false news
by Douglas Messerli
Quentin Tarantino (writer and director) Once
Upon a Time…In Hollywood / 2019
My husband Howard had to do some insistent
coaxing to get me to see Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time…In
Hollywood; although I’d seen a number of his films previously, I’ve never
been a great admirer of his bad-boy macho heroes who spend a great deal of time
on screen torturing, murdering, and quite literally torching anyone who they
don’t much like.
Most of the movie attempts to recreate what it was in those days, diving into the legendary Muso and Frank Restaurant, famed drive-in movies, studio shooting sites, the popular El Coyote restaurant near where Howard and I live (one of the very worst restaurants in which I’ve even eaten), and other popular venues, such as the Playboy Mansion and the Westwood movie theater in which Tate’s absurd film, The Wrecking Crew, was showing, as well as, most importantly the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, where Dalton had previously filmed many of his sessions of his popular series Bounty Law, and which the Manson clan have now taken over, much to the stoic reaction of Cliff Booth, Dalton’s loyal stunt-double, as he challenges their right to be there, seeking out his former director friend George Spahn (Bruce Dern).
But the true focus of this meandering film, fortunately, is not on the
terrifying Manson group (showing up in one sequence in full force a bit like a
terrifying clan out of a science fiction film), but upon the bromance between
Dalton and his stunt-man, Cliff Booth (wonderfully performed by Brad Pitt), who
drives the now declining actor Dalton throughout the magical city in a way that
you can only wonder what their relationship really is, a close friendship, maybe
a little less than a marriage, but clearly something which in Hollywood doesn’t
much get talked about—or perhaps is far too much hinted, a gay relationship
that isn’t entirely sexual.
The more than average well-written essay on Wikipedia declares that
Booth’s and Dalton’s relationship was “inspired” by a vast array of actors who,
after becoming famous for their films, quickly lost their mojo as the 60s,
moved forward into new territory: including Burt Reynolds (who would have been
in this film had he not died shortly before filming), and who had a close
relationship with his stunt-double, the role Cliff Booth plays.
In
our early days of living in Los Angeles, all of the gay producers we met
proclaimed that Reynolds, who openly toyed on film with the idea of being open
to male/male relationships, was dying of AIDS. He most definitely wasn’t, but I
think his image of a macho man who also eyed his fellow actors for their
beauty, made him open to such speculations. Other “influences” include Ty
Hardin, George Maharis, Edd Byrnes, Tab Hunter, Vince Edwards, and Fabian
Forte, most of these figures who were known to be gay or at least rumored to
be. This is clearly no accident—there are never real “accidents” in Tarantino’s
films—and the relationship between the violently macho Booth and Dalton is
nearly inexplicable if there isn’t a sexual frisson between them. It is
even suggested that Booth killed his wife, although we’re never given a full
explanation of why and how he escaped arrest.
But his friendship with Dalton is clearly deeper than what he might have
recognized in any connubial relationships the two may have had. The two not
only drive together around town, often sleep in the same rooms, and drink
together, even after Dalton marries an Italian hottie, preferring his
stuntman’s company to hers. If these two men never have sex, it’s quite
apparent that, as somewhat mirror-images of one another, they’re in love.
Fortunately, Dalton’s new wife, after his last round of film-making in Italian
Spaghetti Westerns, is a kind of narcoleptic figure who, even after their house
is attacked by the Manson group, takes enough sleeping-pills to keep her quiet
and out of the picture.
I
have now given away, of course, something that Tarantino begged critics not to
reveal at his movie’s Cannes showing. Spoiler alert: Tarantino, as usual,
despite his careful study of the time and events, loves to re-bend history. As
in his film Inglorious Basterds this director warps time in order to
reclaim the horrors of our history. Hitler is destroyed long before he actually
was. And instead of the horrific stabbing and killing Sharon Tate and her
friends at their 10500 Cielo Drive address, the confused Manson gang attempt to
kill Booth and Dalton, after a night where Booth has smoked an acid-laced
cigarette and Dalton is cooling out in his pool.
Yes, there is more Tarantino violence, some of it almost unbearable to
watch, but these are, after all, monsters who deserved to be destroyed, even by
a huge flame-thrower towed out of Dalton’s garage. It’s hard to feel sorry for
the Manson murderer’s death, or even more Hitler and his associate’s inferno in
a movie-theater.
In Tarantino’s films history is never dead, but gets replayed,
re-perceived, and completely altered. He gives us an alternative history we
might better endure. But, as our current President keeps shouting, it is truly
false history. Even if we might love it, it “ain’t the facts jack.” And there
is something dangerous in its myths. Booth, wheeled off in an ambulance, is a
false hero, despite the former Viet Nam survivor he might have been, a figure
only in the fictions of film mythology which Tarantino so loves. The question
this director never truly confronts is the reality we all need to face.
The Manson monsters were not stopped. They killed actually many more
people. Dictators and blindly selfish leaders are not killed before their time.
Trump still lives, and so too Vladimir Putin, Kim Jo-Un, Rodrigo Duterte, Jair
Bolsonaro and so many others. Tarantino’s works are wonderfully quirky myths
that, alas, do not satisfy my reality.
And perhaps, even more importantly, despite the deep love of Booth and
Dalton, it could never fully exist in their time due to the general homophobia
of the society which surely these two shared.
Los Angeles, August 22, 2019
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (September
2019).
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