Sharon Tate at theater question


I'm good at missing the importance of scenes. The whole scene with Sharon Tate going to watch her own movie, was this just to add a little depth to the character or did it have some other meaning that went over my head?

reply

When I first saw this film without knowing any spoilers, any scenes with Sharon Tate immediately flooded me with a variety of emotions (mainly a sense of dread) and I’m sure Tarantino was anticipating this for the majority watching the theatre scene. For me, it made it very powerful, especially seeing the real Sharon Tate on the screen.

Not to be rude, just out of curiosity, is the Manson Murders something you just recently found out about? Have you researched it and spent countless hours pondering?

reply

It did make me sad seeing Tate in the movie, but I really liked that scene too. Having Tate smile and appreciate the audiences reactions was really sweet. One of the best scenes in the movie.

reply

SPOILERS

That's what I like about this movie...you feel the requisite dread and sadness about Sharon Tate's fate right up until the point where (a) we see her have a Mexican dinner out with her friends and (b) she goes home with her friends and they change into sleeping clothes for the night. We know that -- in real life -- these were the final hours and minutes of Sharon Tate's life before a horrific death was dealt out to her (and to her unborn baby) and...then....

...the movie goes wonderfully spinning off into the "once upon a time" sparing of Tate's life and killing of the Manson members by our "heroes."

We can experience that ending BOTH ways: (1) Sadness over what REALLY would happen to Sharon Tate that night and (2) Fantasy joy and relief over the "what if?' of her being saved and living after all(and not really even being menaced by the Mansons at all.

reply

There can be no "what if". Sharon, Jay, Voytek, Abigail, Steven, Leno, and Rosemary are dead. That is the truth.

reply

There can be no "what if". Sharon, Jay, Voytek, Abigail, Steven, Leno, and Rosemary are dead. That is the truth.

---

It certainly is...and I don't discount the horror and tragedy of how and why they died.

One problem I had -- living through that time -- is how Manson and his girls really seemed to enjoy the press they were getting once they were on trial. The horrible murders were compounded by how the press rather allowed these awful people to "sell themselves" as hippie revolutionaries or something.

This Tarantino film at least gives some of us the satisfaction of treating Manson and his followers -- if only in fiction -- as worthy of the contempt and mockery they sure deserved in real life.

reply

Sharon was never that vain. She also never did what Tarantino showed her doing. That was a gross depiction of Sharon, not the truth of who she was. Sharon only saw these films at their premieres.

reply

Sharon was never that vain. She also never did what Tarantino showed her doing. That was a gross depiction of Sharon, not the truth of who she was. Sharon only saw these films at their premieres.

---

Did you know her? Interesting.

Tarantino has said that that scene was actually based on something HE did...at the same Westwood Theater(the Bruin, named after the Bruin mascot at UCLA nearby), getting in for free to see True Romance because he wrote it.

reply

I don't feel that it was about vanity at all. I think she was really interested in how the audience felt about her performance. Also, I think that she needed validation about the fact that she has "made it" in Hollywood. Everyone needs to feel that their work is appreciated. This was a way she felt that. It was more than just a paycheck for her.

reply

Did you mean that Robbie was playing the "real Sharon Tate" or that they showed scenes from "The Wrecking Crew" on the screen in the theatre?

reply

The latter.

reply

Not to be rude, just out of curiosity, is the Manson Murders something you just recently found out about? Have you researched it and spent countless hours pondering?

---

Not rude at all. I was aware of the murders, although being in my early 40s, I did not live through it. What I do lack is knowledge of Sharon Tate other than she was one of the individuals in the house that horrible night. I also lacked the sense of dread you mentioned only because I had a strong feeling going into the movie that Tarantino was not going to show the Manson family committing the murders. Also, I have no real attachment to Ms Tate. I thought maybe Tarantino was trying to build some attachment to the character by showing some random scenes of her life (ie the movie theater scene).

reply

That scene had no depth. Tarantino did not show who Sharon was. What Robbie played was a caricature of who Tarantino thought Sharon was. He talked to Debra Tate, who didn't know her sister for crap. Most of Sharon's life from 1966-1969 was spent abroad and even her youngest sister Patti, and mother Doris said they only saw her sporadically. The one Tarantino should have been speaking to was the one person who knew her best: Her husband Roman Polanski. Polanski begged Tarantino not to do this. I don't care what one thinks of Polanski, Tarantino had the professional courtesy to show Polanski the script. But then Tarantino knew he was going to depict Sharon in the most stupid way possible, therefore no allowing Polanski to see the script for input. The same with Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski, and Abigail Folger. And that scene never happened in real life and Sharon was not that vacuous. Sharon was more than just the sum of big glasses (Sharon never wore), micro-mini skirts, and go-go boots. So there was no depth to that scene. There was no meaning other than to show he couldn't have cared less.

reply

I think the scene was just Tarantino’s way of paying tribute to Sharon Tate. It was the ability to let people see the real Sharon Tate in one of her films on the screen during his film.

Most people know her as a murder victim and nothing else. I think he was simply playing tribute to her as an actress with that whole scene of her going to the theater to watch her own film. I can imagine several people looked up some of her movies after seeing OUATIH, or wanted to learn more about who she was.

reply

I honestly thought the ending would involve her dying instead of the whole dog biting and flame thrower stuff, which was still awesome

reply