Everyone loves Quentin Tarantino movies (I exaggerated). Even if he hates, he loves (I gather); because Tarantino pulls out the films that are both respected and loved by everyone, but that are in between, that the discoverers think are special to them because their voices are not heard, from somewhere, places them in his own film by making a reference, so stay away from the “thing” as much as you want. , still knows how to create a scene, frame or character that will put a small smile on your face. Because he builds his films on other films that are already good or interesting, and then creates a completely different universe of his own from these films. As a matter of fact, Tarantino’s films are films that are interesting to everyone in some way and that succeed in capturing the audience from one place, if not the whole narrative universe. Unfortunately, the only reason why I made this boring entry with the theme of who is Quentin Tarantino is that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which will be released on August 23 in our country… Once Upon a Time in… to be a movie. I will explain why.
Among dozens of references from its opening to its closing, Once Upon a Time, perhaps for the first time, gives Tarantino the opportunity to say a real word, to take an open and political stance about Hollywood… In Hollywood, decipher the state of the movie industry in Hollywood’s late 60s. While making this decipher as an epic Hollywood movie with the most famous stars of Hollywood, and moreover, the story universe and reality are constantly intertwined, producing a completely different ambiguous structure after a while (André Gide’s concept of mise-én-abyme can be called the exact equivalent of this issue. The narrative mirrors itself over and over in layers, so that the “main issue” gets lost in a bottomless pit, exactly what happened in the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). When we say the film shot within the film, the production processes of the films, the dialogues of the actors about acting and performance, there is a reality that goes beyond the universe of the story due to the narration that constantly reminds us of the production process of the film we are watching, and there is a situation where this reality is always empty and means nothing. This act of “buffing the issue”, which is exactly what would be expected from Tarantino and, in my opinion, is a very political stance, unfortunately comes to naught due to the mistakes made in the narrative strategies of the film. Due to its script that hangs in places and its rhythmical editing that makes us fantasize about summoning Sally Menke’s spirit throughout the movie, the movie unfortunately falls into the void it wants to show. In his ninth film, which is more bland than the other films in the Tarantino universe, which we know with its dynamic narrative language and extremely well-planned film economy, our director obviously gets a little too excited in his love letter to Hollywood and wanders a little.
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: Tarantino’s Public Fantasy
Although the character of Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is mostly based on the legendary star actor Burt Reynolds, he was inspired by many star actors whose light was slowly fading in the 60s in Hollywood. However, Rick Dalton was created to tell everything that can be said about both acting and performance and the star system of Hollywood through a character. Concerned about his career and hung up on acting with a strange passion, the character also bears resemblance to the persona of Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays him. Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who plays Rick Dalton’s stunt double, is almost a more vital character than Rick Dalton, summarizing the industry’s view of acting for Tarantino, who prefers to decipher the industry through performance-acting, because he is an actor’s “backup”. Of course, it is not a coincidence that this love letter written to the industry and Hollywood is based on acting and not on other components such as producers and directors, but it is a very appropriate choice for Tarantino as he creates a performative persona at least as much as an actor. Perhaps one of the most successful points of the film is that the film constantly mirrors itself and takes on an interesting structure when watched considering the real-life personas of the actors.