'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' Images Show Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino In 1969 Attire
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is director Quentin Tarantino's ode to 1969, a year of great political upheaval in the U.S. – and the year of the Manson Murders. The Hateful Eight director has earned some flack for making a film involving the shocking murders of Sharon Tate at the hands of Charles Manson's followers, but in Tarantino's own words, the film is "not Charles Manson, it's 1969."
And the first set of official Once Upon a Time in Hollywood images prove the movie is as steeped in the culture and time of 1969 as possible.
We get our first proper look at the star-studded cast of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in-character with several new images debuted by Vanity Fair (we've included some images below, but you can find more at that link). They include Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as the film's leads, Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth, the former a washed-up actor who fumbled his transition from TV to film, the latter Dalton's best friend and stunt double. Dalton happens to live next door to Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie. Meanwhile, we also get a look at Al Pacino as Dalton's fictional agent, Marvin Shwarz.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Images
The first image of DiCaprio as Rick Dalton shows him in full Corny-Collins-from-Hairspray regalia, hinting that the actor has been reduced to appearing on cheesy variety shows — not exactly the stepping stone for a career as a serious actor. That may be why the film's plot finds him contemplating a trip to Italy to get into the spaghetti Western film scene. Our first look at DiCaprio and Pitt's characters drew comparisons to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but as Lindsey Romain wrote for /Film:
[T[heir described relationship more closely recalls that of actor Burt Reynolds and his stunt double Hal Needham. That pair collaborated on films like Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and Cannonball Run, and were close friends; Needham even lived in Reynolds' guest house for 12 years. Like Dalton, star of the fictional Western TV show Bounty Law, Reynolds starred in his own hit Western series in the 1960s: Gunsmoke.
We can see some of that dynamic in the image where Rick and Cliff meet with Pacino's Marvin Shwarz in a bar — Pacino donning some truly spectacular facial hair and spectacles, I might add. Meanwhile, Robbie continues to look ethereal as Sharon Tate, though I wonder how major of a part she'll play in this film as the plot seems to center around Pitt and DiCaprio's characters.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood opens on July 26, 2019.