Violence is the Answer
WARNING: Spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ahead
The end of this movie. THE END OF THIS MOVIE. It came out of NOWHERE. After a whole 2+ hours of normal, mundane plot (or at least as normal and mundane as the lives of celebrities who cross paths with the likes of a cult-leader can be) the audience is suddenly gobsmacked with a bloodbath. Now, obviously there had to be a shock factor that director Quentin Tarantino was going for, but I’m sure he was not aiming for the reaction that I had…which was to laugh my head off for twenty minutes straight.
While the shock of such a drastic plot change certainly helped me lose my mind for a minute, I was laughing because I find the end of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to be absolutely genius. Now, I have not had a conversation with Mr. Tarantino himself and therefore cannot be certain of his motives to create this film, but ever since I saw this movie I’ve imagined the whole thing started from the concept of how they could save Sharon Tate.
Again, I am not sure that this is what happened, but the thought that the creators of this movie fabricated whole people and the stories of their lives in order to change a true, devastating event in history just blows my mind. This is another reason why I’m drawn to the entertainment industry. Art is only limited by the bounds of imagination, and– as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood shows– if you want to go back in time and save lives you can. In movies, TV, theatre, books, etc. you can ascend the laws of science and the limitations of reality, and who wouldn’t want to do that?
Work Cited
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, Sony Pictures Releasing, 2019.
