OUTH centres on Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton, a fading TV hero, who’s plagued with insecurities at his declining star power. I don’t even need to say how on point DiCaprio continues to be. I mean, do I? His character’s constant fragility is tempered only by the steadiness of Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth, who plays his stunt double. Booth might carry Dalton’s load, as the trailer already told us, but he actually carries a lot of his emotional load and not just his stunts as well.
The real irony here is that he’s not just a stunt-double for Dalton; he is the very archetype of the traditional “hero” while the former is unfortunately reduced to a crumbling, approval seeking bag of insecurities. The strong, silent man who can take hit after hit without flinching. He calls out on the hot-air of a lead actor’s claims, resists an underage girl’s siren calls because it is not right, insists on meeting an old friend at a ranch just to make sure he’s alright and ultimately saves the day for everyone involved. And did I mention he still looks great in a topless shot on a roof, fixing an antenna? For anyone who grew up when Pitt was the ‘it’ guy, this is a nice reminder that Achilles, the Trojan War hero, has still got the chops.
In line with the hurricane that’s hit Hollywood, OUTH also has its share of ‘feminist’ lines. I see why it’s important to re-iterate that a guy accused of killing his wife is not to be tolerated on set and a child actor can put Dalton in his place when he tries to patronise her. The irony of course is that this is needed in a Tarantino film. The same guy who gave us a super-efficient killing machine called The Bride in the cult classic Kill Bill. He’s the last director who needs to make such an obvious point, except that women telling men off has become a trope in the recent past, and one that always gets a chuckle out of woke audiences.
The really loud laughter, though, comes in the climax. Even when it’s actually quite gory, it’s wildly hilarious as much for the blind stupidity of the aggressors as for the manner in which they go down. The more I laughed through the climax, the more I wondered though, aren’t we all a bit off? Maybe nowhere close to the Manson family, but if we are laughing through a slaughter sequence, the irony is, who’s the joke really on?
I can go on and on about this one aspect. Like that fact that Margot Robbie, who we have come to expect some seriously powerful performances of, has precious little to do. She’s reduced to a Hollywood stereotype, and that cries for a bigger, better version of the character. After all, this is revisionism. Also, for any fan of Polanski’s (like me), who’s shadow looms over the film of course, the uncomfortable constant presence of underage girls in connection with Manson, his wife’s murder conspirator, is unmissable. Read what you will!
I feel quite certain that this was all purposeful, because it is Tarantino. Who, by the way, not just makes a comedy out of all things sombre and not; but appears to make a subtle joke on himself as well. So as Dalton touches Italy for a few months, to take up new gigs in a different part of the world, he comes back with a new, glamorous, starlet wife. The really interesting part is that the new wife role is played by Tarantino’s wife, who he married only last year. I’m not sure if he’s trying to say anything at all here, but if he’s in anyway equating himself with Dalton, that’s the richest irony of them all. Because, Tarantino, is anything but fading! And with OUTH he proves it yet again.
P.S. Did I mention the music? The soundtrack is great. May I suggest ‘Bring a little lovin’ that I have been listening to for months now? It’s linked below.
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