MovieChat Forums > Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019) Discussion > Almost cried at the end of this...*spoil...

Almost cried at the end of this...*spoilers*


A lot of people who saw this movie are shrugging their shoulders going, "I don't get it." But having similar sensibilities to QT, I kind of get it.

I don't know how to explain this, but sometimes if you're really into something (art, music, fashion, politics, etc.), you become sentimental about certain periods in history when you felt that this thing had hit its peak and there was nowhere to go but up. But then it turns out that just when it hit its peak, something horribly tragic cuts it short and changes the course of that thing forever. As a result, you wind up obsessing about "what could have been" to the point where you keep wishing you could go back in time and change things.

For example, if you're really into progressive politics, it might really sting that JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X were killed, to the point where you can't help but thinking, "Man, imagine what our country would be like if they hadn't died? Imagine if the worst that happened was that they were grazed," or, "What if someone had stopped the killers in time?"

Or maybe you're into music or comedy or whatever, and an idol of yours died tragically (for example, John Lennon, John Belushi or Kurt Cobain), and their death had such impact that you felt as if music or comedy "died" or was changed forever. And all you do is keep thinking, "Oh, man, if only John Lennon had been winged," or, "Belushi never took that hit of coke."

When I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this is the feeling I got from it. It was QT engaging in a wish fulfillment fantasy in which he was thinking, "What if Sharon Tate had been saved? What if the Manson family had been stopped? Then Old Hollywood would've never died, and it would've never lost its innocence."

I know that doesn't make sense but the Tate murders were kind of like the 9/11 of Hollywood at the time. (Please don't yell at me; I'm from NYC.) That incident was a complete game changer. Up until that point, everyone had romanticized and glamorized Hollywood as this totally fun, beautiful place where you could fulfill your dreams, people had fun and nothing bad could ever happen. But then when the Manson murders happened, the balloon was popped, and old, glamorous Hollywood was replaced by this uglier, seedier Hollywood.

This is what I felt as I was watching the movie. Even though there were a lot of crude jokes and everything, it was a very sentimental, kind of bittersweet movie where he was lamenting the loss of Old Hollywood and creating this wish fulfillment fantasy/fairy tale where it never died. Sharon Tate and her friends get to live long and happy lives, and Old Hollywood (represented by Rick Dalton) gets to carry on.

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Very well stated! Beautiful post! I loved the ending of this film...it's just so crazy to see a Tarantino film with a happy ending. It was awesome.

I really enjoyed the film as well for the atmosphere of Hollywood in the 60's, and the music. Brilliant performances all around. I enjoyed the film more after thinking about it than I did after I actually finished the film in theaters.

Anyways, loved your post, and completely agree. Also loved that I was actually able to go to the movies and see an ORIGINAL film for once! We need more!

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Very well stated! Beautiful post! I loved the ending of this film...it's just so crazy to see a Tarantino film with a happy ending. It was awesome.


Yeah, I was a little confused initially. I was like, "Wait...this is a sweet movie? From Tarantino?! Huh???" Then I got home and I was like, "Awwwww..."*sniffle*

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Wow great post here. I agree with you whole heartedly. The ending was very sad for just the reasons you have stated. Magnificent film!

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Wow great post here. I agree with you whole heartedly. The ending was very sad for just the reasons you have stated. Magnificent film!


Thank you. It's a much better film than people are giving it credit for, but I can understand why some people are not liking it. It's probably the most "sentimental" movie QT has ever made, and it's kind of...well, weird to think of him doing this type of film.

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Couldn't agree more

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One of my problems is that's definitely the message of the film, but it took so long getting there I didn't care any longer.

My big problem with this movie is if you're not a history buff, this movie is completely nonsensical. I experienced great tension and dread waiting for the final scene (despite very much suspecting what happened cause we spent so much time with these other characters.) I'm very curious what those total newbs out there who aren't brushed up their 60s history thought of this movie.

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Yep.. I sat next to some older ladies who I swear came to see a movie about the Manson murders. They walked out totally disgusted and stood by the exit and gave their opinions to people walking by.

I, on the other hand loved all the talk of Italian B films and would have loved it if the story would have included what happened in Italy during filming. Yep, History and film buffs were in heaven while others were thinking half the movie was mindless filler.

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This movie is not for everyone and QT should make the movie he wanted to make instead of making a crowd pleasing movie.

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I believe he did this with Death Proof.

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I don't think so. I am really surprised that people hated Death Proof as much as they did. i found it thrilling.

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It’s my favorite of all his films. I’m saying it’s the film he wanted to make that most people didn’t get.

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Probably, but we will have to see how this one is received. It is too early to get enough opinions about it yet. Jackie Brown, Death Proof and OUTH are the three films that have left audiences scratching their heads. I do think that Jackie Brown has had a lot of years to grow on people, but when it first came out people weren't very receptive to the movie. It had a big opening week, but it faded quickly after that. After that, QT didn't release another movie for 7 years.

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Great post.

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my wife cried.

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Great post & thanks for sharing!

I just saw got back from my second viewing of OUATIH and both times I choked up during the last scene.
Seeing those happy victims alive was jarring in a nostalgic and sentimental way
QT got his revenge by killing the hippies and letting the Tate household live.
Rick gets in tight with Tate and Polanski and ends up, with Cliff by his side, in a big starring role in Polanski’s next film.
The old Hollywood lives on .
That’s what I took away from this great film.

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I get your observation about QT's wish fulfillment aspect. The only problem with that imho is that it doesn't make sense because if the murders were averted you're assuming Hollywood's "innocence" would have stayed intact.

UM WHAT INNOCENCE? America had already gone thru the turmoil of the assassinations, the fallout over the Tet Offensive and the lingering on of the Vietnam War itself. Television was already replacing the Hollywood Studio system as the Go-to medium for people to engage with current events and being influenced by media. Radio was also making huge inroads into mass media so more Americans were less inclined to spend entire weekends at the cinema like they did in the early 50s and before.

I'm sorry but I don't really hold much a candle up to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski as being this era of Hollywood's last great hope. They were indeed an "IT" couple but every year there's a new one or two more to compete and replace them. If anything, the Manson murders reflected the perversion of the American Dream as the cult itself was driven by a man obsessed with fame and fortune fueled by psychedelic and other illicit drugs, but it was never realized. QT could have avoided banging around the bush and been 150% Edgier had made a movie about Charlie and his cult followers as the main focus. Leo and Brad's characters were loosely based on Burt Reynolds and his stuntman too and their careers blossomed well into the 70s so it's strange to think that their era had passed because Manson.

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I get your observation about QT's wish fulfillment aspect. The only problem with that imho is that it doesn't make sense because if the murders were averted you're assuming Hollywood's "innocence" would have stayed intact.


You're arguing with me as if I was the one who made the movie.

I wasn't talking about what I felt about the Tate murders and Hollywood. I was talking about how QT did. He romanticized the 1960s as being the last years of the golden age of Hollywood, and felt that the Tate murders were the turning point where Hollywood was a place of dreams and happiness and became more synonymous with sleaze and violence that came later (the Wonderland Murders, Dorothy Stratten getting murdered, Bob Crane getting murdered, etc.). This is a feeling that a lot of people who heard about the murders felt at the time, that Old Hollywood was over, that it had lost its innocence, that it was no longer this place where a beautiful young woman like Sharon Tate could go to Hollywood and have big dreams and live a happy life. QT was obviously one of those people who felt this way and wanted to express that "what could have been" feeling.

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Well, my Dad lived through this era and was a big movie fan and also did below the line production work for Universal Studios and he always said that the Golden Age of Hollywood faded in the early 60s and culminated with the death of Marilyn Monroe. He also experienced the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and many of excesses that were killing off Rock icons was going on before the Manson Murders took place. Hollywood was pretty much in a stagnant and precarious stage in the mid to late 60s with a few groundbreaking movies like 2001 and The Graduate but it was nothing like the previous decades.

QT captures the spirit of that era in a strange way as well because he's seeing it through a filtered lens. He was just a child of 5 or 6 in 1969 so his nostalgic take on the 60s is about as accurate as it was in Inglorious Basters and The Hateful Eight.

I just don't buy into the argument that Golden Age Hollywood was in full swing in 1969.

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