If Only Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood Had Been a True Story

 

On Saturday night, I went to the Brattle Theatre to see the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie (now best known for her lead role in Barbie). 

I knew the film was set in the late 1960s, so my main interest was in hearing the music from that era and it did not disappoint. Some of the songs featured in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood included "Treat Her Right" by Roy Head, Deep Purple's debut hit "Hush", Joe Cocker's version of "The Letter", Vanilla Fudge's version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" plus multiple songs from Paul Revere and The Raiders ("Good Thing", "Hungry", "Kicks" and "It's Happening). There were also some deep cuts including The Association's "Time for Livin'", my favorite The Mamas and The Papas song "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Coming to the Canyon)" as well as Jose Feliciano's rendition of The Mamas and The Papas' hit "California Dreamin'".

However, when I realized that Margot Robbie was playing Sharon Tate and other victims of The Manson Family murders were introduced as characters such as Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger were introduced, I felt an impending sense of doom that we were going to see a bloodbath. Well, I did see a bloodbath but not in the way I expected. After all, this is Tarantino we're talking about. 

Instead of breaking into the Tate residence, the Manson family breaks into the home of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and are confronted by Dalton's stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt) who kills two of the Manson family members while Dalton incinerates the third member with a blowtorch. As a result, there are no murders and Sharon Tate lives. 

If only real life had turned out that way on that fateful night in August 1969. 

Instead, seven people were killed including Tate who was 8½ months pregnant at the time. It was only last month that Manson family member Leslie Van Houten was paroled after 53 years in prison. She will enjoy a measure of freedom which Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca never got to have. 

Then again one of the reasons we go to the movies is to see the good guys defeat the bad guys. And while there is a certain amount of satisfaction in seeing the Manson Family getting their comeuppance, it only goes so far. I suppose part of the reason that movies like Midnight Cowboy and Serpico stay with me because happy endings are hard to come by in the real world. As such I'm not sure how much of Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood will stay with me in 30 days from now much less 30 years.