Customer Reviews

The Manson Family (Unrated 2-Disc Special Edition)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

While it took forever for this film to be finished, the question is if it was worth the wait. My answer is that it was. "The Manson Family" is a very interesting view of the events that preceded the infamous killings and how they culminated in the very murders themselves. Using a multiple time phase structure, the film moves back and forth between the past and present of the main characters involved in the murders. This results in a story that tries to show the killers as being "removed" from the actual crime, as if they were not really there and they comment on it in the third person. Essentially exactly what they do when going up for parole hearings. The film is very rough, scenes are filled with scratches and other defects that bring a documentary feel to the proceedings, as if the Manson Family themselves were behind the camera. The culmination of the film with the multiple murders presents them in a highly graphic and factual way which is to the benefit of the presentation. While all the talk and posturing was peace and love, to see the horrendous murders truly puts things in perspective. This is a great movie for people into true crime stories and for those looking for a realistic portrayal of the Manson story. The DVD also contains an excellent documentary concerning no budget, renegade filmmaking. This documentary interviews many directors of these types of film and is very insightful into the passions of these people. Other extras include a revealing interview with Manson himself which, if nothing else, indicates why he will die in prison. I would recommend this film to people who are fans of independent filmmakers and true crime stories.

Jim Vanbebber proves once again, without a doubt, that he is the baddest mother(...)in indie horror. My Sweet Satan kicked (...), but it was short and it left viewers wanting more. The Manson Family is his greatest achievement to date. It's surely not for everyone, but those not afraid to look real horror in the eye will love this movie. In a time when the term, Underground, is as cliched as words like "alternative" or "hardcore", Vanbebber proves that minuscule budgeted films can be vital and be as effective as anything done on any budget. I watched the Unrated DVD (natch!) last night and I haven't been able to get it out of my head all day today. This movie is a masterpiece.

This movie is certenly not for everybody but many people really like it. Maybe it's because it is a true story about a horrendeaus events. the amaturish acting just adds to the realness and rawness of the film.

It starts with life on the Spahn Ranch as told by Sadie, Pat and Tex, the main killers who are talking to an interviewer through prison. The film builds up and leads us through sex orgies and devilo worship untill things are getting paranoid and crazy. Then it explodes in your face with that climatic violance which is so graphic and horrible.

I watched this film with my father and both of us felt really nervus after the film and I was afraid to leave any windows open. I was laying in bed not able to fall asleep, waiting for drugged out, crazed hippies to burge into my bedroom and drag me out of bed and start by viciously stabbing me again and again. It was horrible.

This film is really good and it shows it like it was and what those terrified victims went through and how crazy things went. This film is bound to leave some people outraged, scared, exited and others simply bored. In my opinion this is splatter cinema at it's best.

I saw this film months ago on a east european release. The film has been trying to get distribution and finished for some time so I grabbed the opportunity to watch it. Van Bebber has done a stirling job in capturing the Manson phenomena and has created a unique,chilling and satisfying cinema experience. The film is influenced by 60's trip cinema, inevitable to reflect the times that these horrendous crimes were committed. The budget that Bebber was working to adds to the creativity of the flick and builds more atmosphere than a thousand big budget productions. The murders are presented graphically without compromise which further illustrates the extent these people had become removed from their earlier hippy pretensions to savage merciless murderers. Very well shot and edited the film will not appeal to everyone as it does not follow a traditional linear narrative. The documentary feel of the film works well which further replicates the heavy media association that the crimes originally had. The Manson trial was the end of the summer of love and I think Bebber illustrates this by the film at the end catching fire which is very similar to Two Lane Blacktop a film which also symbolised the end of the sixties. A truly original piece of cinema which will appeal to cinephiles with a wide ranging knowledge of films and the crimes themselves. Everybody has a right to an opinion but the reveiwer who gave this film one star is not saying anything in his reveiw but the fact that he needs to get back to his Troma films. This film is well worth a watch and you well get a lot out of it subtle references to Jim Jones, the celebrity status killers receive through the media. Highly recommended.

I was sifting through a Best Buy store looking for something strange, and possibly something a bit disturbing when I found this blood soaked little opus staring out at me from the horror section. I had my doubts at first, but I remembered seeing it on the marquees of the local art-houses and reading some reviews so I made the plunge and was not dissappointed.

Let me stress at the outset that this isn't the highly sanitized 70's television mini-series Helter Skelter nor it's polished remake of last year. This one scratches much closer to the bone. Made on a shoe-string budget on and off over a course of almost fifteen years, this comes across as cross-breed of documentary, Italian horror and snuff-film. The various film stock used conveys perfectly the time period and gives an added reality to everything that eventually unfolds on screen. The use of non-actors (many of which worked pro-bono) works equally well since there is none of the pretense or method a schooled actor would bring to the table.

Some may be put off at the seemingly disorganized way it all is cut together, but there is a method to the madness. Others may be equally turned off by the exploitation flick vibe that radiates off the screen. However, from all the interviews and books I've read on the case, the film rarely strays from fact. The director Van Bebber did his homework and stayed on course.

Another thing I think I should mention is the documentary on the making of this movie. Van Bebber deserves a lot of credit for muscling this film to completion. Money ran out, some of the actors grew tired of it and went on their way, including Marcello Games who played Manson himself, but the end result was something one cannot take their eyes from. Any number of other directors would have given it up for dead long before, but eventually he got the deed done. I for one am glad he did.

We'll all heard of the atrocities that happened on that fateful night in August 1969 when actress Sharon Tate and her guests were brutally murdered at the hands of crazed fanatics. Since that night Charles Manson has been reviled (and by some people glorified) as one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. Most average people, while referring to mass murderers will say his name before almost anyone else, even though body count wise he can’t hold a candle to people like John Wayne Gacy or Gary Ridgeway. Here’s a news flash for those not in the know: Manson was not a serial killer. He wasn’t the one who plunged the knives in the bodies of the victims, heck he wasn’t even in that house. While Manson definitely belongs locked safely in a cell for the rest of his days for masterminding the attacks, his rep as a notorious mass murderer is a myth that director Jim Van Bebber tries to demystify in his film The Manson Family, placing the spotlight on the other members of the Manson cult.

The Manson Family is what can be referred to as a “mockumentary”, a film told in documentary format except that the people recounting the events are actors and the footage shot is not real but fictitious. Throughout the movie, we hear testimony from the 5 members of Manson’s “family”, who have been incarcerated for life for their part in the killings and we watch as they recount events from their past. We see how they first met Charles, a struggling musician who took them under his wing. We see how the group would go to a ranch owned by one of Charlie’s friends and engage in sex orgys, acid trips and marijuana smoking. Mostly harmless fun, typical of the love generation. Then as the movie progresses things take on a darker tone, especially as Manson’s recording career suffers backseat after backseat from record producers, he is morphing into a madman. His hatred for the establishment and for people he judged “different” leads him to form Helter Skelter, an operation in which innocent people, such as Tate and her friends were murdered. Manson believed that the killings would be framed on the Black Panthers, which would result in a race war in which Charlie would be the leader. Or something like that. I guess I don’t need to tell you that he wasn’t the most well-adjusted individual.

Before anyone casts misplaced judgment on this film realize that director Jim Van Bebber is not at all trying to glorify Manson or the killings. Quite the opposite. Van Bebber portrays Manson as a desperate loon and his tribe as crazed worshippers while still attempting to place a human face on them. This is an independent film in the true sense of the word as Van Bebber slaved over nearly 12 years and countless roadblocks of financing and studio rejection along the way. His picture is gritty, brutal and uncompromising. If you do not have a very high tolerance for on-screen violence, do not watch this film. It actually starts off rather innocently and the entire first half of the film contains nothing graphic or disturbing whatsoever, as it concentrates on profiling the group and its members. As the film builds to a crescendo we are shown in shockingly graphic detail the atrocities and the murders. We watch as heads get blown off, as cult members stab repeatedly their victims dozens of times over, all the while referring to them as “pigs”. The film hits a crescendo as the killers enter the Sharon Tate mansion and every single scene is displayed in excruciatingly graphic detail. No details are spared, except for one, the hanging of Sharon Tate’s foetus. In the special features section, Van Bebber, director of “Deadbeat at Dawn” and not one usually known for restraint, says that including that scene simply would have been going too far. I agree.

The only thing that bothered me was how much Charles was put in the background and how he is portrayed as a rather foolish character, one who says nothing of value and who lacks any charisma whatsoever. I realize VanBebber’s intent with the film was to put Manson’s “family” in the foreground but I at least would have liked to get a glimpse of what made him so seducing as to be able to convince a group of people to buy into Helter Skelter and commit such inhuman acts. Overall, The Manson Family is a well-done and interesting film if you can stand the graphic nature of it. Emotions will not be spared; you will have a strong reaction whether you think this is a good film or not.

I'm not Roger Ebert or any of your big time "name" movie critics, I'm just a fan of movies. I speak for myself and no one else. I like quirky movies, b grade & alot of other flicks that most people abhor. Now the last thing I want to do is bash anyone elses opinion, but ol' one-star at the bottom of the page is going to be in the minority of people who don't like this movie. Which is also, alas, just an opinion.

I've read quite a bit about the struggles Jim VanBebber had in finishing this flick. And what a flick. It was well worth the wait. Sure, it's trippy & violent, just what you've read. But I believe that it's going to go down in history as one of the best independent movies ever made. If you thought Helter Skelter was the definitive story of Manson, think again. Buy this, rent this. But definitely see this movie. My wife, who simply despises 95% of my collection, watched this with me- after her son and I spoke of it at length- and lo & behold, she liked it, too. I will say this, though, if you're a little weak about seeing graphic violence, drug use & heavy nudity (including simulated sexual acts), don't watch it.

Holy *beep* are the first words that come to mind! It's one of the most *beeped* up movies I have ever seen! I thought that it was a normal movie, but the best way to describe it is to say that it's not even a movie, it's just insanity! It doesn't really have a plot, most of the times you just see random bits of the Manson family's life, mostly them being naked (lots and lots of big tits), having orgies (one time while drinking dog blood and it's pretty disturbing), being high on acid and killing people in gory ways (the last 20 minutes or so are very gory!)! The other times you see them (the actors, not the real persons) a couple of years later talking about how life with Charles Manson was and there's a subplot taking places in the present about teens or young adults who worship Charles Manson and wants to be just like the Manson's family. The whole thing is really out of the ordinary and stylish and sometimes you almost feel like you're high on acid! I'm sure that it's far from accurate, but some parts are accurate.

Recommended.

Conventional wisdom about the Manson family: Charlie the madman took a bunch of innocent young drifters in 1969 and fed them mountins of
L S D. He was able to convince them of the nobility of his plans, and the girls commited the Tate-Labianca murders on his orders that August.

This has been the story line since LA District Atternoy Vincent Bolgiosi tried the case in 1970 and got convictions. And it made sense--Manson masterminded these killings but the girls carried them out. Bolgisoi needed to prove a conspirisy to convict Manson.

The Manson Family, this film, has a different theroy. These girls were sadistic little wenches to begin with, and the sex and drugs and nonsence 60s rap Charlie fed them only fuled their sociopatic impules. Further, the August killings were not just spawned by hippie underbelly madness. Before Tate Labianca, Manson had killed a Black Panther in a money deal gone wrong, and the murders that summer were part of a scheme to throw authorites off the trail. According to the film, the family also gang raped the wife of the land owner where they had set up camp.

Taken at face value, this changes the implications of the Tate-Labianca butchery. If the family can be seen more as a criminal enterprise then a mystified hippie cult, the real cruelity of their crimes can be viewed in a much starker light.

But director Jim Van Beeber takes this a step further: the film also deals with the Manson acolytes who continued to follow him into the 90s. Here, these young killers in punk rock drag kill a TV reporter working on a documentry about Manson. This reporter summerizes the point of the film, early, saying 'It is all Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. What about the kids who put the knives in the victims."

During these 90s scenes, there is virtually no dialouge between the memebrs of the Manson posee. Implied is that there is little thought put behind their worship of Manson or their own crimes. Their criminality also seems to feed on freekoid sex, drugs, and out and out wierdness that contains no reason or subtance.

Sixties or Nineties, the Manson Family documents the crimes in graphic, horrific fashion. This is probably the most violent film I have ever seen, and I do not go out of my way to avoid violent movies. But, the violence is not gratuitous- to Vanbeeber's credit, he uses the gore of the Manson crimes to deflate the icon myth of Manson.

This set also contains a bonus disc on why this film took almost 20 years to get made. The film making process is fascinating, and so are the stories of the actors--who often worked for free to make the film.

The idea of this film is 60 Minutes type interviews of members of the Manson family with the memory flashbacks of the scenes played out like an actual "Riot on Sunset Strip" type B-film. The flashback scenes were filmed in the late 80s, the modern day interview scenes were filmed in the late 90s if not in 2000. If you have a look at that or just youtube Something Weird Video and look at their 60s hippy acid flicks you'll see roughly the same thing. The only thing that really hurts this movie is the useless subplot of stereotypical late 90s Columbine-ish kids listening to industrial music, dressing weird plotting to kill. It doesn't help the film at all and really drags it down.
As corny as this movie can be, if you can view it with a sense of humor you'll find this movie is either pure genius or accidentally good. The older scenes in the movie were pretty much an entirely separate and meant to stand as their own film, Van Bebber waking up from a decade of stagnant alcoholism went back seeing a cheesy movie and worked it into some far more restrained realistic scenes. And I'll repeat myself, a mock TV documentary like musicians reminiscing on Woodstock with mock 60s footage to match. It works well, its gory and cheesy and trash cinema yes but if you look a bit closer its got a raw power to it. With all these directors trying to ape the old trash cinema style, like Rob Zombie or take your pick really, Jim Van Bebber actually gathers it together and makes it into art instead of a throwaway night at the movies. And if you're a Deadbeat at Dawn fan this shouldn't disappoint.
The extras on this disc are very revealing. My personal favorite was this film showing at a horror fest which in my opinion is depressing. I can understand if there were films like Bad Taste or Evil Dead 2 or anything remotely resembling talent but movies like Aftermath, the utterly terrible Dust Devil and some unfinished POS by a "director" that starts crying (he's asked some simple direct questions by some critics who just viewed some unedited soundless footage of bad latex/karo syrup effects) is sad sad sad. Jim Van Bebber's film deserved a better wider audience but if he's stuck in cinema ghetto its his own fault. The other documentary shows Van Bebber pretty much falling to pieces after Deadbeat At Dawn filming the first half of this film, then drinking, losing partners, his studio, everything from just drinking. He finally the finishes the movie a decade later, if there's ever been a film to warn against overindulgence of mind altering chemicals its right here! It really had an effect on me, drinking alot myself the time I saw it. That and the lone junkie outlaw filmmaker who pops up at the end of the festival doc, only he's awesome, really.