At one point in the 8 part series "Helter Skelter', in a mid-1970's interview, Manson is asked from prison about never being free again. He replies that he is 'free inside everyone of our minds'. He has planted his consciousness inside the fears of anyone who dared pay attention to him - and thanks to a sensationalized media, he is now part of history - and ours.
A quick search on Youtube reveals no shortage of views (we're talking millions) for many Manson-related clips and interviews. If he is not crawling in our brains, then he is at least lurking around the internet. If you take these many docs, interviews, and add books like prosecutor Bugliosi's 'Helter Skelter' and Ed Sanders' 'The Family', one might get a picture of Manson and his followers' psyche and how it all really went down. This new doc seems to take all those elements and balance the 'when & where' with the bigger questions: 'how' & why?'.
It's morbid fascination, how all-American kids can be 'turned' into cold blooded murderers by an ex-pimp with a (phoney?) Jesus complex and mind-bending drugs at his disposal.
However, this twisted patriarch figure didn't come out of nowhere - an incarcerated prostitute mother, and an uncaring and domineering uncle, set the stage for Manson's turbulent life as a criminal.
Watching what circumstances led him to become, is sad and engrossing stuff. When Manson cried for his absent mother when he was 4, his uncle told him to stop and: "be a man!". When Charlie 'ordered' Bobby Beausolieil and Tex Watson to kill for him separately, his words both times, were the same: "Be a man!". His conditioned childhood reared its ugly head. Disloyalty was abandonment. Manipulation was survival.
Between Manson's relatively recent death media splash and Tarantino's alt-universe 'Once Upon A Time in Hollywood', and now 'Helter Skelter' , Charlie is not going away anytime soon. He got our attention, even from beyond the grave. He never shied away from the spotlight, in life, on trial, and especially in death. Manson lives, even if you don't want him to.
Half a century later, in America, the theme of 'the blind following the blind' may never be more appropriate, and it's good to know why.
A quick search on Youtube reveals no shortage of views (we're talking millions) for many Manson-related clips and interviews. If he is not crawling in our brains, then he is at least lurking around the internet. If you take these many docs, interviews, and add books like prosecutor Bugliosi's 'Helter Skelter' and Ed Sanders' 'The Family', one might get a picture of Manson and his followers' psyche and how it all really went down. This new doc seems to take all those elements and balance the 'when & where' with the bigger questions: 'how' & why?'.
It's morbid fascination, how all-American kids can be 'turned' into cold blooded murderers by an ex-pimp with a (phoney?) Jesus complex and mind-bending drugs at his disposal.
However, this twisted patriarch figure didn't come out of nowhere - an incarcerated prostitute mother, and an uncaring and domineering uncle, set the stage for Manson's turbulent life as a criminal.
Watching what circumstances led him to become, is sad and engrossing stuff. When Manson cried for his absent mother when he was 4, his uncle told him to stop and: "be a man!". When Charlie 'ordered' Bobby Beausolieil and Tex Watson to kill for him separately, his words both times, were the same: "Be a man!". His conditioned childhood reared its ugly head. Disloyalty was abandonment. Manipulation was survival.
Between Manson's relatively recent death media splash and Tarantino's alt-universe 'Once Upon A Time in Hollywood', and now 'Helter Skelter' , Charlie is not going away anytime soon. He got our attention, even from beyond the grave. He never shied away from the spotlight, in life, on trial, and especially in death. Manson lives, even if you don't want him to.
Half a century later, in America, the theme of 'the blind following the blind' may never be more appropriate, and it's good to know why.