Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman explains why the end of OnceUponATimeInHollywood is one of the defining movie sequences of the year
). And what unfurls, from that moment, is a splatterific climax of gruesomely over-the-top violence in which the Manson killers get slaughtered by Rick and by Cliff. It’s presented as a kind of cosmic payback of history, with the Manson family getting done to them what they did to others, all in the form of a garishly insane Quentin-tops-the-’70s revenge horror film.
This isn’t the first time that Tarantino has “altered history,” of course. But when he did it a decade ago in “Inglorious Basterds,” giving his World War II epic a culminating ambush in which Hitler gets killed in a B-movie inferno out of a Robert Aldrich film, he was winking at the historical liberties taken by big-budget Hollywood pulp filmmakers — and besides, there was a baseline accuracy to the scenario he presented. Hitler went to his death. The Americans led the charge to victory.
“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” takes the Manson family seriously. Prior to the night of Aug. 8, 1969, their vibe of destruction is presented as a hidden strand in the Hollywood web, and an element of the film’s drama comes from the note of dread their presence injects into the action, especially in the fantastic sequence when Pitt’s Cliff Booth pays a visit to Spahn Ranch.
I realize that Tarantino may have painted himself into a corner when he took on the Manson murders in the first place. Did anyone really want to see his authentic staging of them? And I suspect that the view I’m expressing may turn out to be a minority view.
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