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

1939

Stagecoach

Film by John Ford

Classical Hollywood. United States. In English.

Nine strangers cross Apache country by coach. This was Ford's first sound western shot in Monument Valley and the film that made John Wayne a star.

What it handed down

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

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Leone shot part of the film in Monument Valley, the landscape Ford made his own from Stagecoach on. He did so as an open homage to Ford's westerns, notably for Jill's journey by buckboard.

To The Searchers

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Ford returned to Monument Valley and to John Wayne, the setting and star he had established in Stagecoach. He refined its compositions of small figures against buttes and open sky.

Where it came from

Find “Stagecoach” on Amazon

1880

Boule de Suif

Guy de Maupassant

French Naturalism. France. Written in French.

Respectable passengers fleeing the Prussians in a coach exploit a prostitute and then shun her.

What it handed down

To Stagecoach (1939)

Direct source, probable.

Ford and Nichols said they drew on Maupassant's story for the coach of hypocrites who scorn a prostitute. In Stagecoach that figure becomes Claire Trevor's Dallas.

Where it came from

The line stops here: drawn from the Franco-Prussian War; Flaubert's mentorship is not followed here.

Find “Boule de Suif” 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 Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West) (1968)

To The Searchers

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Stagecoach (1939)

Where it came from

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