Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, July 26, 2019) Movie • Page 79

Yeah I’m only halfway through it but he’s a lot shittier in the book. The part with his wife is fucked

 

“Look, I understand what Mr. Tarantino was trying to do. I really do. Cliff Booth is such a badass and a killer that he can beat the crap out of Bruce Lee. Character development. I get it. I just think he could have done it so much better. But instead, the scene he created was just an uninteresting tear-down of Bruce Lee when it didn’t need to be. It was white Hollywood treating Bruce Lee as, well, white Hollywood treated him — as a dispensable stereotype”

I don’t really disagree with her here. The laughter that erupted when Booth’s character mocked Lee’s martial art cry (which Lee only did during films and not in actual fights) was telling. While I’m sure it wasn’t Tarantino’s intent, this scene does add to the stereotypes of Lee and other Asian-American actors.

 

It's a cringe scene in many ways, but I think it's also worth noting that Tarantino literally had to rewrite history for it to play out as it did. Bruce is on record saying in interviews that he COULDN'T beat Ali in a fight. He wasn't the saint that some of the documentaries about him might lead one to believe, and also he wasn't known to be so arrogant. There's objective proof documentation that he would never have said what he said in that scene. That's why I think it's intended as a rorschach test for the audience to bring out specific reactions, for better or worse. Either that or Tarantino sucks at keeping up with Bruce Lee biographical trivia, and the latter doesn't seem too likely so...

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't seen the movie since 2019, but wasn't that scene really presented as how Cliff remembered the encounter happening? And we know Cliff isn't really the most reliable source in this story. Cliff seems like the kind of person who would only remember Bruce Lee as a caricature and not as he truly was.

 

That is correct

 

FAIRYTALES OF THE DRAGON
Always come back to this when the Bruce Lee mythos get brought up.

Book was a fun read, really enjoyed how Rick and Cliff were fleshed out to almost be the opposites of their movie portrayals (in my opinion).

 

Yeah and then I think there's a brief scene where it shows Lee trying to teach Sharon Tate martial arts and he's portrayed much more realistically than in Cliff's unreliable narrative

 

that was a good read thanks

 

That’s the general consensus. Tarantino’s recent comments seem like he actually sees Bruce as arrogant as he wrote him, though.

 

Has anyone finished the novel? I have it but I can't motivate myself to start it for some reason

 

I love the movie and have no desire to read the book

 

finished the book few weeks back and rewatched movie last night.

just gets better each time. nearly teared up a few times.

 

The book is fantastic, an entirely different experience.

 

It fills in a lot of background, but I don't think a whole lot from the book could (or needed to) be added to the film without the film suffering. I found it to be a quick read, but not required reading by any stretch.

 

hahahah yessss

 

Hopefully it will be like a two part season finale like he did with CSI years and years ago.

 

Any news on that directors cut version of Once Upon a Time?

 

Django is due first

 

Fuck that give us the better films DC

 

Impeccable taste

 

Don't let the Paddington people read that.

 

Still waiting on that directors cut.

 

he and his wife welcomed a new baby girl into their lives over the weekend