The teaser trailer of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino's ninth film - is light-hearted. Now, that's a statement we don't usually use for a Tarantino film. But wait! What makes this light-hearted peek into a Tarantino original is that, it is based on a true story, the infamous Manson murders of 1969. For those in the dark, these murders by the members of the Charles Manson family claimed five lives in Los Angeles. Celebrity Hollywood couple Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski were targeted.
Having an ensemble cast and set to the famous tunes of 'Bring a Little Lovin', the trailer cruises around the golden era of Hollywood, the 1960s. TV star Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his stunt double Cliff Booth(Brad Pitt) make their way in an industry that is filled with action, murder, mystery and more.
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The trailer kicks off with the good old black-and-white frames with a young Caprio and a younger Pitt doing an interview of sorts (the loud monotonic ones of yesteryears) on what the role of a stunt double is. "Actors are required to do a lot of dangerous stuff. Cliff is meant to carry the load," drags Caprio with an arrogant accent. Cheeky double entendres aside, the film gives us a peek into Los Angeles in the '60s when cinema ruled the roost.
And a bonus is a fight scene between Bruce Lee (played by Mike Moh), and Pitt. "My hands are registered as lethal weapons. We get into a fight, I accidentally kill you, I go to jail," says Lee to which Pitt replies cheekily,"Anybody accidentally kills anybody, they go to jail. It's called manslaughter." Good pun there by Tarantino, known for his strong writing filled sprinkled with enough cursewords.
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a fictional actor, along with actual stars Al Pacino, Kurt Russell and the late Burt Reynolds. The cast which reads like the who's who of Hollywood also includes Margot Robbie, Damian Lewis, among others. Tarantino regulars Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Zoë Bell star in the writer-director's ninth film, which hits theaters in July. Notably, this is the first Tarantino film not produced by Harvey Weinstein, after Tarantino cut ties with Weinsten Company following sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein.