Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel

The novel uses Hollywood as a motif to represent the futility of fame and the theme of Reality Versus Fiction. Hollywood frustrates Cliff because it pretends to be authentic, but it has never experienced true hardship. Cliff resents that the impact of the war never reached Hollywood. As the rest of the world dealt with the trauma of the war, he claims that in America it was different:

[I]n America—and when I say ‘America’ I mean ‘Hollywood’—a country where its home-front civilians were shielded from the gruesome details of the conflict, their movies remained stubbornly immature and frustratingly committed to the concept of entertainment for the whole family (24).

Cliff understands that while the rest of the world recovers from extreme violence, Hollywood produces movies as if nothing ever happened. In addition, Hollywood represents the futility of fame and the dark side of the film industry. Although Rick wants to become a movie star, he becomes melancholy because he can never catch his “big break.” Marvin is the first person who is brutally honest with him and tells him that he should move to Italian films because Hollywood has changed. Marvin’s honesty saves Rick from staying in Hollywood longer than he needs to since, “in Hollywood, you could die of encouragement” (136). Hollywood’s lack of compassion for the mental health and careers of its actors causes many to drive themselves into the ground because they’re constantly striving for fame that will never come their way.