Manson (1973)

One of the previous comments that was made by diamnonddogrising..is spot on. Funny how the media can take a few incidents and make them into a major story to hide the real monsters and the wars of the rich. Just like the media and Bugliosi used Manson and the family to hide the misdeeds of Nixon and his crooks who killed about 58,000+ young men,not to mention millions of Vietnamese citizens,Bush and his evil band of tyrants use their PR firm FOX news to lie and create sensationalist stories of missing children or an occasional murder like the Laci Peterson case to hide all of their evil that murder thousands each day. I am not condoning any actions of Manson or any other...but the big time murderers and criminals wear the suit and ties and reside on wall street and in the halls of congress and our justice system in general. As for the film,it has wonderful,haunting music of a time that mankind almost got it right. With a war for profit that has turned into a nightmarish quagmire and an evil leader like Bush at the helm...can more bloodshed and cults be far behind? This film is an excellent example of what happens when you have a very disenchanted population...and far worse times are ahead for us. We need to get back to the idealism and activism of the 60's before our country falls prey to a fascist dictatorship led by Bush. Wake up. This film is a wonderful time piece and a blueprint about what happens when the American dream turns into the American nightmare. It most definitely needs to be restored and re-released for a generation that needs to understand what happens when people give up hope.

First things first...I have been interested in the Manson Murders for over two decades. I tend to give movies, art pieces on Manson a wide birth. If I gave these things a narrow birth, this would still be a fantastic film.Everything these people say this film does it does.It is a portrait of very stupid people.It is scary.And it is like hanging out with a bunch freaky murderers...But there is more. This is the only film that captures the family at it's "height". (For those of you who say there was no family I use this term to encompass the entire group that worked with Manson.) It is also a fantastic vision for why people and countries need to think on their own. These sheep who were lead to slaughter were led there because of their inability to think for themselves. Most of these people were women. We must remember that this case pre-dates the modern feminist movement by five years. So it was more likely that certain women would be able to put under the influence of a manipulative genius...or a scummy little ex-con. Not that this couldn't happen today...(except for certain sociological reasons it really actually couldn't).There is more to this case but the problem is a lot of the books on this case are badly written...so be it...my recommendations are Taming the Beast and Helter Skelter...also The Family has a ton of information but is quite simply one of the worst written books on earth.The Film gets a little lost and the end and begins to meander but one can attribute this to the druggy feel of this film rather then the fact that the filmmakers may have run out of things to say on this film.What also makes this film interesting is that most of the women do seem extremely intelligent (Mary Brunner and Gypsy should be excluded). It is too bad that these filmmakers couldn't or wouldn't get interviews with the families of these women. This would have pushed this film towards perfection maybe even making it a perfect documentary.There are also a few mysteries that go along with this film. One is why is this not a really well known documentary? Another is Why have there never been a soundtrack released and why has this never been released on DVD officially? Also there is the murder of one of the filmmakers in the parking lot of an acting school that Sharon Tate had attended. Also there have never been any interviews of the filmmakers and there never seems to be any evidence of say the critical reviews of this film. We must remember this film was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary so someone seems to have seen this film. I guess no one wanted to discuss it.If you are thinking of buying this film go for it...you wouldn't regret it... it will chill you to the bone and make you laugh because of it's narration...

The first time I saw Manson I thought it was a very crappy AIP docu-drama that cashed in the Manson myths.Several years later, I bought a copy of it on public domain DVD in the 3.99 bin at a local department store. Watching Manson the second time, having already seen Charlie Manson Superstar and a lot of other Manson footage, I noticed that all the participants really, really looked like their real-life counterparts. Then I read that NOT A FRAME OF THIS FILM WAS FAKE!!! Basically you get to see actual footage of the Spahn Ranch as well as home movies and court footage featuring the real Manson family in their time. I don't know who shot the sequence of Squeaky Fromm holding a shotgun and warning snitches to watch their backs but it's so unbelievably stark you wouldn't believe it. This is an iconic, excellent documentary about the Manson family murders that shows you in detail what exactly occurred during that terrible time and the raging social forces that led up to the family's shocking murders. This film deeply influenced Van Bebber's 'Charlie's Family' aka 'The Manson Family' which is another amazing interpretation of these events.

"Manson" is a sad, disturbing film. It's horrible enough to hear the details of the Tate/LaBianca murders being recounted and to see the vicious, empty look in the eyes of Charlie's girls as they brandish guns and spout their guru's "philosophy"...but that's not all this documentary has to offer. Indeed, it poses a question of even greater importance than Manson's crimes: what happened in the '60s? Why did it all end so badly? The soundtrack, performed by former Family members "Little" Paul Watkins (at one time Manson's right-hand man) and Brooks Poston, consists of slow, slightly corny-sounding, but haunting and utterly apt acoustic songs. "Have you ever wondered what you were here for?" Watkins solemnly intones during the opening theme. "Have you ever wondered, 'Is there more?'" Later, talking about his involvement with Manson, Watkins says frankly, "I thought Charlie was Jesus." It is at this point that the sociological question which meanders its way through the film like a deep, dark river becomes apparent: what made these young people feel so lost and confused that they needed a Christ-figure, and what made them believe that Charles Manson was the messiah they sought? I'm afraid that we lost the last of our innocence and goodwill at the end of the '60s...and that if we do not examine how flower power, peace symbols and the Monterey Pop Festival led to sleaze, the Manson murders and Altamont in the space of just two short years, we'll never get it back.