In “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” Tarantino tells the dual story of Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), who starred in a black-and-white TV Western series called “Bounty Law” in the late ’50s and early ’60s, but whose career is now hitting the skids; and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), Rick’s longtime stunt double and best pal, who has basically become his gofer and driver. Both are drawling, easy-going good ol’ boys who are functional drunks (Rick favors whiskey sours; Cliff likes his bloody Marys), and they’ve been kicked around Hollywood, but they’ve got a yin-and-yang thing going.
Rick, who appears to be based at least partly on Burt Reynolds, is an instinctive actor, a gentle charmer, and a secret softie in a brown-leather jacket — the first Tarantino hero to prove that real men do cry. (When the tears come, it’s for how badly Rick has let his career melt down.) Cliff, by contrast, is a war veteran and rough-and-tumble stud bruiser who lives in a cruddy trailer next to the Van Nuys Drive-In but seems happy and satisfied, like most Brad Pittcharacters, with himself. When he’s crossed, he will kick the bejesus out of anyone, and he’s got a bad reputation. The rumor is that he killed his wife and got away with it. (A flashback to a scene on a boat with that very wife, who digs at him mercilessly, doesn’t spill the beans, but it’s not exactly evidence that the rumor is false.)
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