TL;DR – I put together a watchlist for myself to go along with Karina Longworth’s podcast series about Charles Manson and 60’s Hollywood and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Links and further explanation about why I chose these movies below and in the list notes.
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In preparation for ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, I recommend listening to two things. (1) Karina Longworth’s fantastic podcast series about Charles Manson and late 60’s Hollywood, and (2) The Pure Cinema Podcast interview with Quentin Tarantino where he talks about the movie program he put together to coincide with his new movie. This is not an exhaustive list of every movie she and Tarantino mention. I wanted a manageable primer geared…
TL;DR – I put together a watchlist for myself to go along with Karina Longworth’s podcast series about Charles Manson and 60’s Hollywood and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Links and further explanation about why I chose these movies below and in the list notes.
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In preparation for ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, I recommend listening to two things. (1) Karina Longworth’s fantastic podcast series about Charles Manson and late 60’s Hollywood, and (2) The Pure Cinema Podcast interview with Quentin Tarantino where he talks about the movie program he put together to coincide with his new movie. This is not an exhaustive list of every movie she and Tarantino mention. I wanted a manageable primer geared toward the cultural flashpoint of late 60’s Hollywood, Charles Manson’s wide social circle, and some of the movies Tarantino used as inspiration for DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton character.
Karina Longworth’s series is a deeply humanizing work of storytelling. Manson is the glue of the series, but it’s also a good introduction to the 60’s counter-culture scene and the New Hollywood movement that was taking shape. She talks extensively about Manson, but also the players around him: Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski, Jay Sebring, Bobby Beausoleil, Dennis Wilson, Kenneth Anger, Dennis Hopper, Candice Bergen, Doris Day, Terry Melcher, and on and on. Highly recommended for anyone with interest in history, movies, and/or Charles Manson.
Tarantino talks about how Rick Dalton is an amalgam of various 60’s actors who had started in television and tried to make the jump to movies, only to find that the definition of a leading man was changing fast in the late 60’s. I included an entry for each actor he mentioned, all of them chosen specifically by him. Many of these movies are directly adapted into the fake Rick Dalton movies in OUATIH. I linked the full viewing program he put together for his theater, the New Beverly, and the interview above.
I added notes to each movie about why I included it (click “Show Notes” at the top of the list). It starts with the movies geared toward OUATIH, then Karina Longworth’s series, then ends with a quick primer to the early New Hollywood.
