• No. 2 after Leone. Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood” and the Spaghetti-Western intertextuality

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2021-3-109-127

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Artem N. Zorin

Dr. Sc. in Philology, Professor, Editor-in-Chief of the Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music journal.
Saratov State University, Saratov State Conservatoire
Saratov, Russia
E-mail: art-zorin@yandex.ru

No. 2 after Leone. Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood” and the Spaghetti-Western intertextuality

Abstract

Directed by Quentin Tarantino “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” is a complex intertext. It combines several lines of film history, and at the same time explains the syncretism of the filmmaker’s style. The film itself is actually a unique form of an encrypted spaghetti Western (as “Pulp Fiction”). The possibilities of this postmodern genre make it possible to combine different elements: a production biopic film and socialist realism, a psychological film novel (Dostoevsky’s “Demons”) and a mystery, traditional American and European Western. The key detail, as in other Tarantino’s projects, is addressing to the milestones in the spaghetti Western history. Using the main hero, the director broadcasts his own vision of his position in this genre. He remains “number two”, but doesn’t concede the founders of the genre. In the film there are obvious final motives of Tarantino’s trilogy of the 2010s. It was created under the influence of his idols – directors of the European Western. There is a certain logic of the end-to-end dialogue with metaphors and images of Wagner’s epic music dramas. He started this dialogue in “Django Unchained” using the plot of Brünnhilde’s rescue by Siegfried and the symbolic destruction of the Manor/Valghala. In “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ there is a consistent appeal to the symbolism of Wagner’s “Parsifal”. Hollywood is Monsalvat, the temptress girls are flowers, and the opposing tandem of the classic spaghetti Western heroes, who passed the certain levels of initiation. The director endows his hero with the prototype features of 1960s Western actors – Clint Eastwood’s memories of working at Sergio Leone’s films are cited. Though the motivation of their actions is replaced by the logic of a solid Western hero.

Keywords

Tarantino, Corbucci, Leone, Wagner, Spaghetti-Western, Western, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”

For citation

Zorin A.N.No. 2 after Leone. Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood” and the Spaghetti-Western intertextuality. In: Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2021, no. 3, pp. 109–127.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2021-3-109-127

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Received: 25.05.2021

Accepted: 10.08.2021