

But as Once Upon a Time documents, by the late 1960s it was largely in disrepair.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD LULU MOVIE
Prior to his purchasing the property, however, the ranch had once been a thriving movie set, most notably serving as the backdrop to The Outlaw, a 1943 Howard Hughes film starring Jane Russell. In reality, Spahn Movie Ranch was a real, 55-acre property in the mountains of Los Angeles County that was owned and operated by George Spahn, who rented out a fake Western set on the property to B-movie producers in the 1950s.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD LULU SERIES
That’s why a handful of self-styled Mansonologists at Rolling Stone decided to dig deep into the body of research surrounding the Manson murders and point out exactly what little details about the Manson family Tarantino got right in his film - many of which you might have missed upon first viewing.Īccording to the lore of the film, Rick Dalton, the washed-up actor played by DiCaprio, started out his career shooting the Western series Bounty Law the opening scene of the film, a black-and-white interview with Dalton from the 1950s is set against the backdrop of an ersatz Western town, later revealed to be Spahn Movie Ranch. In plumbing the extensive body of research on the Manson Family, Tarantino clearly did his homework, and when viewed through the lens of what we actually know about the cult and its leader, the movie is a testament to Tarantino’s keen eye for detail. Not only does Tarantino invent two fictional neighbors of Tate (played by Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio), but it also significantly alters the historical record with its fairytale twist ending.įlashback: Tina Turner Covers Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson on Debut Solo Albumįew have pointed out, however, that the film actually gets more about the Manson Family right than it gets wrong. In this vein, Once Upon a Time takes significant liberties with the major event at the heart of the film: The August 9th, 1969 Manson Family murders, in which three of Charles Manson’s followers rounded up the occupants of 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills - most notably movie actress Sharon Tate - and brutally murdered all of them. Given the director’s work, it’s not all that surprising as evidenced by Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, revisiting historical atrocities and making sure the good guys win (and in as badass, comically violent a fashion as possible) is kind of his thing. Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, the latest epic from Quentin Tarantino, is not, as you may already know, a historically accurate depiction of the Manson Family murders.

This post contains spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is now in theaters.
