The influences behind Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

2019

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Film by Quentin Tarantino

Contemporary Hollywood. United States. In English.

Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film follows a fading TV western star, Rick Dalton, and his stunt double, Cliff Booth, through Los Angeles in 1969, alongside their neighbour Sharon Tate, and ends by rewriting the Manson murders. It is built from the westerns, spy films and war films of the period it depicts, filtered through Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time' fable framing.

Where it came from

Find “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” on Amazon

1968

Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West)

Film by Sergio Leone

Spaghetti western. Italy. In English.

Leone's slow, operatic western about a widow, a harmonica-playing avenger and a railroad baron's hired killer. It was written as a mosaic of quotations from American westerns.

What it handed down

To Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Direct source, well documented.

Tarantino took his title and its fairy-tale framing from Leone, signalling a fable rather than a history. Rick Dalton's career runs through the Italian western Leone defined, and Tarantino has named Leone's film among his favourites.

To Inglourious Basterds

Structural model, well documented.

Basterds opens with the title card 'Once upon a time... in Nazi-occupied France'. Its first chapter, a long, tense visit to an isolated farmhouse, is built like Leone's slow-burning set pieces. Tarantino also borrowed Ennio Morricone music for the film.

Where it came from

Find “Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West)” on Amazon

1956

The Searchers

Film by John Ford

Classical Hollywood. United States. In English.

John Wayne's Ethan Edwards spends years hunting the Comanche who massacred his brother's family and took his niece.

What it handed down

To Inglourious Basterds

Stylistic influence, probable.

The opening chapter frames a farmhouse doorway against open land as an enemy arrives. Critics have widely read this as a nod to Ford's door shots in The Searchers.

To Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West) (1968)

Direct source, well documented.

Leone, Bertolucci and Argento wrote the script as a web of quotations from American westerns. The massacre of the McBain family at their isolated homestead restages the Comanche attack on the Edwards ranch in Ford's film.

Where it came from

The Searchers, Alan Le May 1954
Stagecoach, film by John Ford 1939 follow this thread

Find “The Searchers” on Amazon

1954

The Searchers

Alan Le May

Postwar American western. United States. Written in English.

A western novel about two men's long search for a girl taken captive in a Comanche raid on Texas.

What it handed down

To The Searchers (1956)

Direct source, well documented.

Ford's film adapts Le May's novel, keeping its Comanche raid, captive niece and years-long pursuit. Frank Nugent's screenplay darkens the hero into Wayne's obsessive Ethan Edwards.

Where it came from

The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper 1826

Find “The Searchers” on Amazon

1826

The Last of the Mohicans

James Fenimore Cooper

American Romanticism. United States. Written in English.

A Leatherstocking tale of the scout Hawkeye and his Mohican companions escorting two sisters through the French and Indian War, with capture and pursuit.

What it handed down

To The Searchers (1954)

Thematic kinship, conjectural.

Le May's plot of a girl taken by Indians and a long frontier pursuit belongs to the captivity-and-rescue tradition that Cooper's novel made central to American fiction.

To The Virginian

Thematic kinship, probable.

Wister's skilled, laconic frontiersman descends from Cooper's Hawkeye, the first American hero of the wilderness. The Virginian moves that figure onto the cattle range.

Where it came from

Waverley, Walter Scott 1814

Find “The Last of the Mohicans” on Amazon

1814

Waverley

Walter Scott

Romantic. Scotland. Written in English.

A young Englishman whose head is full of romances is drawn into the Jacobite rising of 1745. It is the founding historical novel.

What it handed down

To The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Structural model, well documented.

Cooper modelled his historical romances on Scott's, setting fictional characters within a real war and a vanishing culture, and was hailed as 'the American Scott'.

Where it came from

Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes 1605

Find “Waverley” on Amazon

1605

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes

Spanish Golden Age. Spain. Written in Spanish.

A country gentleman driven mad by chivalric romances sets out as a knight errant with his squire Sancho Panza.

What it handed down

To Waverley (1814)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Edward Waverley's mind has been shaped by undisciplined reading of romances, so he misreads the Jacobite rising as an adventure. Scott builds this quixotic premise from Cervantes, whom he cites in the novel.

Where it came from

Amadis of Gaul (Amadís de Gaula), Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo 1508

Find “Don Quixote” on Amazon

1508

Amadis of Gaul (Amadís de Gaula)

Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo

Spanish late medieval and early Renaissance. Spain. Written in Spanish.

The most popular Iberian chivalric romance, following the knight Amadis through combats and enchantments for love of Oriana.

What it handed down

To Don Quixote (1605)

Direct source, well documented.

Amadis is the romance Don Quixote most reveres and imitates, even copying its hero's penance in the Sierra Morena. In the scene where the priest burns the knight's library, Amadis is spared as the first and best of its kind.

Where it came from

Lancelot-Grail Cycle (Vulgate Cycle), Anonymous c. 1215-1235

Find “Amadis of Gaul (Amadís de Gaula)” on Amazon

c. 1215-1235

Lancelot-Grail Cycle (Vulgate Cycle)

Anonymous

High Middle Ages. France. Written in Old French.

A vast cycle of French prose romances covering Lancelot, the Grail quest and the death of Arthur.

What it handed down

To Amadis of Gaul (Amadís de Gaula) (1508)

Structural model, probable.

Montalvo's Amadis takes its knight devoted to a lady, its quests and its enchanters from the French prose Arthurian romances. Amadis and Oriana are modelled on Lancelot and Guinevere.

To Le Morte d'Arthur

Direct source, well documented.

Malory's chief sources were the French prose romances of the Vulgate Cycle. He condensed them into English for the Lancelot, Grail and Death of Arthur sections.

Where it came from

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Chrétien de Troyes c. 1177-1181

Find “Lancelot-Grail Cycle (Vulgate Cycle)” on Amazon

c. 1177-1181

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart

Chrétien de Troyes

High Middle Ages. France. Written in Old French.

A verse romance in which Lancelot humiliates himself and risks everything to rescue Queen Guinevere.

What it handed down

To Lancelot-Grail Cycle (Vulgate Cycle) (c. 1215-1235)

Direct source, well documented.

The Vulgate prose Lancelot expands Chrétien's story of Lancelot's love for Guinevere and his rescue of her from Meleagant. It reworks the cart episode directly.

Where it came from

Roman de Brut, Wace 1155

Find “Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart” on Amazon

Roman de BrutWace

1155

Roman de Brut

Wace

High Middle Ages. Anglo-Norman England. Written in Anglo-Norman French.

A verse adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history. It first mentions Arthur's Round Table.

What it handed down

To Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (c. 1177-1181)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Wace's French Brut gave courtly audiences Arthur's court and the Round Table. Chrétien sets his romances in that court and names the Round Table knights.

Where it came from

The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae), Geoffrey of Monmouth c. 1136

Find “Roman de Brut” on Amazon

c. 1136

The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae)

Geoffrey of Monmouth

High Middle Ages. Anglo-Norman England. Written in Latin.

A legendary history of Britain from the Trojan Brutus to Arthur. It made Arthur a European figure.

What it handed down

To Roman de Brut (1155)

Direct source, well documented.

Wace's poem is a free verse translation of Geoffrey's history into French. It adds details such as the Round Table.

Where it came from

Find “The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae)” on Amazon

c. 829

History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum)

Anonymous (attributed to Nennius)

Early Middle Ages. Wales. Written in Latin.

A Welsh Latin compilation that gives the Brutus origin legend and lists Arthur's twelve battles.

What it handed down

To The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Direct source, well documented.

Geoffrey took from the Historia Brittonum the Trojan Brutus as founder of Britain, Arthur as war leader, and the story of Vortigern and the boy prophet. He developed these into a full narrative.

Where it came from

On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae), Gildas c. 540

Find “History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum)” on Amazon

c. 540

On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae)

Gildas

Sub-Roman Britain. Britain. Written in Latin.

A sermon-history lamenting the Saxon invasions and the sins of British rulers, including the victory at Mount Badon.

What it handed down

To History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) (c. 829)

Direct source, well documented.

The compiler of the Historia Brittonum used Gildas's account of the Roman withdrawal, the Saxon invitation and the British resistance. That account is the frame into which Arthur's battles are set.

Where it came from

Aeneid, Virgil 19 BCE

Find “On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae)” on Amazon

19 BCE

Aeneid

Virgil

Augustan. Augustan Rome. Written in Latin.

An epic of the Trojan Aeneas's wanderings and his war to found the Roman people in Italy.

What it handed down

To The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Structural model, probable.

Geoffrey's Britain begins with Brutus, great-grandson of Aeneas, whose exile, prophetic dream and sea voyage to a promised land are patterned on Virgil's epic.

To On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae) (c. 540)

Stylistic influence, probable.

Gildas quotes and echoes Virgil in his Latin. This shows the Aeneid's place in the schooling that carried classical narrative into the earliest British history.

Where it came from

Argonautica, Apollonius of Rhodes c. 250 BCE
Odyssey, Homer c. 700 BCE

Find “Aeneid” on Amazon

c. 250 BCE

Argonautica

Apollonius of Rhodes

Hellenistic. Ptolemaic Alexandria. Written in Ancient Greek.

A Hellenistic epic of Jason's voyage for the Golden Fleece and Medea's love for him.

What it handed down

To Aeneid (19 BCE)

Direct source, well documented.

Virgil modelled Dido's passion for Aeneas in Book 4 on Medea's love for Jason in Apollonius's Book 3. Ancient commentators such as Servius already noted the debt.

Where it came from

Odyssey, Homer c. 700 BCE

Find “Argonautica” on Amazon

c. 700 BCE

Odyssey

Homer

Archaic Greece. Archaic Greece. Written in Ancient Greek.

The epic of Odysseus's ten-year voyage home from Troy and his revenge on the suitors.

What it handed down

To Aeneid (19 BCE)

Structural model, well documented.

The first six books of the Aeneid are Virgil's Odyssey: a hero's wanderings by sea, a tale told at a foreign court and a descent to the underworld. All of these are modelled on Homer.

To Argonautica (c. 250 BCE)

Structural model, well documented.

Apollonius built his voyage epic in Homeric hexameters and diction. He reworked Odyssean episodes such as the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and the Phaeacians.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

Find “Odyssey” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

To Inglourious Basterds

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Inglourious Basterds

To Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West) (1968)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Searchers (1956)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Searchers (1954)

To The Virginian

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Waverley (1814)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Don Quixote (1605)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Amadis of Gaul (Amadís de Gaula) (1508)

To Le Morte d'Arthur

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Lancelot-Grail Cycle (Vulgate Cycle) (c. 1215-1235)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (c. 1177-1181)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Roman de Brut (1155)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) (c. 829)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae) (c. 1136)

To On the Ruin of Britain (De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae) (c. 540)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Aeneid (19 BCE)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Aeneid (19 BCE)

To Argonautica (c. 250 BCE)

Where it came from

Share this