, Sharon Tate, and with Squeaky being a part of the story, chances are we’ll get to see Tate’s murder and the effect it had on Hollywood, but I’m still being cautious about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
(image: ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)
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