Tarantino’s 9th film transports audiences back 1969 Los Angeles, where fading Western star Rick Dalton (Oscar winner DiCaprio) is struggling to find his way forward in an ever-changing landscape — boozing it up in the process.
Dalron’s stunt double, Cliff Booth (Pitt), is the calm, collected, classic car-driving, Hawaiian shirt-donning everyman who has no issue climbing up on the roof to get his hands dirty.
And his performance was much-appreciated, as Pitt took home his (long overdue) first Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
The film also earned the Best Production Design Oscar and in total was nominated in 10 categories.
When Pitt first meets Al Pacino’s character in the famous Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard, he’s sitting at the bar in a denim jacket, crunching on a stalk of celery and twirling it through his Bloody Mary, smiling and cool as a cucumber. That’s a pretty good metaphor for Cliff Booth, who is equal parts suave and badass.
Pitt also crosses paths with a stunt coordinator played by Kurt Russell (with a nice nod to Tarantino’s Death Proof) and somehow ends up fist-fighting Bruce Lee on a studio lot.
Then there’s the storyline featuring Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Charles Manson — and Pitt’s tense visit to the Manson family ranch.
The movie includes a good old-fashioned brawl and beatdown delivered by Pitt himself.
