Discuss Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
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Can't wait
posted by DRDMovieMusingsSTAFFMOD on March 21, 2019 at 2:42 PM
This should be one slick period piece.
Thankfully, it is not a docu-drama - I'd have hated to see any kind of regurgitation of the same, tired, status-quo understanding of the "Manson family".
For the record, I don't think they "did it"; or, at least, not in the way it was alleged to have gone down - the operation required far too much technical/tactical skills and control for a "group of hippies whacked out on drugs"; instead a framing fits nicely into the known and documented war on the peace movement, a framing to create fear of hippie culture and undermine their collective, anti-war voice at a time when public sentiment had changed, American involvement in the Vietnam War had become very unpopular, and the country was careening towards the Kent State shootings in May 1970.
At any rate, it'll be interesting to see the story Tarantino tells, and how the real people in the movie (Tate, Sebring, Manson, Fromme) are melded in, peripherally or otherwise.
Reply by OddRob
on March 21, 2019 at 11:38 PM
Wait, you think the Manson family was set up? Didnt they admit it? And the film looks pretty good so far. Want to see another trailer to really get the tone of the film.
Reply by VHS-VANDAL
on March 22, 2019 at 12:02 AM
FLICK LOOKS AWESOME.TARANTINO CANNOT HAVE CHOSEN THAT POSTER LAYOUT THOUGH.
Reply by DRDMovieMusings
on March 22, 2019 at 12:06 AM
I do!
Could easily have been under duress. Or a payoff. Or drugs/mind control.
Yep!
Reply by OddRob
on March 22, 2019 at 1:29 AM
Hmmm you peaked my interest. Please explain your theory good sir.
Reply by DRDMovieMusings
on March 22, 2019 at 2:02 AM
Okay, get some popcorn...
Nixon wanted to escalate the Vietnam War but the youth scene was NON-VIOLENT! The hippie movement wanted to "make love, not war." It is outrageous that a "bunch of hippies" would be so violent, so bereft of respect for life as to commit such violent, shocking murders. Writing in the walls in blood? C'mon.
The stealth and tactics gaining entry onto the secure grounds required skills, experience, knowledge, communication... again, drugged out hippies executed like this? C'mon.
And the victims? If you want to hit the establishment, you hit Wall Street, not Hollywood! But, if you hit Wall Street fat cats, who would care?
Nah. The real perps hit Hollywood darlings and beautiful people, ensuring maximum media coverage. They hit them so brutally, so horrifically, so violently, they scared America away from the hippes. Now the hippy movement was in question, and what would save us from the hippies?
A new, militarized law enforcement, the gubmint. Which was unleashed less than a year later with the Kent State shooting of American kids on American soil. How did the people respond to their government? People forget - Nixon's reelection campaign was based on his "Southern strategy" (a topic for another conversation) and declaring two enemies - "the anti-war left and the blacks" (plenty of documentation on this). The bogus "war on drugs" was part of that campaign to plant drugs, charge leaders, disrupt these communities, vilify them in the media, undermine their credibility (again, lots of documentation, in fact, I just paraphrased an actual quote from a Nixon administration insider! The end of this quote was "did we know there were no drugs? Of course we did".)...
Did the strategy work? Nixon won reelection by the largest landslide victory in American history. People were scared, and needed the gubmint to protect them from hippies, who had lost their voice. The 60s were over.
From the broader perspective, within that socio-historic and political milieu, this makes more sense than some balderdash about a peace and love hippie group trying to incite some kind of war by gaining access to a secure location with the controlled execution of a crack commando squad that "ain't got time to bleed" before revelling in an orgy of drugged out violence, stabbing a pregnant woman in the belly and writing on the walls in blood - what utter poppycock.
In my humble opinion.
Reply by OddRob
on March 22, 2019 at 3:08 AM
Very interesting theory. Thanks for that. But Im pretty sure this film isnt going to go that route. Also I heard the guy that plays Manson in this is also playing him in Mindhunters season 2. So looking forward to seeing how creepy he is.