2 Killer Manson Docs
Watch Manson and The Manson Gang For Free
PROVOKR presents Robert Hendrickson’s first documentary on Charles Manson – Manson (1973) to view for free. This documentary detailed Manson’s life from his birth, to his years bouncing through the prison system, to his formation of the Manson family and culminating in the Tate-LaBianca murders. The film incorporates interviews with all the members of the Manson family (most notable Lynette “Squeaky’ Fromme, who was only around 13 when she met Manson, and other later convicted murders. The film also incorporates footage of the family playing at their home-base, Spahn Ranch. Interestingly, the score for this documentary was composed by two former members of the Manson family. The documentary was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary.
Thirty-four years later, Hendrickson revisited Manson and his followers in another documentary, Inside the Manson Gang (2007), also shown free here on PROVOKR. This documentary was filmed over a period of years and shows the footage that Hendrickson captured on the Manson family. There are no recreations here, just Hendrickson guiding you through his time filming one of America’s most notorious cults. It really makes you think about the dedication it took for one man to follow one group for decades, and not only the dedication, but the toll it must have taken on him mentally to do this. Easy viewing this is not.
Exactly 50 years ago this week Hollywood was rocked by the gruesome Tate-LaBianca murders committed by several members of Charles Manson’s “family” (the name he gave to his followers of mostly young women and teenage girls) at his command. Between the bewitching hours around midnight August 8 and 9, 1969, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel broke into the rented home of Roman Polanski and his 8.5 months pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate and savagely murdered everyone in the house. Polanski was away on business, but Tate was home with friends Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger. No one was spared.
The next night again around midnight (August 9-10, 1969) Manson family member Leslie Van Houten joined Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel to commit another grisly crime. This time the double murder of married couple Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. These murders shocked Hollywood and the rest of the country. In time the name on everybody’s mind was Charles Manson. Who was he and why would he direct his followers to murder a group of innocent people with whom he had no relationships or did he?
Allegedly, Manson was obsessed with The Beatles’ The White Album. He thought the album contained a coded message just for him about an impending race war. Out of a desire to incite this race war he believed was coming, he instructed his followers to commit these murders and try to pin the blame on African American people. Their attempt to incite a race war did not work and the gang was arrested within a few months.
With the release of Quentin Tarantino’s newest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, interest in Charles Manson and his followers has hit a new high. Of course, like with any Tarantino movie set during a historical period, Tarantino is not going for factual accuracy. He is more a fan of cathartic revisionism. For historical context into Manson and his family, check out the the documentaries made by Robert Hendrickson.
Both documentaries by Robert Hendrickson can be seen for free here on PROVOKR this week, so after you see the new Tarantino flick, if you want a dose of the truth (and mind you, truth is stranger than fiction) give these a watch, just maybe not alone and not right before you go to bed. Creepy, crawly.
