Review of The Manson Family (1997) by Johnny R — 19 Jul 2009

A fictionalised biopic of the group of nefarious whack-jobs who chose to follow uber-loon Charles Manson as if he were Jesus Christ himself.

Almost as interesting as the story of the killers is the story of the making of this film itself. Director Jim Van Bebber filmed the majority of this film back in '88, but was forced to spend another 15 years until it was completed, due to finance issues. Worked out nice in the end, though, as it afforded him the chance to add new elements into the mix,elements which I feel have made it a better film than it might have been.

The film itself will be a long, hard haul if you're weak of stomach, or on the PC wagon. Part art movie, part exploitatin flick, part social commentary, it's chock full of tits and ass and deliberately degraded to resemble the 70s output of other directors such as Polanski and Hopper, the film pulls absolutely no punches, but then, given the subject matter, why should it? Would you have Ron Howard direct the Jeffrey Dahmer story? No, you wouldn't.

Fans of true crime, those with an artistic bent and schlock horror fanatics alike will find much to like here.