Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a film about fame, failure and the strange way history treats both. Quentin Tarantino sets his story in Los Angeles in 1969, just before the night the Manson family killed Sharon Tate. His heroes are Rick Dalton, a fading actor played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cliff Booth, his stuntman and best friend, played by Brad Pitt. They are not chasing the future. They are holding on to the past.
The film opens with Rick struggling. He has starred in Westerns and B-movies, but television has passed him by. He lives in a rented house in Benedict Canyon, drinks too much, and spends his days trying to remember the lines he cannot deliver. Cliff is his constant companion, a man who has done everything in the business except act. Together they drive around town, visit friends, and try to find a way back into working.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Rick Dalton’s Fall From Grace
Rick Dalton is a man who has lost his footing. He once had a career built on charm and presence, but now he is being typecast as the villain. He is not alone in this. Many actors of his age and station are facing the same pressure. But Rick has a problem that goes beyond talent: he cannot learn his lines. This weakness is the engine of the story.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Rick with a mix of desperation and charm. He is funny, awkward, and sad all at once. The film shows us Rick’s attempts to get back into television, and each one fails. He tries a sitcom pilot, a guest spot, a dramatic role. Nothing sticks. The camera watches him fail again and again, and the effect is not mocking. It is sympathetic.
DiCaprio carries the film with a performance that is both physical and emotional. He moves like a man who has spent years on a horse, then found himself playing a villain who rides a motorcycle instead. The tension between his physicality and his inability to memorize lines creates a character who feels real, not staged. DiCaprio’s Rick is not a hero. He is a man who is losing control, and the film lets us watch him lose it.
Cliff Booth’s Calm in Chaos
Cliff Booth is the opposite of Rick. He is calm where Rick is anxious, confident where Rick is uncertain. He is also a stuntman with a reputation for being dangerous. The film does not explain why he is dangerous. It simply shows him doing things that other men would not attempt. He is a man who knows how to handle himself, and he handles Rick with the same care he handles a difficult shot.
Brad Pitt plays Cliff with a quiet intensity. He is the one who gets things done. When Rick needs a favor, Cliff delivers. When Rick needs a drink, Cliff finds it. Their relationship is the heart of the film. Rick depends on Cliff, and Cliff depends on Rick, even though he would never admit it.
The film spends a great deal of time with these two men. It follows them through their daily routines, their arguments, their jokes. It shows us their apartment, their car, their habits. This attention to detail pays off. We come to know these characters as people, not as types.
Sharon Tate and the Manson Family
Sharon Tate is the film’s other lead, though she does not appear until late in the story. She is played by Margot Robbie, and her presence is felt from the beginning. She is young, beautiful, and pregnant. She is also engaged to Roman Polanski, who is working in Europe. She spends her days visiting friends, attending parties, and waiting for her husband to return. She is happy, and the film wants us to feel that happiness.
The threat to Sharon comes from the Manson family. Charles Manson is a cult leader who has followers living in a desert compound. The film shows the fear that builds around the danger he represents. The audience knows what is coming, and the film does not let us forget it.
Margot Robbie plays Sharon with a warmth that makes her death feel real. She is not a symbol of innocence. She is a woman with a life, a career, and a future she believes in. The film respects her, and that respect makes her loss harder to bear. Robbie’s performance is restrained, but it is effective. She does not overplay the tragedy. She simply plays Sharon as a person who is about to be taken from her.
The Manson Family’s Role
The Manson family is the film’s antagonist, but they are not the main story. They are a threat that hangs over the film, a shadow that the other characters feel without ever seeing. The film does not spend much time with them. It shows them briefly, then moves away. This is a deliberate choice. Tarantino is not interested in the killers. He is interested in the people they hurt.
The film’s structure is loose. It jumps between scenes, between days, between characters. It does not follow a strict narrative. Instead, it follows the flow of the characters’ lives. This can be confusing at times, but it also creates a sense of realism. The world of the film feels lived-in, not constructed. The characters move through it as if they have been moving through it for years.
The Manson family is a presence that the film uses to create tension. They are not the center of the story, but they give the story its stakes.
The Los Angeles of 1969
The film is set in Los Angeles, and the city is a character in itself. It is a place of wealth and poverty, of glamour and decay. The film shows us the hills, the streets, the houses. It shows us the movie studios, the communes, the cafes. It is a city that is changing, and the characters are caught between the old world and the new.
Tarantino has returned to the late 1960s, a time of cultural change. The film captures the moment when television was replacing movies, when the counterculture was rising, when the old order was falling apart. It is a world that the characters cannot understand, and the film does not pretend they can.
The film’s visual style is Tarantino’s signature. It is bright, saturated, and full of movement. There are long takes, slow motion, and sudden violence. The film is not subtle, but it is not heavy-handed either. It knows what it is doing. The Los Angeles of 1969 is a place of contradictions, and the film reflects that.
Comparing the Two Leads
| Character | Actor | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Rick Dalton | Leonardo DiCaprio | Fading actor, former star of Westerns |
| Cliff Booth | Brad Pitt | Stuntman and best friend |
The table above shows the pairing at the center of the film. Each man plays a different side of the same coin. Rick is the dreamer who cannot hold onto his dreams. Cliff is the doer who has no dreams. Together they make a whole.
The film’s final act brings the two sides together. Rick and Cliff face the Manson family, and the film ends with a moment of violence that is both shocking and inevitable. The film does not resolve the story neatly. It leaves the characters where they are, changed but still standing.
“You’re a good man.”
That line, spoken by Rick to Cliff near the end, sums up the film’s feeling. It is a simple statement, but it carries weight. The film has spent two hours showing us these men, and this line tells us what we have learned.
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is not a perfect film. It is too long in places, and some scenes feel padded. But it is a rewarding film. It is funny, sad, and violent. It is a portrait of a moment in American history, told through the eyes of two men who could not have known what was coming. It is a film about failure, but it is not a depressing one. It is a film about friendship, and that makes it worth watching.
The film ends with a question. What happens after the violence? The film does not answer. It simply shows the aftermath, and lets us imagine the rest. That is the right choice. The film has earned its ending.
