Book Review: “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” by Quentin Tarantino

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino

I haven’t seen the movie, and frankly, I can’t imagine that it matters.  The “book version” is full to brimming with stuff that can’t possibly be found in the movie.  And, from the reviews I’ve read, the book may be better than the movie it comes from.

Because….

This is a book of nostalgia, fiction mixed with real life Hollywood to the point where you have to Google stuff just to make sure what is real and what is fictionalized.

And the joke is, of course, that this is fiction about the real life of people movie actors, whose lives are all about creating fictional lives. 

Specifically, this is about the pivotal period in the late 60s when the cultural revolution came to Hollywood.  Old style Westerns went out, new style Westerns came in. 

And the other joke is, Hollywood has always been about sex and drugs and make believe.  It is fun to watch one kind of make believe take over from another, especially since we know how the story ends.  (Hollywood is about the same, just a bit shaggier….)

So, there is much to enjoy, here.

What I didn’t enjoy so much is that the story centers on the macho, all male, cowboy movie hero culture.  I didn’t particularly like the fist fighty movies of the fifties and sixties, and don’t particularly like the men that acted in them.  The inner life and career trials of these guys just isn’t interesting to me, nor do I particularly sympathize with them.

This may have been the good old days for some, but I guess I tend to identify with the ‘new days’ only dawning in this story.  So, “yawn”.

The big question for me is, why does this book exist?   It’s obvious that Tarantino loves this stuff.  But he made a movie of it, fer goodness sake.  Who writes a novel after getting to make a movie of the story.  Especially, a story about making movies!

From what I’ve seen (trailers and snips), the movie is an impoverished version of the story.  Except for one big thing:  the color, the light, the circa 1968 cinematography.  For anyone who grew up with those movies and TV shows, this is pure nostalgia, pushing all kinds of emotional buttons.

So, yeah, I see why the movie had to be made, even if it’s not particularly appealing to me.

The book, on the other hand, is full of stories.  Stories of the “good old days”, stories of the weird scene in LA in the late sixties.  Stories about movies, movie actors, movie making.  And a lot the stories have to do with what the people were thinking inside, not what they did or said. 

So, yeah.  There is good reason for this novel to exist, too.  You can’t really understand the movie without this backstory.

Bottom line:  it’s probably worth the trouble to do both the movie and the book.  (But if you only do one of the two, I’d say read the book.)

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1. Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, New York, Harper, 2021.

Sunday Book Reviews