Oscars most satisfying movie, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”
This movie by Quentin Tarantino is superbly therapeutic for Baby boomers who lived through the injustice and outrage of the Chalres Manson massacre of Sahron Tate and ther three friends in August 1969. The Manson crew survived after one of the most bvrutal massacres in American history and never paid the price. Tarantino takes us back to that time and rewrites what should have really taken place in a satisfying way. Spoiler Alert. Don’t read this is you haven’t seen the film yet. But make sure you do see it.
By Ray Hanania
There are a lot of great movies this year — finally. They include “The Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix (one of the nicest guys in Hollywood), “The Irishman” with several greats like Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, “Bombshell” with Charlize Theron, and “Star Wars: A New Hope.”
But the best film of 2019, seriously, is “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in a fictionalized version of the Charles Manson massacre of actress Sharon Tate and three of her Hollywood friends in 1969.
But here’s a spoiler alert, so if you haven’t seen it, just go see it and come back and read this.
The film is Quentin Tarantino’s vision of what should have happened that horrible night, rather than what did happen. And what should have happened is so satisfying. Tex Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkel, Manson’s killers, are killed by DiCaprio and Pitt who play actors who live next door to Tate but who intercept the Manson murder crew before they get to Tate’s home next door.
Watching Pitt brutally slam Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkel’s face into a cement fireplace ledge repeatedly is so satisfying because Manson and his cohorts, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Krenwinkel, have never truly been punished. I mean truly satisfying. Krenwinkle and Atkins should have been put to death after their convictions and so should have Manson, an ugly piece of human garbage.
Watching what should have happened instead of seeing a rehash of the injustice from that August 1969 mass murder was very satisfying. No one deserved to be punished more than Manson and his brainwashed psychotic disciples.
Tarantino’s movie captures the insanity of Manson’s cult of killers perfectly portraying them as the inhumane beings that they were and still are. Why are they still alive? The movie helps the public deal with that injustice and the fictionalized killing of the murderers and Tate’s survival is wishful thinking but so soothing to the memory of that horrible time that lives in infamy ion our memories.
Besides Tarantino’s movie skills, the actors are all fabulous. It’s a great plot intertwined over the Manson killing of Sharon Tate, her three friends, and also another neighbor family, the LaBianco’s, who were robbed and murdered by the same villains. Also killed with Tate were her friend Jay Sebring, a noted hairstylist, Roman Polanski’s friend and aspiring screenwriter Wojciech Frykowski, and Frykowski’s girlfriend Abigail Folger, the heiress to the Folgers coffee fortune and daughter of Peter Folger. Polanski, Tate’s husband, was away when he murders took place.
The way each of the Manson killers are killed instead of Tate and her friends is so satisfying. The brutality reflects the lost justice that was never paid by Manson, Krenwinkel, Atkins or Watson who committed the most heinous barbaric act.
The movie is therapeutic for Baby Boomers like myself who grew up in the dark age of Charles Manson, who never really was punished properly. He should have been tortured to death and made to feel the same pain that he inflicted on others.
I’m hopeful the film will win big at the Academy Awards and receive multiple Oscars for performances, scripting and concept. The film is one of the best this year. Quentin Tarantino is the best. Thank you or the therapeutic entertainment. It is GREAT!
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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