Lot's of legitimate complaints about slaughter films here. This movie is just too close to home. I am uncomfortable watching a bunch of rich guys make more money off a story of those who were brutally murdered. The more attention Manson gets, the more I want to hurl.
When we watch Game of Thrones, it is pure fantasy. You can almost excuse the excessive mayhem and suffering. Almost. It's just fiction. It's akin to watching a Godzilla film.
When QT makes films he gives us a view of the ulgliest underside of contemporary humanity. Pure evil and gore ... and we can see him wallowing in it's horror. He doesn't even suggest that his most violent characters are bad people. We are to celebrate them! Why is that successful?
Next on QTs list will need to be a Holocaust film. I am sure he can portray some Nazi officers driving around, making jokes as the ashes fall around them. Come on Tarantino, there is lot's more horror in our history to feed on!
And after QTs comments about Weinstein, we get a fuller picture of who this person could really be. Creeps me out.
30
I will watch this film when it comes out in a theatre near me.
13
I still remember the day we heard about these gruesome murders, and I would not like to see a retelling. I laughed out loud when I read that Damian Lewis would play Steve McQueen. The Manson murders were not funny or worthy of bad parody,
but then Tarantino never has had good taste.
22
It's troubling that Tarantino is not called on his love and adoration for Roman Polanski who is a child rapist. Why is that still okay? Why are you so able to discuss Hollywood history and Tarantino's nostalgia and completely forget - not even gloss over - the toll it took on women, and on girls. Tarantino is determined to go back to the old order and the old order is powerful.
19
I lived in Hollywood in 1969 and shared an apartment up in the hills with two other girls, We went out and bought a shotgun, it was a dark time.
34
I certainly can't wait to see it. I was there in 69, an 18 year old
musician visiting a former band mate who had moved to LA. He invited us to a outdoor pool party in Laurel Canyon he was playing at one night, which in retrospect, was very much like a Tarantino movie set.
There certainly was a palpable feeling in the air during the time of the Manson Murders.
24
I look forward to seeing it. There is a lot of nostalgia in the mix as I moved to LA when I was 11 in the late 1950’s. Easy breezy is how it felt for a long time.
9
I'm sincerely curious why it's not a bigger deal to people that Tarantino admitted last October that he indeed knew about Harvey Weinstein's multiple sexual assaults, even saying he "knew it was more than just accusations, I didn't do anything about it", but they're so quick to boycott Woody Allen. (Let me stress, I think the Allen boycott is warranted and long overdue)
Tarantino enabled the abuse and exploitation of women but for whatever reason, this is ignored or rationalized by folks who want to celebrate another star-studded Cannes hit. I really don't get it- the enablers of abuse are in many ways just as bad as the abusers.
66
I’m so relieved to see this as the first comment as I have not stopped thinking about it since the revelation you cite (...in this same publication). He was a longtime favorite beforehand but knowing this says too much about his character, and I’m blocked from enjoying anything further. I truly, deeply do not understand why he hasn’t been excoriated within the community as well as outside of it. Thank you for posting your comment.
32
Two great articles from Ms. Dargis on this film -- unlike a short article by Ms. Dargis's colleague, Farah Nayeri, which I'm surprised the editors even ran but, heh, I guess they needed something had to justify Ms. Nayeri's plane ticket to France.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/movies/quentin-tarantino-margot-robbie.html?searchResultPosition=1
In her article, Ms. Nayeri explains the film "revolves around the August 1969 murder of the actress Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie" and then notes Ms. Robbie does not have many speaking lines.
The article then notes, at a news conference, in response to Ms. Nayeri's question that the lack of dialogue must have been "a deliberate choice on his part," Mr. Tarantino curtly replied, “Well, I just reject your hypotheses.”
He responded this way because the film is not about Ms. Tate. Ms. Robbie's character in the film is an object, an ideal. Ms. Robie as ideal was addressed earlier in the press conference -- and to anyone that has watched the trailers.
I'm sorry Ms. Nayeri but QT's BUDDY picture homage to 1969 Hollywood isn't the place for a Bechdel test discussion or the place to question the amount of lines given to the female lead. Give the gender wars a rest for a minute. With Kill Bill, QT has already done more girl power in film than some female industry leaders.
There's nothing stopping females in Hollywood like Sophia Coppola or Amy Pascal from telling Ms. Tate's story. Give QT his due, he's a genius.
38
Tarantino's movies are offensive and there is nothing to laugh at regarding the Manson murders. I wish Hollywood would stop going along with his self indulgent obsession with violence, especially violence toward women.
58
I wish posters here would stop saying things like "its too soon" for these murders to be made into a movie....Yes, they were a tragedy as every murder is. And the fact that Sharon Tate was about 9 months pregnant when killed, not mentioned in the review, just makes it all worse.
Think of the many other movies made about serial killers and the like, such as the newly released one about Ted Bundy, for example.
Also: just fyi: the record producer, who was supposed to be at that house, where the murders took place, on that night, was Doris Day's son.....who Manson thought had cheated him out of a record label deal.
18
Terry Melcher
8
I wonder if Kurt Russell would have been a better pick
than Brad Pitt.
@John Brown:
a bit elderly, I'd think (I'm the same age as Russell!)
5
@RLiss
Yes, but a better actor than Brad Pitt
and more realistic as someone who
almost made it.
5
@John Brown
Wow. JB, why not just come out and say you think
Kurt should have played the part? Why the coy question?
And of course you’re wrong about his being a better actor than Pitt. That’s why Kurt is someone you consider a “ almost made it” candidate as opposed to Pitt who became a superstar.
Personally, I’m a fan of both. But recognize the difference.
19
It is a black comedy ... got some pretty great reviews at Cannes ... not sure this reviewer understands what a black comedy is
6
@joey
What is funny about people being
slaughtered alive ?
16
Do you really imagine that this will be one of the funny bits?
@John Brown
Granted, it’s not funnier than a redundant turn of phrase like “slaughtered alive”; it’s impossible to slaughter what’s not already alive.
7
Still he feeds off a real tragedy with a meticulotus yet hectic ambition of longing for at least equally alluring beam of a shine of the legend’s life. Couldn’t wave it off while watching this movie shot just right for the Cannes’ red carpet. Corrupt art is not an art anymore.
5
" ... a chattering Lena Dunham (!) that fills the movie with dread ... "
So then, she wasn't acting -- merely playing herself.
15
Tarantino is the absolute master of the sharp left hand turn.
Most other movies nosedive after a sharp shift in gears, Tarantino movies take a step up and deliver the goods. One minute you are belly laughing, then later in the same scene, cringing and looking away from the screen with disgust.
Can't wait!
16
200 PC points should be delivered to the writer's account immediately.
When Rick enthuses about Polanski, it is hard not to hear Tarantino’s voice in the character’s excitement. For a long time, Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) seems like a near-cartoon of a familiar Hollywood success story: the wildly talented director with a beautiful actress-wife and a wide open future as well as a string of fabulous critical and box office successes.
5
A Quentin Tarantino film that reincarnates “The King of Cool,” Steve McQueen, as channeled by Damien Lewis, is already worth the price of admission.
23
Love the photo -- like a Mt. Rushmore of spray tans.
52
Tarantino according to many is a “genius” although, it always appeared to me as entitled egotistical sociopath. His tantrums, his verbal abuse towards others, his lack of respect for women, appears to be swept under the rag.
42
@RBR have you got some inside information you're not sharing with us? Otherwise you comments look like slander to me. Tarantino may be one of the enfant terrible of Hollywood but I don't recall hearing much about him being an abusive director in terms of treating the people around him poorly.
15
@RBR talent and manners are not the same thing.
7
Quentin Tarantino = champion of graphic violence and fanboy of misogynistic male murderers since the 1990s.
27
@Evan Durst Kreeger:
speaking as a woman, I disagree.
His characters are good or bad irregardless of gender.
11
Maybe a better title would be: "Hollywood Holocaust."
If it were completely fictional, I perhaps could enjoy it, but then again, I would hope not. There's just no pleasure in murder contemplated and executed: "Crime and Punishment" is not escape literature.
(Would have loved a '60s Hollywood bromance with Brad and Leo. But such is just not Tarantinean. So I'll await the next "Mission Impossible," where everyone does, in fact, live happily everafter.)
At the movies, for my money, middle-brow tastes must rule.
5
Tarantino is at his best when he immerses himself in movie tropes, movie history, and the greater ethos of moviemaking. This article does a great job articulating this—it may have something to do with love. If a director doesn’t love his or her subject, they’re not likely to inspire their audience. Like other commenters here, I’ve grown tired of Tarantino’s shtick (largely because he applied his popcorn-‘n-violence aesthetic indiscriminately to historical realities beyond his grasp), but this feels like something I might be able to get behind.
6
Tarantino has a penchant for creating a great soundtrack for his movies, and this being set in 1969, he's got a lot of great material to work with. Looking forward to see this one.
40
The trailer looks promising. The look of the film as far as I can gather from this preview honors 1969 time and place with striking authenticity, from costuming and set decoration and an intruiging cast selection.
Tarantino is a talented film director ,a movie geek steeped in Hollywood lore but with the requisite skills to pull off some very interesting productions. He might be more flash than substance but one thing is certain : his films move.
12
Although I admire the director and the casting sounds magnificent, why would Hollywood seek to glorify these evil acts? It sounds like the movie will perpetuate the nihilistic philosophy of Manson. We know the story; we know how it ends.
5
@Christopher Rillo yes and why have movies on WWII, or Lincoln's assassination
12
@Christopher Rillo i don’t think its about the terrible act its self. Its more about the impact it had on Southern California! It lost innocence..
9
@Tony
Southern California has never been innocent,
least of all Hollywood.
14
Tarantino is a brilliant director who makes us examine everyday things with unique perspectives.
This film is an ode to the innocent gorgeous "girl next door" Hollywood, who also was victimized.
And that traumatized Hollywood has never been the same.
25
@IN
Uh, not really.
There have been innocents sacrificed in Hollywood since its founding. Think the Black Dahlia, etc. Let's not romanticize Tarantino's middle brow entertainment too much. Hollywoodland was a real estate development after all.
6
You go Tarantino! One of the most creative influencers of our time. Can't wait to see this!
37
@New Haven CT
I do enjoy his movies. But he is no influencer. He reflects the culture, but he doesn't make it. His movies are all about a constant payoff: all the sex, violence and quips in one place, at one time, but very little more.
9
Aside from the fairly brilliant Pulp Fiction, I've never been a huge fan of Tarantino's style, however...this sounds interesting.
24
While I admit I am not a fan of Tarantino, I do have a grudging admiration for his insight into the relationships between people who have allowed the darkest aspects of their character to prevail in their lives. Still, this feels like he is using the Manson murders as a deus ex machina to drive an otherwise unrelated plot to a sensationalistic conclusion.
It is generally held that the slaughter of Tate, Sebring, et al. was more a case of them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Charlie Manson supposedly targeted the house on Cielo Drive because it was the former home of a record producer by whom Charlie felt betrayed.
Any story that feature the Manson family as anything more than cinematic click bait would be more properly set amid the music industry than the movie biz.
Any other confluence between Tate and Manson is highly conjectural and probably imaginary.
There are many aspects of the Manson saga that lend themselves much more interestingly to the Tarantino approach, so I conclude that he uses the Manson event to provide prurient interest in an otherwise unconnected story. I base this comment entirely on the content of this review.
16
@michaeltide, Maybe the relationship of Ricky and Cliff was inspired a bit by that of Sebring and Steve McQueen? We know that McQueen was supposed to be hanging with Sebring on the night of the murders but changed his mind.
5
@michaeltide:
I disagree with your claim that Tarantino is simply using the Manson crime for "prurient interest" - as salacious click-bait. Tarantino is too talented a director to do so.
I think his movie is saying that a hidden victim of the murders was "the girl next door"... innocent gorgeous Hollywood itself.
And since then, traumatized Hollywood hasn't been the same.
12
@Eric, Thanks for the reply. I think the correlation here is a bit of a stretch, unless (and I don't know the story line) either Ricky or Cliff were inserted as one of the victims rather than Jay Sebring.
Yeah, we all know what happened. But the casting sounds magnificent, especially Brad and Leo. I haven't been to a Cinema to see a Movie for Years, usually waiting for DVD release. But, I might make an exception for this. Great Review.
16
@Phyliss Dalmatian
DVD?
2
Sorry, Blu-ray. Whatever, dude.
Cheers.
12
So when does it open Nationwide?
1
@JustAsAmerican
July 26.
3
@JustAsAmerican late July
@JustAsAmerican, sometime in July. I personally can't wait.
1
Going by this review, Tarantino's movie appears to be only parenthetically about the gruesome, senseless murders orchestrated by Manson. It's more like Tarantino's presented an ode to the Hollywood life style and industry that was rocked by the murders and in consequence, as he sees it, victimized by it. Quentin Tarantino's always been what can be categorized as a self-indulgent film maker and to put it graciously, an eccentric one. This movie seems to fit right in with his customary template.
25
Although this might be a good film (I'm not a Quentin fan, but I get it) I can't bring myself to pay attention to the story material of this and the other film about the crime "Charlie Says".
It's simply too real and horrible a crime for an entertainment. Or maybe 50 years is still too soon.
42
Never been a Tarantino fan but this movie sounds pretty cool.
3