It’s one of those weird things when you know you’re in a moment and then suddenly everything changes. One of the most perfect examples of that was in November 2016 when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. It happened in the blink of an eye and suddenly everything changed.
“Once upon a Time… in Hollywood” depicts the end of the Golden Era in 1969 when suddenly everything shifted from Westerns to dark serious films in the 1970s.
Brad Pitt just compared the Charlie Manson murders moment to Harvey Weinstein and the Me Too scandal and he’s right about it.
The hugely controversial “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” hit theaters over last weekend and it might be one of the most polarizing films ever made.
While the film has mostly favorable reviews from fans and critics, there are others who think it’s one of the worst movies they’ve ever seen and it seems like there’s no in between about it.
The reason why it’s incredibly controversial is because of the shocking revisionist ending and the meandering plot that really seems aimless throughout the movie.
It also seems tone deaf to the nature that the stars and writer/director Quentin Tarantino have all been embroiled in some sort of controversy in recent years (outside of Margot Robbie). Tarantino was heavily criticized for being somewhat complicit in the Harvey Weinstein Me Too Movement scandal. Leonardo DiCaprio is known for dating young models who largely just became the legal age of consent.
There was a story that Brad Pitt allegedly punched his oldest son after he and former wife Angelina Jolie got into a fight on a private jet. And, finally, actor Emile Hirsch was famously convicted of strangling a female Paramount executive at the Sundance Film Festival several years ago, which resulted in 15 days in jail.
And it kind of seems like “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” kind of addresses all of this with a specific detail about Cliff Booth’s (Pitt) past that is alarming.
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Pitt was candid about how the end of an era is happening right now.
When asked about the specific moment that showed there was a changing of the guard Pitt said, “Harvey Weinstein. Can I say that? It’s more that I think we’re getting recalibrated. But in a good way.”
The Me Too Movement has absolutely changed Hollywood and you can see the reverberations since the scandal broke in October 2017.
You see many more feminist movies and women getting superhero roles. “Captain Marvel” is a prime example and Brie Larson is arguably the biggest feminist in all of Hollywood.
There has been a huge call for equal pay for actors and actresses. And it even extended to the United States women’s national team when they won the World Cup.
Pitt also added, “What I see now is a new masculinity, especially with people who have gone through Hollywood and its recalibration, a new male who is more vulnerable, he said. I’m not talking mushiness — I mean a man who owns his own flaws and is aware of them and open about it. And vulnerable, with real feelings, rather than being this macho, trying-to-be-tough guy. But that might just be me in my old age, on my own trip, projecting onto everyone else.”
He’s right. You’re starting to see a theme of “toxic masculinity” in movies more and more now.
The Me Too scandal marked an end of an era with powerful predatory men taking advantage of women and then acting like they’re this moral authority in the public eye. Those days are over.