"Nah, it was dumber than that."
~Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt)
Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood
Warning: Spoilers Below
Hair will always be my favorite movie, full stop, but in 2019 a new movie came along that floored me, and I find myself watching about as much as I do Hair. It's the 9th film from Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood. It's smart, funny, violent, gory, sweet, shocking, and downright chilling. In other words, it's a movie by Quentin Tarantino, so as you might expect, it's complicated. But what Tarantino did was to give the audience, his audience, a chance to visit the night of August 8th,1969, and dream of a whatif scenario, like any of us of a certain age did, since the tragedy happened all those years ago. I was 8 years old when the murders occurred. I had been in Los Angeles the year before when my sister and I visited Disneyland with my sister-in-law.
We drove around all over Tinseltown, and marveled at the lights along the Sunset Strip. I will never forget the lights of the city. We drove to Malibu and through some of the canyons on day 2. Benedict Canyon was one of them! Our 5 day vacation was exciting, and wildly fun, and I still daydream about it to this day. My sister and I bonded that trip, and spent some time talking about our bother who was serving in Vietnam. Sis and I had never been particularly close, and we still aren't, in fact we haven't spoken in 25 years, but our first vacation away from our parents was filled with so much innocent fun that I feel a little sad that she and I are no longer friends, or family for that matter, because life is short.
Sharon Tate only lived 26 years. She had a younger sister too. Unfortunately they never got to live a lifetime of sisterhood, and here my relationship ended over so much self-inflicted indifference and deliberate malice that it's obscene. My heart aches for the life Sharon Tate never got to have, because of individuals filled with rage, drug induced paranoia and societal indifference. My sister acted out for similar reasons. Sharon was gorgeous, so much so that it's rumored that she was the inspiration for Malibu Barbie! And it's easy to believe, as there was a pretty strong resemblance between the actress and the doll. It's kind of a nice thought. I was a fan, even as a child. When I heard the news of her death, I was so sad, I remember discussing it with my friend Jimmy, my best friend, who would pass away himself a few short months later.
His death left a huge hole in my life, and in the hearts of everyone on our street. The kids didn't play together anymore, and the parents stopped having friendly cookouts together. No dads watching football together, or moms meeting after PTA meetings for gossip and a quick drink before the menfolk got home from work. So many times over the years I have thought about those two uniquely devastating events, and what it would be like had neither had occurred. I have played it over in my head about a million times, but it always ended up the same, that poor lady passed away, and my friend was gone at 8 years old. The End. But as it turned out, there was someone, somewhere, about my age thinking about tragedy too, and in 2019, he gave me an ending I could get lost in, to a great deal of satisfaction. It's fiction. Sharon Tate's story did occur, but as I sit here, an old lady of nearly 60, watching as tragedies happen almost daily, I am grateful to Quentin Tarantino for giving me an alternate reality to step into for a bit of relief. He couldn't bring my friend back and change the events that led to his death, but he did give Sharon Tate a different story.
Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood.
If you haven't seen OUATIH watch it. I can't recommend it enough.
