Customer Reviews

The Beach Boys and the Satan

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have no idea why the director, German Christoph Dreher, decided to give this 57 minute documentary this title - or why the video company chose the packaging., but this is a hidden gem of a documentary on Brian Wilson and his music and a must for Wilson fans.

The film was made in 1997 - and so references to the "Smile" album never being released are a bit premature. All the titles and on screen descriptions are in GERMAN, but all the sound (interviews, songs etc) are in ENGLISH.

Starting out with the history of surf music, the film includes rare interviews with the Chantays, Don Was, and Dick Dale. Lots of rare promo films made by Capitol for the Beach Boys are also here. The film focuses on Brian Wilson's early years as well as his drug problem for about 45 minutes. About 2/3 through we get to the Psychedelic Years of music and see Janis Joplin perform at Monterey Pop Fest. Then an odd connection is made between Dennis Wilson being friends with Charles Manson and the film veers off to discuss the Manson murders. Then it's back to Brian, who has nothing at all to do with Manson.

Some of the real highlights are newly filmed (well, new in 1997) interviews with Brian at his home at the piano (where he plays "Love and Mercy").

A big problem with this release is that it is not "indexed" and it is ONE long 57-minute chapter, so you can't go back to a specific song or subject.

Again, this is a quirky - misleadingly packaged - DVD that all Beach Boy and Brian Wilson fans will want to check out. And the video quality is very good.

Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"

Last year, I noticed a copy of this DVD on the shelf at my local Fry's Electronics. I was intrigued by the title; I thought "ooooh... a dark and creepy look at the mid-sixties LA music scene & how good ol' Brian Wilson sold his soul the the Devil in exchange for his songwriting gifts. Sounds fascinating!". I knew that Manson (as a struggling musician with dubious talent) had played around the fringes of the aforementioned scene & that he had somewhat of a tangential tie to Dennis Wilson (via Terry Melcher).

As fate would have it, I didn't buy tBB&tS on that day, & I pretty much forgot about it.

Yesterday, I found myself in the very same store & as I passed the DVD rack, there it was. "I'm not going to pass it up this time" I told myself & I snapped it up.

I got it home... popped into the player... & now all I have to say is, "what a bloody disappointment!". Suffice if to say that my above mentioned assumptions were nothing more that wishful thinking & apart from a brief mention of Melcher's associations with Manson and Dennis Wilson, what you have here are two short documentaries, neither all that informative, that just happen to co-habitate the same disc.

If you are familiar with the story of the Beach Boys & you've read Helter Skelter, there's really nothing new for you here. True, there was an informative look at Brian & his particular form of eccentricity; & the claim that the Tate/Labianca hit might actually have been intended for Melcher and Mark Lindsey was a new one on me, but other than that... yuck.

As for me... I'm off to eBay to find a buyer for this & recoup at least SOME of my investment!

We all know of Dennis' direct and mostly indirect involvement with Manson. Why Dreher had to tarnish the name of the documentary is beyond me. The Beach Boys deserve better...especially Brian. Rare, new footage is always good.

I actually give this ZERO stars. But had to give it a star due to Amazon's rules.

The title is slightly misleading as it is not all about Wilson's involvment with Manson. That's just a part of it. And warning, that part contains explicit material if anyone cares to know. I know Brian Wilson is the brains behind the Beach Boys, but this documentary was predominantly about Brian. This should have been titled: "Brian Wilson and the Satan (featuring the rest of them)".

I've seen other Beach Boys documentaries (even made for tv movies) that were better than this jumpy compilation. I felt like I was trying to watch a documentary put together by someone who had ADD.

overall, the documentary was pretty cool. however, about 99% of the beach boys clips were from a prior documentary, an american family from '85. they should have included the clip of dennis singing manson's song never learnt not to love (aka cease to exist). especially since the title of the movie is the beach boys & the satan. but did have cool footage of interviews with dick dale and dean torrence and the chantays. also kim fowley was cool too.

a totally off and enjoyable movie. All Brian Wilson fans should see this movie.

This is one dvd that any beach boys fan should have in their dvd collection.And if you ever wonder how such an clean cut band got ever involed in the likes of Charles Manson again this the dvd for you or if you like the beach boys music again get this dvd cause it everything that you want to know.So buy your copy now and enjoy.

Rondall Banks