Epic is about the lost virtue of loyalty
Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, recently notched an important milestone when it exceeded $100 million (U.S.) in domestic box-office take.
It’s the first movie with original content to reach that mark this summer, and likely will be the only one. It’s also just the second original story this year to hit the $100-million gong, the other being Jordan Peele’s horror film Us.
This is a gratifying development and not just because Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is such a great movie, which it is. I liked it even better after a second viewing, having first seen it during the whirl of its world premiere at Cannes in May.
It demonstrates that movie watchers in this era of endless sequels and formula franchises are still willing to go to the theatre to see a film where the characters aren’t known and the story isn’t a foregone conclusion.
I can’t think of any other film this year that has prompted so many people, friends and strangers alike, to come up to me and want to talk what they’ve seen, which is always a good thing.
It’s also occasioned an abundance of think pieces on a variety of topics, which is another good thing.
Is Margot Robbie’s guileless Sharon Tate symbolic or silenced? Is Mike Moh’s arrogant Bruce Lee a tribute or travesty?
Did Tarantino make the proverbial “love letter to Hollywood” or is he wickedly lampooning the place? Is he mocking the Manson Family killers or recognizing the enduring infamy of their terrible crimes?
Discuss — which people are surely doing. But one thing that I think has escaped wide notice, yet which I believe has a lot to do with the film’s appeal on a subconscious level, is how much it makes of the virtue of loyalty, a rare thing in this day and age.
I’m not talking about friendship, which is the surface construct of the movie’s main narrative about Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth.
Fading TV western star Rick and his stuntman double Cliff are nominally friends, although Rick treats Cliff as more of a lackey, calling on him to not just “carry the load” of dangerous stunt work, but also to toil as his chauffeur and do such menial tasks as fixing his TV antenna.
“Sounds like a good friend,” Al Pacino’s agent character Marvin Shwarz says of Cliff, when he first meets him and discovers how much he does for Rick.
“I try,” Cliff responds with a grin. The line will have a lot more meaning when it’s repeated later in the film, but the fact is, Cliff does more than try, he does, even at peril to his own safety. Yoda would like this guy, would he, indeed.
Anyone can claim to be a friend of somebody, as multitudes of phoney Facebook pals and “likes” can attest. But loyalty has to be proven and Cliff’s loyalty knows no bounds.
It extends beyond Rick to other people and animals. In the scene where Cliff visits the Spahn Ranch hangout of the Manson Family — no spoiler here, it’s in the trailer — he insists on checking on the safety of old pal George Spahn (Bruce Dern), even though the Manson freaks make it abundantly clear they want him to leave.
And Cliff is positively mindmelded with his beloved pet pit bull Brandy, whom he feeds more nutritious meals than he does himself, protein for the pooch vs. Kraft Dinner for Cliff. (Taste may be another matter: Brandy’s “Wolf’s Tooth” dog food comes in “rat” and “raccoon” flavours.)
Cliff shows loyalty without expecting any in return, which is another remarkable thing about him. He gets a little bit from Rick, who fights to have Cliff remain as his stuntman despite unproven backlot gossip that the death of Cliff’s wife was no accident.
He gets a lot more from Brandy, who is the dog you want in your corner when things really go weird. Brandy may woof the canine version of “I try” but, like Cliff, she’s loyal to the core, not just liking other mutts on social media.
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood says a lot about love and hate within its 1969 setting of the summer of Woodstock and Charles Manson. It says a lot more about the increasingly forgotten virtue of loyalty.
The loyalty of Brad Pitt’s character knows no bounds. And it extends beyond his pal to other people and animals