Once Upon a Time on Will's TV

Meet Cliff Booth. He's a stunt man and Rick Dalton's best friend.

Cliff's ex military, a combat vet. He's a tough guy, he beat up Bruce Lee. Cliff lives in a trailer with his loyal dog. He doesn't need much, he doesn't need the trouble. He seems happiest outdoors, fixing Rick's TV antenna or spear fishing. Cliff's friendly, easygoing and self possessed. In the modern lexicon Cliff is based.

These damn hippies are everywhere and they're really starting to bug Cliff. His encounters with the hippies tell us all we need to know about Cliff.

Cliff may like the ladies but he's not going to let his dick get him in trouble. When a hitchhiking hippie chick offers to blow him, Cliff demands ID and says no. When hippies try to keep him from seeing his old friend George Spahn, Cliff just does it anyway. When a dirty hippie slashes his tire, Cliff beats him up and makes him fix it. Cliff has a code, you see. 

Cliff Booth is a man's man.

You can't tell it's Brad Pitt up there. His is a Oscar worthy performance.

Once Upon a Time on Will's TV

Meet Rick Dalton. He's an actor.

Dalton starred in a lot of movies in the 60's and even had his own Western TV show, Bounty Law. Now he's doing guest appearances  on other westerns and law and order television dramas. Dalton is worried that his star is fading and is looking into movie opportunities in Italian cinema.  He drinks a little too much but make no mistake, he cares deeply about his craft. 

How good was DiCaprio in this role? We couldn't even tell it was him, and we couldn't see the acting.

Once Upon a Time on Will's TV

So over the weekend we watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Let's be clear, we're not a Tarantino Guy. Pulp Fiction was...interesting. Inglorious Basterds was disappointing. We couldn't make it halfway through The Hateful Eight. We didn't get the point of Kill Bill. We've never seen the others.

To be honest, we're not even much of a film guy. We like Star Wars....and John Wayne Westerns .

But man did we like, no love, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

OUTH is well written, plotted and directed. The acting is brilliant. In short, OUTH is extraordinary filmcraft.

It's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood week here at William Stroock dot blogspot dot com.

Maureen Dowd is Always Bad for Women

Via head Trumpologist Don Surber, Maureen Dowd is aroused...sexually:

"Bathed in a golden glow, Brad Pitt plays a world-weary stunt man and handyman to Leo’s Western star, Rick Dalton. Pitt’s character is a former war hero in the great mid-century tradition of American cinema. He reflects many of the values that America once proudly stood for: toughness without belligerence, charm without smarminess, loyalty without question. He is masculine yet chivalrous. The iconic performance evokes other movie exemplars of the American male: Humphrey Bogart in 'Casablanca,' Paul Newman in 'Cool Hand Luke,' Steve McQueen in 'Bullitt,' Clint Eastwood in 'Dirty Harry.' (Pitt’s significant other is a pit bull named Brandy — another contrast with Trump, who avoids dogs.)"

Dowd goes on to compare Pitt's character to...President Trump. Of course Trump is a real-estate mogul, television star and President of the United States. You're damn right Dowd has fantasized about the President grabbing her pussy.

Remember back in the 90's when Dowd struggled with that strange tingling she felt when Bill Clinton was on TV? Remember all that time she spent writing about Ken Starr? How about all those barbs against W's Texasness. She loathed it. Yeah, sure she did.

Ahhh...the Spinster Dowd, forever trying to understand why she is alone and childless.

Remember, Feminism is always bad for women.

Once Upon a Time in Not Metal Monday

Ladies and Gentlemen I bring you the future all the way back from 1967:

Bring a Little Lovin' by Los Bravos.

These aesthetics are interesting. This video (though the term didn't exist yet) seems to be shot in Panovision, like an episode of Star Trek or Dragnet, giving it an unmistakable late 60's feel. Why one expects Joe Friday to walk into the studio and tell these kids to head on back to class.

Those kids are geezers now. Those birds are grandmothers. Many are dead, as is the future once promised here.

Alert readers will notice this is the song accompanying the trailer for Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.