The Shocking Right-Wing Tinge of Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood

National Review ^ | 12/13/19 | Kyle Smith

[Borges]

Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood is steeped in an element critics love: It celebrates movies, thus validating the lives of those who spend inordinate amounts of time watching them. So many critics love this aspect of Tarantino’s latest that they missed an equally important factor: It mercilessly sends up leftist values. In its foundations, it’s so breathtakingly right-wing it could have been made by Mel Gibson.

[marktwain]

Might be worth watching.

[reasonisfaith]

Now I won’t have to consider watching it.

[Jolla]

Fun movie, really like LA of the 60s before the hippes as this movie shows. When they are at a Playboy mansion party this girl points out to the Steve McQueen character that Sharon Tate liked men that looked like boys - McQueen quips, I never had a chance.

[Liz]

HOLLYOOD CONSERVATIVES

Sylvia Sydney---staunch Republican and conservative.
Memorable co-starring w/ George Raft.
Later appeared in one of the "Omen" sequels.

Film legend Ginger Rogers was another Hollywood conservative and lifelong Republican and appeared in the Nixon-Lodge Bumper Sticker Modorcade in Los Angeles in 1960.

Her biographers all considered Rogers to have been Fred Astaire's finest dance partner, principally because of her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty, and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire, a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences.

Ravishingly beautiful Loretta Young was a lifelong Republican. In 1952 she appeared in radio, print, and magazine ads in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower and was in attendance at his inauguration along with Anita Louise, Louella Parsons, Jane Russell, Dick Powell, June Allyson, and comic Lou Costello, among others.

In both 1968 and 1981 she was a vocal supporter of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. She was also an active member of the Hollywood Republican Committee with close friend Irene Dunne as well as Ginger Rogers, William Holden, George Murphy, Fred Astaire, and John Wayne.

Superstar director Leo McCarey was a devout Roman Catholic and deeply concerned with social issues. He was considered the most handsome director in Hollywood---a Cary Grant look-alike.

During the 1940s, McCarey's work became more serious and his politics more conservative. In 1944 he directed Going My Way, a story about an enterprising priest, the youthful Father Chuck O'Malley, played by Bing Crosby, for which McCarey won his second Best Director Oscar.

McCarey's share in the profits of this smash hit gave him the highest reported income in the U.S. for the year 1944, and its follow-up, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), which was made by McCarey's own production company, was similarly successful.

Going My Way also produced the fanciful hit song sung by Bing, "Would you like to swing on a star."

Gloria Swanson 1922

Swanson's most celebrated role--was as faded silent star Norma Desmond--1950. In 1980 Gloria Swanson chaired the New York chapter of "Seniors for Reagan-Bush". In 1964, Swanson spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Swanson declared, "Under God we became the freest, strongest, wealthiest nation on earth, Should we change that?"

The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United States Congress with letters in support of school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down the practice as in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Joining Swanson and Eisley at the Project Prayer rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Rhonda Fleming, Pat Boone, and Dale Evans.

Both Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were Republicans. Comic star ZaSu Pitts was a staunch Republican---she mentored starlet Nancy Davis (Reagan).

Syndicated columnist Drew Pearson ---then a powerhouse columnist---claimed in his "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column that Hollywood's Project Prayer had "backstage ties" to the anti-Communist John Birch Society. Pearson noted that the principal author of the prayer decisions, Chief Justice Earl Warren, was a Republican former governor of California and that most mainline denominations endorsed the court's restrictive rulings.

In 1964, famed star, Gloria Swanson spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Swanson declared, "Under God we became the freest, strongest, wealthiest nation on earth, Should we change that?"

The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United States Congress with letters in support of school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down the practice as in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Joining Swanson and Eisley at the Project Prayer rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Rhonda Fleming, Pat Boone, and Dale Evans.

[Yo-Yo]

Might be worth watching.

It is very much worth watching. It's pretty much the Manson Family Tate murders with a very Tarantino history-changing twist at the end.

Without trying to spoil it, it's reminiscent of the history changing ending to Inglorious Bastards.

[Liz]

Once upon a long ago, Hollywood actually had a moral code of conduct.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS---No less a personage than mega-producer and Hollywood wonder-boy, Irving Thalberg, co-authored the Production Code, the set of moral guidelines that all film studios agreed to follow circa 1930-68.

WIKI The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the time, Will H. Hays.....a former postmaster.

The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), adopted the code in 1930, began enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1968, in favor of the subsequent MPAA film rating system. The Production Code spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.

The office enforcing it was popularly called the Hays Office in reference to Hays, inaccurately so after 1934 when Joseph Breen took over from Hays, creating the Breen Office, which was far more rigid in censoring films than Hays had been.

The Code enumerated a number of key points known as the "Don'ts" and "Be Carefuls": Resolved, That those things which are included in the following list shall not appear in pictures produced by the members of this Association, irrespective of the manner in which they are treated:

1.Pointed profanity – by either title or lip – this includes the words "God," "Lord," "Jesus," "Christ" (unless they be used reverently in connection with proper religious ceremonies), "hell," "damn," "Gawd," and every other profane and vulgar expression however it may be spelled;

2.Any licentious or suggestive nudity-in fact or in silhouette; and any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture;

3.The illegal traffic in drugs;

4.Any inference of sex perversion;

5.White slavery;

6.Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races);

7.Sex hygiene and venereal diseases;

8.Scenes of actual childbirth – in fact or in silhouette;

9.Children's sex organs;

10.Ridicule of the clergy;

11.Willful offense to any nation, race or creed;

And be it further resolved, That special care be exercised in the manner in which the following subjects are treated, to the end that vulgarity and suggestiveness may be eliminated and that good taste may be emphasized:

1.The use of the flag;

2.International relations (avoiding picturizing in an unfavorable light another country's religion, history, institutions, prominent people, and citizenry);

3.Arson;

4.The use of firearms;

5.Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc. (having in mind the effect which a too-detailed description of these may have upon the morale); 6.Brutality and possible gruesomeness;

7.Technique of committing murder by whatever method;

8.Methods of smuggling;

9.Third-degree methods;

10.Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishment for crime;

11.Sympathy for criminals;

12.Attitude toward public characters and institutions;

13.Sedition;

14.Apparent cruelty to children and animals;

15.Branding of people or animals;

16.The sale of women, or of a woman selling her virtue;

17.Rape or attempted rape;

18.First-night scenes;

19.Man and woman in bed together;

20.Deliberate seduction of girls;

21.The institution of marriage;

22.Surgical operations;

23.The use of drugs;

24.Titles or scenes having to do with law enforcement or law-enforcing officers.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I was surprised. Actually a decent movie. Leonardo and Brad’s characters were flawed by likable and decent enough.

The end really does make it a fairy tale. A fairy tale you wish were true.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Hey I admit I watched it. It was surprisingly good...

[BenLurkin]

Another Hollyweird love letter to.....Hollyweird where people who play doctors on TV really are ready to do your appendectomy.

[Veto!]

Saw it the first day it played in my town. NOT even slightly leftwing. Maybe the stupid actors are, but you have to forget it and immerse yourself in the flick. The last 20 minutes had everyone falling out of their chairs laughing. Violent? About 247% violent, right into comedy territory. Brandy the Pit Bull already won the doggie best acting award. Hope she gets an Oscar too.

Brad Pitt and Leonardo di Caprio should both get Oscars too...expecially Pitt

[Chainmail]

The reviewer refers to the Manson Family as "hippies" - they weren't hippies; they were murderous cultists. Hippies were immature druggies with a distinct dislike of work.

I also don't agree that the movie actor and his buddy the stuntman were the ultimate example of manhood back then. The real men were carrying a rifle or an M60 machine gun or a mortar baseplate in a rifle company in Vietnam in 120 degree heat and in 100% humidity.

Everyone else was just pretending.

[Veto!]

One reviewer objected to the blatant sexuality of girl hitchhiking and promising a bj for a free ride. “It was never that bad.”

I lived there at the time and it
WAS that bad.

Loved the movie....so much atmosphere, wonderful old cars, just a terrific portrayal of HWD back then.

Put the CD on my AMNZ wishlist, and know I’m getting it for Christmas...cant was to see it over and possibly over again.

Veto!
(The girl)

[Mariner]

“Might be worth watching.”

It’s a mediocre movie. Its saving grace is style and soundtrack, and the great cinematography Tarantino is known for. And great acting.

But the story is lacking.

See Joker instead. Trust me.

[A_perfect_lady]

It’s actually really good, and yes, I noticed myself, the overall tone of the movie is 100% anti hippie.

[Mariner]

“so much atmosphere”

Atmospherics are Tarantino’s forte.

[Mariner]

And Margot Robbie is prettier than Sharon Tate ever hope to be.

[A_perfect_lady]

Brad Pitt and Leonardo di Caprio should both get Oscars too...expecially Pitt

Pitt was awesome. I've really gotten to like him over the years. I used to think he was just pretty, but ... he's really great on the screen. I find myself forgetting he's acting. He seems like a stuntman who just wandered onto the set and ended up in the final cut.

[PA Presbyterian]

Another great Hollywood Republican was Greer Garson. When she lived in Texas with her second husband, she was asked to run as a Republican for a seat in Congress.

[Nuc 1.1]

Another good flick. Well worth the time.