Full Reaction to "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"

Cliff is *remembering* the time when he fought Bruce Lee. A couple of interesting things. Cliff calls Bruce “Kato.” Kato was Bruce Lee’s character on “The Green Hornet,” the set they’re supposed to be on. And when Randy(Kurt Russell)’s wife Janet comes out and says, “Oh my God! What the F**k did you do to my car?!” Janet is played by real-life stuntwoman Zoë Bell.

David Olden

It really is a different experience watching the movie when you know the actual history of what happened. Charile is the creepy guy who shows up at Sharon's place asking to see Terry. That's Charles Manson, who--in real life--was the head of a group/cult called the Manson Family, who lived at Spahn Ranch. Charlie was a wannabe musician who got to know a music producer named Terry Melcher (he worked a lot with Paul Revere and the Raiders, the band Sharon listens to throughout the movie). Charlie believed Terry could turn him into a star and when that didn't happen he decided to get revenge. He convinced his followers that they needed to start a race war between Black and white Americans and to do this they would create fear in Los Angeles by committing random murders. One of the houses he targeted was Terry's. But instead of finding Terry, the people he sent found Sharon, Jay, Abigail and Voytek. And they murdered them. Sharon begged them to spare her so her child could live and they laughed at her. Her and her friend's deaths had a devastating affect on Hollywood, turning an era of openness and acceptance into one of fear and paranoia. What Tarantino does here is give that terrible night a happy ending. He allows us to imagine a world where Sharon lived and Hollywood doesn't descend into darkness. As violent as the murder of the three Manson family members is in the film, it's hard not to feel exhilarated by them when you know what those three did in real life. If anything, it feels like QT let them get off easy.