Jay Elwes

Startlingly sadistic: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, by Quentin Tarantino, reviewed

Tarantino’s novel version of his ninth feature film tells a good story, but the language describing women is truly shocking

Quentin Tarantino. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 07 August 2021

There’s no doubt that Quentin Tarantino is a movie director of brilliance, if not genius. But can he write?

Well he can certainly tell a good story. What we have here is Tarantino’s ninth feature film, a 1960s Hollywood yarn about a fictional actor and his stunt double, but rendered in book form. Rick Dalton is the TV and B-movie actor, while his stuntman, Cliff Booth, ruined his own career by beating up Bruce Lee during a shoot. He’s now reduced to being Rick’s driver and drinking buddy. The two of them are on the slide, but things start to look up when Rick lands a role in a new cowboy TV drama.

Washed up he may be, but Rick still has his mansion in the Hollywood hills, and his new neighbours turn out to be the non-fictional actress Sharon Tate and her husband, the director Roman Polanski.

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