The Manson Family (Unrated 2-Disc Special Edition)
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Actor: Carl Day, Marita Clarke, Maureen Allisse, Michelle Briggs, Tom Burns (III)Brand: MPI
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-04-26
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Dark Sky Films
DVD Reviews of The Manson Family (Unrated 2-Disc Special Edition)
DVD Review: Where were you in '69?
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Description of The Manson Family (Unrated 2-Disc Special Edition)
If you think you know the story of the Manson Family, you are dead wrong. Director Jim VanBebber (Deadbeat at Dawn) delivers an uncompromising snapshot of this cult of personality, hell- bent on executing the brutal vision of its leader, Charles Manson. On a ranch outside of LA the dream of the "Love Generation" is perverting into something evil. What was once an oasis of free love and acid trips has become ground zero for a madman?s paranoid visions. An average group of kids, the "Family", become engulfed in a delusional world where torment and slaughter is considered the path to righteousness. The Manson Family is a dizzying, rapid-fire vision of the sex and violence that unifies the misguided group, and at the direction of their leader, ends in a brutal spree leaving seven people dead in a 48 hours. You?ve seen the story through the eyes of the law. Now witness it through the eyes of THE MANSON FAMILY.Bestsellers in DVD
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