Here's a 'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood' Easter Egg You May Have Missed
Quentin Tarantino loves to make call backs to his old movies, and this one is a deep cut.
Fans know that all of Tarantino's movies take place within the same universe - hell, you could argue that the Pulp Fiction director was one of the first to embrace the idea of "shared universes" before Marvel made them commonplace. Example: Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction is the brother of Vic (Michael Madsen) in Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino's newest film, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, is the latest story to take place in QT's universe and share ties with another popular film on the filmmaker's resume, 2009's Inglourious Basterds.
It's fitting that this Easter egg comes from another movie that also stars Brad Pitt. IndieWire breaks down how the two crossover:
"When Hollywood jumps in time from February to August 1969, it begins with a scene that reveals Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Rick Dalton, took the advice of his agent (Al Pacino) and moved briefly to Italy to star as the hero in several Spaghetti Westerns. Dalton did not make it into the films of Sergio Leone, the greatest of the Spaghetti Western directors, but he did lead a film by filmmaker Antonio Margheriti."
Yup, Antonio Margheriti is the same name of the Italian film worker that Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz (Eli Roth) poses as at the Nazi film premiere in Basterds. It's one of the film's funniest scenes, as Donny, Pitt's Aldo Raine, and Omar Ulmer (Omar Doom) bump into Christoph Waltz's Hans Landa at the theater and Landa forces Donny to pronounce his last name to test the authenticity of the soldier's (terrible) Italian accent.
But that's not the only nod to Basterds in Hollywood. Aldo is masquerading as an Italian stuntman named Enzo Gorlami. Pitt plays stuntman Cliff Booth in Hollywood. We see what you did thar, QT.
Shared universes, especially the ones with more subtle/rewarding connections like the ones Tarantino uses, are a win-win for both filmmakers and their fans. They help unify a filmmaker's body of work beyond their visual tropes or narrative styles, and show a level of love and sophistication for the craft by using each new movie as a call back to characters or moments or props (Cliff Booth smokes Red Apple cigarettes from Pulp Fiction) that make the worlds of each separate film feel that much more connected.
You can see for yourself: Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is playing in theaters everywhere.
Which filmmaker do you wish had a shared universe? What's your favorite Tarantino Easter egg? Sound off in the comments section!
Source: IndieWire
