Once Upon A Time in…Hollywood has proven that Tarantino is still too smart for the room. How so? Well, I’ve sat on my take for a few days now to properly assess the general response to the film. You have the tribal gushers, the curious mainstream parties and then the misinformed hordes wanting to spin what is there. But, what did you expect? A controversial director loosely taking on one of the 20th Century’s most profiled crime cases? It was bound to attract a wide assortment of fools.
You don’t understand failure, until you experienced success
Rick Dalton opens the movie with a brave facade. After you get a taste of his success on his Western series, you are hit with a man struggling on the back half of the decade. While I’m a pop culture historian, many people under the age of 45 will not begin to understand the cultural taste shift that happened in the 1960s. As the Space Race took off, interest waned super hard in Western and rural programs. But, the networks kept shoving them on people as the interest died.
The more expensive shows with pricey actors got put out to pasture, while cheaper and stalwart shows prospered. After the hippies exploded after the Summer of Love, these cultural icons from roughly 5-10 years ago were left without a home. Just imagine losing everything you had in a decade. Now, you know why Rick Dalton was crying in front of the Mexicans. He can’t believe he’s so low to need anything at this point. All of his plans hang on a late 60s revisionist Western and a Sunday night airing of The FBI.
People talk, you can’t control that
Cliff Booth dresses like I did when I was 11. That’s not the point of this section, but I’m fascinated that my 6th grade wardrobe is suddenly nerd chic now. Many early reviews had a problem with the angle of Cliff Booth having possibly murdered his wife. By the way, I appreciate the unintentional hilarity of casting Rebecca Gayheart in a role about someone accidentally murdering another individual.
Cliff is Rick’s Kato, his gopher, a friend above all others. But, Cliff is in a different caste in the Hollywood fantasy realm. Nothing ever came together for him. The only breaks he caught were taking the hits for Rick. He knows he lives in squalor, but at least he has his dog Brandy. Plus, he’s got the freedom to roll around town as he pleases. Can’t get work on Lancer, well he’s going to go pick up some underage hitchhiker. But, our man isn’t going to go to jail for poontang.
He’s got a code.
Objectification as an entry to fantasy
Sharon Tate is an actress that wasn’t well-known in her time. Her closest modern day equivalent would be an Elizabeth Debicki. She was a pretty blonde, who had a couple of big roles. However, the person on the street had a hard time picking her out of a crowd. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t famous. However, fame is a currency traded in a timely manner. You’re only as famous as the system and people let you be.
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood makes a point to bring up that dichotomy. Rick Dalton blew up on TV back in the 1950s when his entertainment was viable. He had a captive audience and became an icon. Meanwhile, Sharon Tate works with Polanski and makes big movies at FOX and Columbia. But, she can’t break out of being the good girl or the klutzy blonde. She has to pose by posters just so people know she worked in a film.
Even then, she still has more currency in 1969 Hollywood because she has Polanski’s ear. A pool party with Tate and her husband can change careers. Yeah, Margot Robbie’s Tate is another ass-shaking blonde having a good time. But, she is ultimately worth more to that Hollywood than Rick Dalton. Rick needs people like her and Sharon wants men like Rick to help her rise up.
Your own Take 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
When you see Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, I want you to do something. Notice the slight camera twitches, jump cuts and how information is presented. While it’s super apparent when Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothy Olyphant have their first conversation, it goes beyond that. Brad Pitt remembering a fight with Bruce Lee or Rick Dalton setting the story straight on The Great Escape adds to this. This is a fantasy film about the fantasies people tell themselves in Hollywood.
Rick can’t accept that his career got away from him. Meanwhile, Cliff Booth tries to figure out a way to be needed. They know their Glory Days are behind them, but they’re still men abiding by rules set up by people who no longer figure in their lives. Eddie O’ Brien told Rick to be a citizen of Los Angeles, while Cliff exists on the favors of old friends. They figure if they keep their head low, somebody will give them a pass.
Nothing in this film should be seen as unbiased. Hell, the nature of the finale should be taken with a giant chunk of salt. If characters are able to lie to themselves, then lie to an audience, everything you are seeing is unreliable.
That was the best acting I’ve ever seen
Julia Butters’ child prodigy role would normally irritate the shit out of me. However, her role as Trudi/Maribella was super important to framing the entire movie. When Rick interacts with her, he feels like he’s a specter of her future failures. What he later realizes is that she’s a guiding light for how he can retake his life. There is a craft to acting and embracing it is the new order of things.
Hell, Rick embraces it so much that the throws the little girl elbows first into a solid wood floor. After she gives him an acting note, Rick realizes what he has to do with his life. The full bawling emotional meltdowns have to end. The heavy drinking must end. What Rick Dalton will do is become the star abroad, that he was at home. That will keep his ass from having to head home to Missouri.
Dalton as Manson: Great Fucking Note
Rick Dalton and Charles Manson were failures. Dalton is a Burt Reynolds stand-in who has to move from TV to Italian Westerns. Charles Manson buddied up to the Hollywood Hills scene and got Beach Boy Dennis Wilson on his side. He got an album and even the in-movie Manson girls are belting out his tasty jams while dumpster diving behind a grocery store. Yet, the theatrical cut of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood only gives us one scene with Manson. But, note his look.
Then, take a look at Rick Dalton in the Lancer pilot. After director Sam Wanamaker has hair and makeup specifically configure his character’s identity into a Revisionist Western villain, he could be Manson’s Mirror, Mirror self.
Manson and Dalton are just a hair apart. A bad choice or two going in one direction or the other. So many people forget that Manson came to Los Angeles to make it as a singer. It’s after dozens of failures that his truly distraught mind started concocting Helter Skelter and his Family cult. Manson was the failure that Dalton became without a hint of the success. In that instance, it becomes easier to take over property and assume that the whole system is out to get you. Hell, his biggest bout of success after cutting a record single was having Dennis Wilson talk about the Manson Family to the British music press. Here’s a link to a Consequence of Sound editorial about all of this.
Rick had that taste of success with Bounty Law and his regular gigs. He knew that success was something that could be attained again. The glimmer of hope can make all the difference in the world. When you realize that when approaching the final act of the film, then you see the meat of what Tarantino is offering with this film. That’s right, it’s a fantasy about youth vs. experience.
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood as fantasy
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is Tarantino’s first true fantasy film. Yeah, he stuck a toe in those waters with Hitler having his face blown apart in Inglorious Basterds. But, what if he made a movie that was Basterds’ entire third act set piece? Let’s go even further. What if Tarantino took that fantasy into an introspective place about the nature of a well-lived life?
In the film, the Manson family is shown as young fuck-ups getting by on basic ability and the goodwill of others. They use George Spahn’s ranch for cover and money. The girls have to hitch-hike everywhere. Plus, when the shit hits the fan…they act like kids trying to flex hard on the older generation. These ill-prepared little shits deserve everything that happens to them and that makes the reality so much worse.
On August 8th, 1969…those Manson cultists got the drop on a heavily pregnant woman and her stoned friends. They just ate, were asleep and had no idea what was going to happen. I’m always going to love Tarantino for demystifying these shits. They weren’t hardened killers. These Manson kids were asshole teenagers that tripped balls and thought they could change the world. When they ran up against the way things really worked, they got a dog ripping their genitals off.
Brandy’s Law
Ultimately, there’s only one thing to be said for the film. Tarantino has acknowledged that everyone ages, but youth isn’t ready to immediately take over. We live in an imperfect world with butting egos, different ways of thought and usually the same desires. In that cycle, there is order. However, when that order is threatened to wreck what keeps humanity moving forward…it must be destroyed.
While some will wince and look away from Cliff smashing a can of dog food into Susan Atkins’ face, I smile. That’s because I live in the real world and I have the hindsight of knowing what that low-down bitch did to Sharon Tate. For those that don’t know, Atkins was the one who stabbed Tate to death and wrote PIG in her blood on the nursery walls. So, a heavy can of rat flavored dog food is the least Atkins deserves…even in a fantasy.
When everything is said and done in this Red Apple Universe, Rick Dalton and Sharon Tate finally get the moment to come together. It’s a tragic What If based on a slight twist of fate, an acid-dipped cigarette and a dog that can chomp balls. Those last moments set to the lovely themes of The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean are meant to remind you that none of this happened. But, it could have…and it would have made the world a much better place.
24 Hour Party People is the kind of movie that was too new to Americans when it arrived. Now, it’s too old for a new generation of music fans trying to check it out now. While Steve Coogan’s performance is top notch, it’s almost too avant garde for its own good. After the third 4th Wall break, the mugging for the camera gets obnoxious. Plus, parts of the film require an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the British music scene from 1977-1992.
While our foreign friends might have a better grasp on that, it will leave older American viewers scrambling to put names to faces. If your audience spends all of their time playing Britpop Guess Who, then how can they enjoy the film? Most credit the film with breaking Steve Coogan into the American film scene, but I don’t agree. It did get his name on radars, but honestly it would take more work than being a smarmy record producer for Coogan to work.
The Blu-ray special edition from MVD comes loaded down with two commentaries, 11 deleted scenes and a ton of archival featurettes. The 1.85:1 1080p transfer is good enough for an older indie title. However, the real winner is that booming DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track. Check it out, if you’re a fan.
Late this summer, AndersonVision decided to give time to coverage from a variety of readers and friends of the site. We have everything from killer conspiracy theories to family reviews and things truly bizarre coming up. For now, The Howell Family (mother and 7 year old son (Sam)) will be reviewing The Lion King 4DX.
The Howell Family reviews The Lion King 4DX
After finding out Lion King would be shown in 4DX I audibly sighed. Why remake what was already good in the first place. But at the request of a 7-year-old with a killer smile and the ability to whine without stopping the decision was made. We WOULD be attending.
First impressions mean a lot in any venue for sure so even though most theaters are cookie cutter my son and I took note that the 4DX screen had seats grouped in 4’s. We assumed to make movement easier or more efficient. Seats were lighted at the end of each group so finding them in the dark was a cinch. When ushering around a 7-year-old in the dark, it’s a life saver. My son, Samuel and I both were worried that the live action part of this remake would be less than impressive.
We were both proven wrong almost instantly. The animals appeared life like even when speaking with no seemingly no issues with the speech being sync’d. Samuel did note that to see real animals talking was a bit strange but didn’t affect the film negatively. In this version, like the original, Timon and Pumba are a highlight with both young and old. While I enjoyed the small changes musically, Samuel was less than thrilled certain songs were left out of from the animated film. The only issue I had, and it’s not the films fault, was that certain characters voices were very different.
4DX was a concept I had heard of and honestly, I was skeptical, but Samuel convinced me that technology had advanced enough since my last 3D experience, so I decided to go in open minded. Pleasantly surprised is an extreme understatement. Samuel’S first comment after the movie was that at one point, he thought the bugs flying across the screen were right in front of him. Here’s the thing, he’s not wrong.
The 3D is effective and did not feel like a gimmick at any time during the movie. Both of us really enjoyed it and at no time did we experience any blurring or have any issue wearing the glasses. Attendants handed out glasses and they made sure children received smaller glasses and adults the larger. I wear prescription glasses and the 3D pair fit over them perfectly.
Now the selling point for this showing was the FOUR-D, not 3D. The lighting effects that are shot against the walls/ceiling for the movie were well done and added to the ambience of the film. At no time did it take away from the movie for Samuel or me. The seats moving during the film is a nice touch, and it is done very well. It’s not overly jarring and at points is minute to where you almost forget about it altogether. That’s not to say they stop moving, but more so that it fits the movie perfectly.
Samuel did get a huge smile the first time the air blasted, and when he got slightly misted with water matching the action on screen. As someone who generally finds theaters far to chilly, I was happy to find out that you can at any time turn the mist off or on to suit your preferences. This minor point made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the film. Samuel did note that the mist was very minimal, but I enjoyed not having to find out through experience that it was not.
Overall the experience was truly pleasurable and both Samuel and I were impressed with it. Having three children and a spouse, I’m not sure I would see a lot of movies in the format as it is a bit pricier than a normal ticket. However, for special occasions and/or date nights I would certainly enjoy seeing another film in the format. If all 4DX films are handled as this one was, then I for one welcome the option.
The Lion King is now showing in 4DX in select markets.
The Golden Arrow features Tab Hunter playing a Middle Eastern man.
The film also plays as an early MGM 1960s costume adventure piece. The kicker was that it was an MGM pick from an Italian distributor who released the film 2 years prior to its American bow. Tab Hunter famously has poked fun at the film. But, what chuckles are left in a decrepit movie that was dated by the time it arrived in America?
Coming off the heels of the Hercules series and overwrought spectacles such as Taras Bulba, The Golden Arrow is almost an ironic commentary on these films of that era. Bloated to excess and lacking any self-awareness, the film wants to be taken so seriously. Yet, it’s still that terrible.
The Blu-ray comes with no special features. However, you’re getting the cleanest 2.35:1 transfer possible for a film of its age. If that wasn’t enough, you can thrill to the sounds of Tab Hunter phoning it in via DTS-HD 2.0 Mono. When Criterion releases Polyester in a few weeks, this will make for an excellent Tab Hunter double feature. For now, just enjoy the cheesy goodness bestowed upon you by Warner Archive.
The Golden Arrow is available now!
Fans can purchase at www.wbshop.com/warnerarchive or online retailers where DVDs and Blu-rays® are sold
“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” is one of those films that has stayed on my mind since January. While I initially compared the film to “The Delta Force”, Cannon didn’t have the mental capacity to do what Bay did here. Restaging the assault on Benghazi in the immediate critical view, Bay uses ambiguity as a weapon. To say that the film isn’t propaganda is a misstep. But, it’s high quality propaganda. The kind of propaganda that one doesn’t typically associate with Bay.
Benghazi remains a political hot potato that many want to forget. While it represents the continual failings of the US Intel community, the event still gets skewed by different interests groups. Bay knows how to shoot action in the way that Sirk made us care about maudlin upper class white people in the 1950s. Celebrating the hidden grandiose nature of the minute and taking base action to operatic levels creates movies that shouldn’t work. But, you feel for the members of the security team. They didn’t ask to be there and they didn’t have the bigger picture of the conflict. But, they did their jobs.
Other directors would’ve approach the film with a clear-cut agenda or trying to libsplain away the Benghazi situation. Setup in this film exists to bolster the later action. Bay chooses ambiguity to compliment his traditional theatrics, because he’s daring the audience to fill in the gaps. The diehard Bay fans will just accept the set pieces, while the ever enlightened Film Elite will try to make sense of every little nuance. Sometimes, the director is in on the joke before you. It’s up to the viewer to decide what they choose to see.
The 4K disc boasts a rather robust 2.39:1 2160p transfer. However, it’s still upscaled. It looks better than the Blu-ray, but I’m an incredible stickler for making sure we get true 4K transfers. The Dolby Atmos track will more than make up for the transfer. 13 Hours while political is still a Michael Bay movie. You come for that next-gen visual immersion and less of the special features ported over from the 13 Hours Blu-ray.
Leprechaun Returns is another one of those films that took me forever to attack. Sorry, guys. Life happens. What I do have to say is I’m stunned that it took me this long to get around to the film. I loved the original and saw it in theaters for the roughly 2 weeks in played in my local area. From there, I supported the film’s various DTV style entries as Warwick Davis remains a personal favorite. So, why try to revamp it?
The answer is…why not? Who doesn’t want to see young people get murdered by an Irish mythological figure? Thankfully, the film comes loaded with featurettes and a still gallery to pad out the time. The only downside to the film is not enough sorority girls died. I don’t mean to sound like Ted Bundy, but it’s not like he had any Leprechaun hot takes.
Why review Major League now? That was the question I asked myself when a copy of the film appeared in last week’s mail.
Major League arrived to great audience appeal in 1989. It was followed by two lesser sequels that only made America hate baseball more. This is the point where the beer or wine swilling plebian steps up to defend baseball. To that I say, have a random person on the street name a baseball player not involved in a Steroids scandal or is currently poking Kate Upton. Baseball sucks and the rest of America learned that lesson after the Bash Brothers fell from grace.
https://youtu.be/9wOyTGfa6eo
Bob Uecker is the glue that holds this film together. While fans remember Charlie Sheen’s glasses or the weird totem in the locker, true American super studs are still chuckling over Bob Uecker. There comes a point when a sports figure playing his current job in a film hits a wall. That wall is where anger and annoyance over the commonplace bleeds over into a fictional role. His measured annoyance with the Cleveland Indians is one of the greatest sports film performances all of time.
Rene Russo also stars as the woman. There is another woman, but it’s not like there wasn’t thing there for me to care about remembering her name. Corbin Bernsen and Tom Berenger also star. They aren’t playing women.
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