Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | KT Review

Having got great reviews from the Cannes Film Festival Premier, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood also showed at the Locarno Film Festival as part of it’s open-air Piazza Grand screening.

Ahead of the film’s release, Quentin Tarantino and Sony TV presented The Swinging Sixties. A series of films curated by Tarantino, which influenced his creation of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

2 films aired nightly, over 80 territories worldwide, beginning the week before Once Upon a Time’s release. Conversations between Tarantino and Kim Morgan (film writer and historian) accompanied each movie and included first looks at scenes from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The UK Sony Movie Channel can be found here

The Ten Films from Columbia Films Library

  • Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
  • Cactus Flower
  • Easy Rider
  • Model Shop
  • Battle of the Coral Sea
  • Getting Straight
  • The Wrecking Crew
  • Hammerhead
  • Gunman’s Walk
  • Arizona Raiders

Quentin Tarantino’s 9th Film

Set in 1969 Los Angeles, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is about a washed-up TV actor and his stunt double who are trying to make a name for themselves in a film industry they don’t recognise anymore. As for the promised Charles Manson connection, these guys live next door to Sharon Tate.

[Updated: 22/03/2019]

[Updated: 05/08/2020]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Stars:

  • Leonardo Decaprio (Django Unchained) as Rick Dalton, a washed-up Western TV star who wants to make his name in the movies.
  • Damon Herriman as Charles Manson. You may know him from Justified, Flesh and Bone, Scorpion, or Secret City.
  • Brad Pitt (Inglourious Basterds) as Cliff Booth, Dalton’s stunt double.
  • Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate. 
  • Michael Madson (The Hateful Eight)
  • Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight)
  • Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet, Justified)
  • Damian Lewis (Homeland, Billions)
  • Luke Perry (Riverdale, Body of Proof)
  • Emile Hirsch (Milk, Speed Racer)
  • Dakota Fanning (Ocean’s 8, The Alienist)
  • Clifton Collins Jr (Star Trek, Westworld)
  • Keith Jefferson (Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight)
  • Zoe Bell (The Hateful Eight, Unspoken: Diary of an Assassin) 
  • Nicholas Hammond (Stealth, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles) 
  • Rumer Willis (Empire, Hostage)
  • Dreama Walker (Gran Torino, Brockmire)
  • Margaret Qualley (The Nice Guys, The Leftovers)
  • Costa Ronin (The Americans, Agent Carter)
  • Victoria Pedretti (The Haunting of Hill House, Uncovering Eden)
  • Madisen Beaty (The Magicians, The Fosters)
  • Lorenza Izzo (Knock Knock, The House with a Clock in its Walls)

And Al Pacino as Marvin Shwarz, Rick Dalton’s agent.

Although BURT REYNOLDS was on board for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, he sadly passed away before filming his part. Well known for Smokey and the Bandit, Boogie Nights, and B.L. Stryker (which I loved). His more recent appearances included Burn Notice (another of my favs), The X-Files, The Dukes of Hazard, Hitting the Breaks, and The Last Movie Star to name but a few. Reported by a family member to be looking forward to working on the movie with Tarantino, Reynolds passed away on September 6th, 2018, aged 82. He will be missed.

The Hateful Eight, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino
via IMDb

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood Review Conclusion

It’s a Tarantino, why wouldn’t I watch it? -With the slow easy gate of a Tennessee Walking Horse, this movie leads you along a path with more than a few detours down memory lane. It is hardly jarring, and rarely outlandish but that doesn’t stop you wanting to see what happens next. The film seemed to regularly nod to Tarantino’s other films and I just loved the western moments. The only thing that made me frown was the ending, not at all what I was expecting and the one moment in the film that made me think I ought to watch it a second time (which is not unusual for a Tarantino movie) because I was certain I’d missed something somewhere. An excellent movie but it doesn’t replace my favourite Tarantino movie.

4.5 Stars

His Other Movies

Two other Quentin Tarantino projects that have been mentioned are an Untitled Star Trek movie, which Mark L. Smith will write, and Kill Bill: Vol 3. As the films considered part of his ten movies are both written and directed by Tarantino I don’t think the Star Trek movie will be his final movie.

  1. Reservoir Dogs -’92
  2. Pulp Fiction – ’94
  3. Jackie Brown – ’97
  4. Kill Bill: Volume 1 – ’03 & Kill Bill: Volume 2 – ’04
  5. Death Proof  – ’07
  6. Inglourious Basterds – ’09
  7. Django Unchained – ’12
  8. The Hateful Eight  – ’15
  9.  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – ’19
  10.  ????

With a limited U.S. release date of July 26th, 2019, for once, us Brit’s got the movie at the same time. Said to be not as fast as Inglorious Basterds or Django Unchained but faster than The Hateful Eight, this movie is 2 hours 39 minutes long.