Once Upon a Time in Hollywood trailer: What can we expect?

The trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, is now available and it begs the question: What should we expect from Tarantino this time around?

Quentin Tarantino has set himself up as the rare example of a filmmaker who is undeniably mainstream with his success, but still willing to push boundaries and carry himself as an auteur for film buffs to worship. Tarantino is certainly a name that even casual moviegoers have heard of, thanks to his monstrous success with the likes of Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and his last film, The Hateful Eight.

It has now been four years since The Hateful Eight was released and in that time, Tarantino set his sights on a vastly different type of revisionist historical content. He is now tackling the world of 1960s Hollywood with his newest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Leading the A-List cast are the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie in a film that looks to explore the dynamics and politics of Hollywood in the 1960s, with a Manson family curveball thrown in there for good measure.

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Much has been speculated about what exactly the story of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is about. Normally, Tarantino films lay out their plot pretty clearly even in the teaser trailers leading up to the release, but this time around is a bit different. We have received a trailer that is about as vague as it could possibly be, though not without showing some potential scenes and characters along the way. What can we truly expect from this film based on the teaser trailer alone?

Hollywood Land

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is already presenting itself in a seemingly much lighter tone than Tarantino’s previous films, focusing on the ins and outs of the entertainment industry in the late 60s. This is all presented through the opening of the trailer depicting a slick, yet old-school-style interview with Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stunt double, Cliff Booth (Pitt). The pair seem inseparable as they discuss the dynamic of their relationship with a 1960s swagger that just screams “buddy movie” a mile away.

According to the character descriptions, the two leads are considered mostly fictional and almost completely removed from the infamous murders of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring, which has already been reported to have some effect on the film’s story early on in its development. The large presence of Margot Robbie, who plays Tate, in the teaser could be misleading, but the shots of Tate indicate that her character may not be only set up as “the character we all know will die.”

In fact, the Hollywood antics at play here, including a hilariously eerie Bruce Lee impersonation, look to be at the forefront of the film’s story. Even the description of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood indicates that an odyssey with Dalton and Booth will be the main focus here. The “Once Upon” moniker has often been given to large-scale epics by Sergio Leone. Tarantino may be using that epic-scale filmmaking to tackle an adventure in Hollywood, which is certainly wearing its influences on its sleeves, but it is also fairly unique in that regard.

Changing up history?

For anybody who has seen a good chunk of Quentin Tarantino’s films, you’ll know that he’s not exactly a fan of “perfectly” recreating history. He has mentioned in the past that he does not particularly care for films like biopics because he feels that it’s a little pointless to make a movie of somebody’s life. This attitude seeps through in many of his “historical” films, which sees him blatantly changing up history and mixing his own modern twist to the time period, a la Inglorious Basterds.

Even when he doesn’t rewrite history, he never tries to completely recreate it either. While the set pieces for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood look accurate to the 60s, it may not mean that he will completely follow the historical rules. In fact, once you consider those factors, it’s totally up in the air whether or not Sharon Tate lives on in this interpretation. Hitler (spoilers) dies a brutal death by gunfire in Inglorious Basterds, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But Tarantino does not limit himself to historical facts 100% of the time, so who knows what happens here?

All we know is that whatever we get looks to be fairly different from what he’s done before. Tarantino’s personality seeps through as usual, but this attempt at what looks like a borderline-complete comedy changes pace with the much darker tone of his last three films. Don’t expect Tarantino to tone himself down though, especially when you have the Tate murders surrounding the aura of the film. Still, there’s a lot that’s to be revealed and I’m certainly itching to see what else we can learn about his ninth film before release!

What did you think of the trailer? Did you like it or not really? Sound off below!

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will be released in theaters on July 26th.