Once Upon a Time In...Hollywood

Of course, by now everyone has heard about this highly hyped Quentin Tarantino flick set in Los Angeles in the Swingin' Sixties. People in LA actually dug the retro set dressings of the streets, rather than the usual annoyance at these interruptions of their lives, due to the hipness involved. I mean, they recreated Pandora's Box, fer chrissakes! Tarantino did a great job with the visuals and made it the LA that most people still long for - despite the craziness that was going on at the time.

Of course, Quentin has to be contrary so his two main (fictional) characters are older squares in the film industry instead of hip youngsters into the wild scene that was happening around them. At 2-1/2 or so hours long, the story does drag at times, with some extraordinarily long sequences, but the acting is well done throughout, the actors all look reasonably like the people they are playing (other than the two leads, most characters are based on real people), there are some hip cameos and, of course, the soundtrack is pretty damn phenomenal! There are at least three Paul Revere and the Raiders tunes, Seger's terrific "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man", a couple of early Deep Purple numbers, a couple by the Detroit Wheels, and, under the climactic ending, Vanilla Fudges' take on "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (among many others). The soundtrack alone is worth going for!

I'm glad that Tarantino didn't try to do a documentary (not that he ever has) and I really enjoyed the "twist" ending, but I must say that I was not nearly as impressed with the movie overall as some of the rave reviews would suggest. Certainly not his best by a long run, but enjoyable for the nostalgia factor alone, although I don't know how far that will go for people who have never experienced Hollywood in its prime.