Last Updated on August 2, 2021
A trailer has been released for writer/director Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, which we have been covering here on Arrow in the Head largely because Charles Manson and members of his "Manson Family" are featured in the story. You get glimpses of them in this trailer, but they're just hanging out. This trailer doesn't give any indication that there are going to be thriller elements in the film.
The trailer does introduce us to the characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The story is set in
Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor… Sharon Tate.
Tate is played by Margot Robbie, and we also see her in the trailer.
But the standout moment actually involves Mike Moh as the legendary Bruce Lee, who we see interacting with Pitt's Cliff Booth.
Beyond DiCaprio, Pitt, Robbie, and Moh, the ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD cast includes Damon Herriman (as Charles Manson), Al Pacino, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Scoot McNairy, Rafal Zawierucha, Emile Hirsch, Costa Ronin, Luke Perry, Dakota Fanning, Clifton Collins Jr., Keith Jefferson, Nicholas Hammond, Rumer Willis, Dreama Walker, Margaret Qualley, Victoria Pedretti, Harley Quinn Smith, Madisen Beaty, Danny Strong, Sydney Sweeney, James Landry Hébert, Mikey Madison, Spencer Garrett, Eddie Perez, Maurice Compte, Maya Hawke, Lena Dunham, Austin Butler, Lorenza Izzo, James Remar, Martin Kove, Brenda Vaccaro, Nichole Galicia, Zoe Bell, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Timothy Olyphant, James Marsden, Marco Rodríguez, Ramón Franco, Raul Cardona, Julia Butters, Damian Lewis, and Clu Gulager.
It remains to be seen just how deeply the film will go into the Manson Family and Tate story… and I'm actually perfectly fine if they're only in the movie as side characters that Dalton and Booth just happen to cross paths with. We'll know that there's murder and tragedy ahead, but Tarantino doesn't really need to show us that murder and tragedy. Plenty of other movies and shows already have.
Regardless, I'm going to be there to see ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD when it's released on July 26th.
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