The historical inaccuracy John Travolta spotted in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’
It’s fair to say that John Travolta is an actor who enjoyed one of the greatest comebacks in cinema history. After coming to the public’s attention with performances in the likes of Carrie, Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Blow Out, Travolta’s career hit the skids, at least until Quentin Tarantino pulled him from despair by casting him in Pulp Fiction.
Tarantino had been blown away by Travolta’s performance in Brian De Palma’s 1981 crime film Blow Out, and he knew that he was the right man to play Vincent Vega in his iconic 1992 movie. In years following Pulp Fiction, Travolta went on to star in further acclaimed roles, showing that Tarantino’s belief in his ultimately paid off.
Despite the fact that Travolta practically owes Tarantino the second half of his career and saved his professional life from the acting trash pile, Travolta wasn’t hesitant in criticising his Pulp Fiction director when it came to a historical inaccuracy in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Tarantino’s film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brat Pitt and Margot Robbie, as well as a swathe of other prominent stars, takes place in 1969 and focuses on a fading Hollywood actor, Rick Dalton and his loyal stuntman Cliff Booth, during a transitional period in American cinema around the time of the murder of Sharon Tate.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is certainly one of Tarantino’s best-ever movies, but Travolta once placed a moment of it in his sights and pulled the trigger. Travolta’s problem surrounds a scene in which Rick Dalton flies back to Los Angeles from Italy after making a series of Spaghetti Western movies.
Speaking with The Wrap, Travolta explained, “Leonardo is going home from Italy or wherever he was, and the narrator says that he took a 747.” Here, Travolta is referring to the Boeing aeroplane model, and he continued to prove his aerial travel knowledge by pointing out the fact that it would have been unlikely that Dalton would have indeed taken a 747 if the year was 1969.
He continued, “Well, the 747 had its test flight in February 1969, but it went into service in January 1970. They’re nine months off! He would have been on a Boeing 707!” Who would have thought that Travolta had a deep passion for aviation and that he had such an attentive eye when watching a film that he would be able to call out Tarantino for his mistake?
Tarantino isn’t, of course, known for his historical accuracy, especially given movies like Inglorious Basterds, but Travolta arrived in Hollywood around the year 1969, so he felt a particular draw towards Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the way it crafted a brilliant narrative alongside the harrowing Manson murders of Sharon Tate.
Discussing his memories of the era, Travolta noted, “I remember being there in the city when all of this was happening. I remember being scared because of Sharon Tate being killed. It triggered far more real memories than anything from filming Pulp Fiction.”
Travolta was keen, though, to stress that Tarantino can “repair our history” with his treatments of the most important cultural moments of the past. Travolta indeed owes a lot to Tarantino, given the fact that the director resuscitated his career with Pulp Fiction, but that doesn’t mean that the actor was willing to let Tarantino get away with aviation inaccuracies, holding him to account for his mistake.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.