The film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, has garnered fanatical attention from Chinese audiences since its release.
Whether it is the golden combination of Little Plum and Pete or the signature guarantee of ghost director Quentin Tarantino, this film has had an unparalleled box office underpinning from the beginning of filming.
In fact, since its release in China for a month, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" has received high praise in terms of actor acting skills and the structure of the film's story.
In addition to the fact that the bridge section in the film where Bruce Lee was beaten by Pete fat has attracted the hostility of many Bruce Lee fans, the current score of 7.4 on Douban can be regarded as a qualified report card.
Regardless of the considerations of director Quentin, who is also a Fan of Bruce Lee, for designing the bridge where Bruce Lee was defeated, the authentic Hollywood aristocratic style depicted in the movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" alone is enough for us to put aside our prejudices and go to find out.
Rick is a movie star who has been in Hollywood for many years with a tough guy image, although he was once very famous, but the middle-aged Rick has long ceased to be beautiful, and the script role he took over has changed from the first male protagonist of the year to the villain male second.
The action stuntman Cliff, who has been bundling and cooperating with Rick, seems to be more bleak than Rick's current situation, and Cliff, who has not been able to receive a stand-in job for a long time, can only work as an assistant for a long time, helping Rick clean the house and repair the antenna, relying on Rick's meager salary to get by.
Cliff can't get a job for two reasons, one is that the good partner Rick himself has no job to do, and the former movie male number one can only reduce his value to shoot unsought-after pilot dramas, so a difficult career can be said to be self-care.
Another reason is that Cliff once "repaired" the arrogant movie male protagonist on the set of the housekeeper Randy during a work trip, and even smashed the car of the steward's wife.
Because of this, Cliff was ostracized by Randy's crew for many years, resulting in repeated setbacks in his martial arts career.
However, an unexpected conversation gave Rick the opportunity to star in an Italian Western, and it was this opportunity that allowed Rick to make some money again, and even married a beautiful wife.
During the time when Rick devoted himself to shooting Italian Westerns, Cliff still did not have much development in his career, but silently accompanied Rick and did not give up.
Six months later, Rick returned to Hollywood with his new wife and Cliff, and Rick formally proposed to break off the partnership with Cliff, and the two were ready to part ways after a drunken battle.
And on the night when the two were drunk, the surprise attack of a group of hippie youth filled what should have been a warm and sad night with the smell of blood.
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is the most painstaking work of director Quentin Tarantino in recent years, and the story of the whole film took shape, and Quentin spent five years to repeatedly revise it.
Director Quentin himself once said that "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is a summary of his many years of film career, and Quentin also very much hopes that the audience who walks into the theater to watch the film can "return to the summer of the 60s in the United States."
In fact, Quentin did. Whether it is every scene detail in the movie, or the choice of film soundtrack, or the handsome retro style of the two lead actors Pete and Little Plum, people can feel the customs and feelings of the American Western in the 1960s from the film.
Quentin unreservedly integrated his love of Westerns into the film, and Quentin did make a very similar and comprehensive reproduction of the once glorious Hollywood, which is easily reminiscent of the extreme reproduction of the Tang Dynasty in Director Chen Kaige's "The Legend of the Demon Cat".
However, many moviegoers who were conquered by Quentin Tarantino's "violent aesthetic" could not accept the slow stream of narrative style of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", after all, in the minds of most audiences, killing, blood, fist to flesh is the direct embodiment of Quentin's film work.
Therefore, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is indeed a film that is different from Quentin's previous film shooting methods, and if you can't savor the details of it, it is easy to see this blockbuster film work as a lackluster mediocre work.
In this film, in addition to presenting his emotional tribute to Hollywood and his strong love for westerns, Director Quentin also reflects and describes the tragic history of the "Manson Family Murder" that shocked Hollywood.
The actress Sharon Tate, played by "Joker Girl" Margot Robbie, is based on the story of being ruthlessly killed in the real-life murder case of "Manson Family Murder".
At that time, Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and four of her friends were slaughtered by several hippies who suddenly broke into the house, that is, members of the cult of the Manson family, and Sharon Tate was slashed several times by the murderer, bleeding profusely, and died in the blood-soaked mansion with the fetus in her abdomen, when Sharon Tate was only 26 years old.
In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sharon Tate and the child in her womb are rescued by Rick and Cliff, who live nearby, and escape a nightmarish night in the movie.
Perhaps to allow viewers to see Quentin's film in a familiar way, or to give an account of the innocent undead who were killed by the Mansons in reality, most of the few Quentin-style exclusive aesthetics of violence in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" are left to clips of Cliff and the hippie maniacs fighting fiercely.
In the end, in the Hollywood movie world framed by Quentin, the mansonists of the Manson family were madly headshot by Cliff and burned into carbon ash by Rick with a spitfire gun, if you know the historical event of the Manson family murder, you must have seen such a plot in the movie theater, you will not be able to help but stand up and clap your hands and praise.
However, even if director Quentin reinvigorated the former Hollywood in the virtual world of light and shadow, and let the "Manson Family Case", the scar of Hollywood, be artistically erased, it still cannot change the fate of Hollywood in reality.
Rick, played by Little Plum, represents the aesthetic and splendor of old Hollywood, while Cliff, played by Pitt, represents a mode of operation in old Hollywood.
Due to the decline of the tough guy style, it is difficult for Xiao Lizi to return to the altar of the first male protagonist, and with the advent of the era of alternating old and new in Hollywood, the model of actors and stand-ins represented by Cliff will eventually be eliminated by the times.
Therefore, although the director in the film makes Rick's career have a slight look, Xiao Lizi will still say such a sentence in the film with lines: "I don't know if I can hold on to it at that time."
Although Cliff, played by Pete, has always been loyal to Rick, and even finally fought with his life to save Rick's family from fire and water, he could not change the fate of parting ways with his employer in the end.
Therefore, some netizens said that "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is the closest quentin Tarantino to "Pulp Fiction" in recent years, which is indeed not an exaggeration.
However, compared with "Pulp Fiction", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", whether from the perspective of narrative techniques or film content, has less of a deliberate showmanship component, more of a true feeling that is difficult to hide, no deliberate flattery with great fanfare, not a maverick for the novelty, just want to quietly tell you a memory.
As for whether this memory is wonderful or not, whether everyone is willing to remember it, these are not important.