Currently streamable on Netflix is this 2008 NBC Documentary with The Bug, Catherine Share, Dr. David Smith, Linda Deutsch and Dr. Jack Levin. Patty will remind you that Dr. Smith is the founder of the Haight Street Free Clinic. Linda Deutsch was an AP correspondent who has covered the case since the beginning, and Dr. Levin is a criminologist from Northeastern University who kind of set the tone for a well-balanced (albeit entry level) treatment of the subject:
"I think we have to look beyond the label of monster, crazy, insane. We have to try to understand the entire situation, the circumstances...how the counter culture arose during the 1960's...some of the characteristics of those people who followed Manson and actually carried out the murders, and finally, we have to understand Manson as a human."
Dr. Levin is a man after Patty's own heart. He is balanced in his approach to whether or not the Family was brainwashed, and whether or not Charlie truly ordered the crimes. He does not take sides nor jump to conclusions. He states that "we may never know," but that certainly, it could and most likely will happen again. His interview is in sharp contrast to that of The Bug, who gives us his same old Helter Skelter dog-and-pony freak show.
What may be interesting to The Evilist are the interviews and some of the news footage, including original NBC national coverage with David Brinkley. What may be annoying to you are the goofy "reenactment" scenes. In some places, they make no sense while in others, they're absolutely wrong. For instance, both Sharon and Gibby are wearing long white nightgowns when we know Sharon was in bikini underwear. In other scenes, the criminals and victims just kind of stare at each other in a kind of time warp while the canned spooky, discordant music plays.
Eh...what the heck. It entertained, and IMDB gave it a solid 6.4.
9 comments:
Thats a pretty good show Patty. But yeah, any reenactments make head want to explode. Speaking of reenactments, I was watching '04 "Helter Skelter" remake the other day. I think I made it a whole 15 minutes. Dennis Wilson is played by the host of "Overhauling". I was waiting for Chip Foose to come out of one of the ranch houses.
Cielodrive,
Charlie was played by the same actor who played one of the characters on LOST. I was a huge LOST fan and kept waiting for Sadie, Katie and Leslie to show up on the island. :-)
Manson 101. I didn't learn a thing from it.
Ha, yes. We got sucked into LOST too. If the girls did show up on that island it would make just about as much sense as anything else on that show.
Me wanting LOST =
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6NXqZQC4c
The production crews of shows like that probably dread for intensely interested groups like this one to critique their work. We've studied the case in detail, for years, and at our leasure while they probably rushed into it as a way to make a buck.
cielodrive-
EXACTLY!
I watched them all and the finale and still have no idea what the hell that show was about.
I think that at least half of the members of this group could contribute greatly if hired as consultants on such projects.
orwhut-
I also get frustrated when I watch so called documentaries and they get obvious things wrong. I was watching something on msnbc once(cant remember what) and they had so many errors it was ridiculous. It's not like facts about the case are hard to find!
It is funny how Catherine Share comes out in all these shows about CM, yet she always fails to mention how much she was involved. She helped rob a gun store, for crying out loud, so they could break CM out of prison. She also, I might add, helped dispose of Shorty's car & personal affects after he was murdered. She has NO RIGHT talking about how the "others" were brainwashed, when she was one of Manson's biggest cheerleaders.
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