Quentin Tarantino's Manson murders movie

Personally I dont miss the big hits. Abd it just makes me think well it’s not a 24/7 thing, maybe they play the hits in the in-between-moments we dont see

A great thing about the aircheck is that there’s a run of like 4 songs on the official soundtrack where the day & times are in sequence “heyyy its 3:31 on Sunday”... “that was xxx it’s 3:34”

it’s so cool

Was KHJ that radically different from other Top 40 stations in the country? Maybe it was, I don't know

Dunno about radically different, but http://www.oldiesloon.com/ has an archive of various market charts. I've been listening to the top 40s of KHJ and Chicago's WLS frequently over the past three years (to mark 1966-1969) and have noticed at least a bit of variance, mostly local bands big in one market that don't appear in another.

It just seems odd to me that "I'm going to really capture what that moment felt like" virtually bypasses the most popular songs in the country.

the film is not called Once Upon A Time In The Rest Of The Country tbf

(Also must add my praise to VegemiteGrrl's blog post, exactly the kind of stuff I love to read!)

yes, VG, it was wonderful

And others', I hasten to add — I left the film not quite sure how I felt, aesthetics aside, and reading the commentary here and on the blogs posted has given me some good stuff to ponder. Will have to watch again with all that in mind.

xxpost aw thanks you guys <3

Way back in this thread I mentioned seeing the dire Hillary Duff vehicle The Haunting of Sharon Tate, and am amused to recall that it essentially had the same ending as OUATIH: after showing us the murder as it actually happened, the film doubles back into a fantasy/alternate reality where Tate et al manage to kill off the attackers, mostly as an excuse to show us the mayhem twice. Would have love to see the director's face when he watched Tarantino's film...

Cosign on Veg's essay. She reminded me of the Royal Guardsmen bit, and I was laughing all over again.

I've been listening to the top 40s of KHJ and Chicago's WLS frequently over the past three years (to mark 1966-1969) and have noticed at least a bit of variance, mostly local bands big in one market that don't appear in another.

Independent Regional Distribution was still a thing, as was, in some markets, Payola. Chicago was notorious for that, and was one of the last markets to get 'cleaned up' in the '70s.

the soundtrack seemed like stuff my parents would have actually heard a lot or listened to intentionally, and they were in the midst of high school at the time. dad loved mitch ryder

mitch ryder RULES

i am resigned to the fact that my musical taste is basically three generations worth of dad rock

haven't read the thread since Wednesday evening when I thought I was going to have an aneurysm but I just saw this again and here are some things I noticed the second time:

"Treat Her Right" by Roy Head & the Traits is stuck in my head and I hope it never leaves.

Some things I noticed this time:
-Rick's stutter (no idea how I missed this the first time)
-Everyone is always watching TV
-First sound we hear is a needle stuck in the runoff groove of a record, and that's exactly the place that Rick and Cliff are in their lives when we meet them
-Cliff's wife is actually named Natalie, didn't realize the Wagner/Wood reference was so explicit
-Shot Sharon waking up on the second day quotes Brigitte Bardot in the opening of Contempt
-Julia Butters' (little girl) stunt double!
-Maya Hawke (daughter of Uma Thurman & Ethan Hawke) as Linda Kasabian!
-Sharon petting the Maltese Falcon in the bookstore
-There's an upward tilt on a white church (or theater?) toward the beginning with some WILD old school Cinemascope spatial distortion
-the Qualley/Pitt car scene obviously quotes Save the Tiger as note upthread
-Casting so many young actors, children of actors, and the Julia Butters character are the only shreds of optimism here for our world. It echoes the transience and cruel indifference of time that John Ford explored so often.

if your stated mission is to capture actual radio playlists from that moment

wdn't ever confuse this joker's "stated mission" with his actual mission

his films remake the world in his image; that's why I don't go

and yet

and yet I saw the first fucking 6 films, so don't tell me

Altman zooms!

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8525796/3-paul-revere-raiders-mark-lindsay-once-upon-time-hollywood

“We wrote ‘Good Thing’ under the beam where the rope was apparently thrown over Sharon and Jay’s necks,” says Lindsay, still astounded by the extreme violence. “When we heard about what occurred, it was the biggest shock of my life because that was the last place that I could ever think something bad could have happened.”

I've got a few thoughts on the film.

The band began as a lark between him and Revere (real name: Paul Revere Dick)

That's quite something...The Raiders' "Him Or Me – What's It Gonna Be?" belongs to a genre I invented--yes, me--called Imitation Monkees, made up of excellent Monkees imitations wherein the creators may or may not be oblivious to the irony of imitating the Monkees. Also: the Five Americans' "Western Union," the Move's "Wave the Flag and Stop the Train," and the Lewis & Clarke Expedition's "Destination Unknown." I get stuck there--it's a small genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuXcfa2OKqU

excellent Monkees imitations wherein the creators may or may not be oblivious to the irony of imitating the Monkees

At least in the Raiders' case, they were probably oblivious because they thought they were ripping "19th Nervous Breakdown"--era Stones (more obvious on their prior single "Ups & Downs"), but instead landed on Monkee Island. Used alot of the same session players too.

So this week my 13-y.o. daughter and her two friends were away for several days at a friend's family's beach house, and on Thursday the dad decided to take them to see a movie. He read "Brad Pitt," "Leonardio Decaprio," "Once Upon a Time"—noted that it was rated R, but they had seen R movies before—and decided that would work, dropped them off at the theater.

The ticket person refused to sell them tickets, because they are 13. So they bought tickets to some kids movie just to get in. My daughter has no idea about the Manson family, none of the historical context. Her takeaway: 1) it seemed like just a nice movie almost all the way through; 2) right at the end it got suddenly super violent without much warning, and for reasons that weren't clear; and 3) the crowd full of "old people" seemed not to react at all to this terrible violence, and this seeming indifference struck them as completely absurd and made them laugh, though really they were laughing nervously and were considerably dismayed.

I was preparing to send an email to this guy, like, do your due diligence wtf, but he preempted with a thoughtful apology of his own, said he had no idea it was Tarantino or what the movie was about : /

and now I guess I'm going to have to subject myself to it as well just to understand what she saw

also she said "but daddy I don't understand what the function of this movie was, or what the fillmaker's purpose is, it seems like mere culture fetishization, a pastiche of empty period references pretending to describe the american experience ironically by foregrounding its hollowness and superficiality, but inadvertently exposing the his own vapidity, revealing the extent to which his own, poor sense of self is contingent on arbitrary pop signifiers"

(I really didn't come in here to throw bombs, sorry I can't help it! I will tell her that Reservoir Dogs is p tight and to check that out in a few years)

idk 13 is like prime Tarantino years

also she said "but daddy I don't understand what the function of this movie was, or what the fillmaker's purpose is, it seems like mere culture fetishization, a pastiche of empty period references pretending to describe the american experience ironically by foregrounding its hollowness and superficiality, but inadvertently exposing the his own vapidity, revealing the extent to which his own, poor sense of self is contingent on arbitrary pop signifiers"

flappy xp I think you are right, shld be his wheelhouse demographic

Saw this twice. Enjoyed, feels somewhat slight. Agree with Alfred that Spahn Ranch is best orchestrated scene.

Seeing Luke Perry made me sad.

Mike Moh really had Lee's voice down, except for the fighting wails. Too loud and exaggerated rather than the menacing, constricted ones Lee was famous for.

the guy's face gets bashed in at the ranch, that's pretty violent, maybe not compared to the end.

I thought this Sam Adams piece was good: https://slate.com/culture/2019/08/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-ending-tarantino-violence.html

This was my favourite tarantino of the kill bill and after era. I thought there were lots of missteps, probably half the movie is close ups of people driving, and honestly I just don't really connect with the whole alternative reality,but the soundtrack is great,the pastiches are great, the look of 60s LA is pretty good (not as good as inherent vice in conjuring the lost LA of the past imo), pitt and DiCaprio's relationship is the film and they're good together. A plus dog acting also

It felt so much less baggy the second time. The hour where "nothing happens" is the heart of the film and has the most moving sequence of QT's whole career with Sharon Tate going to the Bruin.

Have we talked about how this movie is bookended by "glamorous couple returns to L.A. from overseas" montages?

I hated the depiction of Bruce Lee (who is definitely losing the fight when it's broken up) and the whole "cliff murdered his wife and got away with it, (she was mouthy and he had a harpoon gun so who can blame him?) isnt that funny?" thing felt off to me.

All the stuff on the set of Lancer was enjoyable to me.

the Cliff maybe possibly probably murdered his wife thing isn’t meant to be funny, it’s another indication of how you should be wary bcz he is capable of horrible violence, not settling for being charmed by his smile

haven't seen this yet but expect I will like the nothing happens part

Found most of the Leo on set stuff really dull tbh. Though enjoyed his flubbing/trailer freakout/redemption.

Pitt really carries this imo.

The Bruce and Sharon flashback during the Wrecking Crew scene is so poignant and makes me want to defend this movie like I never have w/ QT’s work tbh.

the Cliff maybe possibly probably murdered his wife thing isn’t meant to be funny, it’s another indication of how you should be wary bcz he is capable of horrible violence, not settling for being charmed by his smile

― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Saturday, August 3, 2019 5:52 PM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's definitely meant to be funny. The scene on the boat is clearly a darkly comic scene. The references to it by other characters such as Bruce Lee are meant to be funny ("oh, that guy?", and "your creepy wife-murdering ass" are both meant to be funny lines). Theres no dubiety

dubiety is a word I never knew before, thank you

the scene on the boat is played such as to try and catch people out laughing complicity, yeah - but the complicity is the point. The actual fact that he may have murdered his wife isn’t the joke.

I’m not entirely sure how the wife murdering detail really serves the character. Seems like a cheap, unnecessary way to show he’s capable of violence? We know he is without it.

it speaks to why he’s at this situation in his career - he can’t get work without Rick’s largesse. and it’s up in the air as to whether Rick is the only person who definitely believes Cliff isn’t a wife-murderer

and we don’t know he’s capable of violence at all before the boat scene iirc? probably gonna go again this week

they're amalgams of several different contemporary male actors. Robert Wagner was on tv around this time and Cliff's wife is named Natalie. I think the movie knows it is being dismissive of this aspect of Cliff's personality & past - it mimics the blasé attitude of everyone around him.

along with the other corroborating moments, it establishes him as being a) capable and b) quick to, extreme violence - and the suggestion of being no stranger to violence against a woman sets up the ending imo

I live in the rabbithole now and found out some additional trivia re the use of Dee Clark’s 1959 Hey Little Girl

the aircheck you hear the KHJ jingle “🎶KHJ🎶 and then they sing 🎶GOLDEN🎶 - that was the signature for when they would play older hits from the past 10 years or so. They had others little signatures too, but it was all part of “Boss” radio giving djs more freedom to mix up the records

and apparently QT liked the song because of fond memories as a kid from seeing it sung in American Hot Wax (Clark Otis is meant to be Dee Clark) when he watched it with his upstairs neighbor Floyd - he said a lot of Sam Jackson’s roles are variations on Floyd.