Thorough, heavily detailed, intricately well crafted document on the events and people surrounding the LoBianco/Tate murders, with great time and effort given to the Manson clan responsible for the heinous crimes and how they were committed; but what truly compelled me was the particular devotion to the victims, such as their activities and relationships (Tate and Sebring were an item at one point), before meeting gruesome fates. Not only that, but the areas where the Manson family (and those they were involved with at points prior to the murders) frequented or "patrolled" at one point or another are visited, with determined accuracy given to their importance to the murders and the Manson clan's connection to them. The autopsy reports, explained by a coroner willing to distill them into a form we can understand, really give us a real feeling for just how vicious and maddening the murders truly were. The host (Scott Michaels, who doesn't hide his enthusiasm and passion for all things Manson family and Hollywood Death) and materials used (Helter Skelter, the novel, is a source spoken about often) define an infamous period of American history with a scholarly approach. While the budget was shoestring, like others have already pointed out well, the major appeal would have to be the return to locations (like the neighborhoods, where the Spahn Ranch once stood, and most definitely, the Barker Ranch which still remained surprisingly intact if still a bit ravaged by time and campers visiting it to stay the night (I can't imagine I would ever do that, though!) before suffering an accidental fire that gutted it). Finding Tex Watson's truck (with Healter Skelter etched on it still!) was one of the documentary's more compelling moments and a listen to Manson's crooning "Cease to Exist" as it plays on a record left me with chills.
While used as a criticism towards the narrative approach for Michaels, his "inability to stay on topic" felt rather natural to me, as if he were "in the moment" which was actually a nice change from the typical "organized" documentary form of a true crime show or A&E's Biography. I felt as if I was visiting places right along with him and reacting as he might have (maybe not as excitedly, because in the back of my mind, what these people did to innocents would still remain) at discoveries that could still remain. If I had a criticism it would be towards the crime scene photographs of the murder victims; I felt the coroner and autopsy charts were sufficient enough I think showing the actual bodies of those killed was a bit too exploitative and rather desperate for shock value.
How producer Evans is mentioned (he was supposed to keep a protective eye on Tate while Polanski was away in preparation for directing Day of the Dolphin in England), along with Jack Nicholson, the members of Mamas and the Papas, James Dean, and even MGM producer (and husband of Jean Harlow) Paul Bern (who was found dead from a gunshot wound, with a report confirming his death a suicide, considered perhaps staged) in correlation with events prior to and after the Tate murders add credence to the "six degrees" part of the documentary's title. This isn't just about the murders and Manson, as host Michaels himself get a rub by the documentary, showing his home, pimping his "Dearly Departed Tours" business, and allowing us to see his morbid memorabilia concerning Hollywood's dead. Two particular deaths at Charlie's urging that left me rather haunted was the murder of Shorty Shea (a Hollywood stuntman married to a black woman (which repulsed racist Charlies), who worked at the Spahn Ranch) and Steven Parent, a teenage kid with a fascination in electronics offering a radio to a potential buyer staying in a guest house nearby the eventual Mansion Family kill zone involving the Tate murders. I think "wrong place-wrong time" just kept returning to my mind as I watched this. You just sense that if "this or that" had occurred, some of these lives might could have been avoided a fate most unkind.
The document of a couple who discover Tex and the girls "hosing off" the blood from the murders, the husband of the house going so far as attempting to remove the keys from their car and confronting them hostilely, and living to tell about it, really just further signifies how fate deals some a good hand, while others get the shaft. To hear that Manson and his bunch were looking to kill others, eventually caught at Barker Ranch, just cements how dangerous they really were, and that the need to remove them from society was of vital importance. Fascinating was the details, regarding Polanski and his search for Tate's murderer (even accusing John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas!), and how the Manson family remained untied to the pool of suspects for a period of time afterward, only add to the pop culture curiosity to this whole documentary. The mentioning of the paranoia and fear gripping Hollywood (by Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas) encapsulates what human monsters can do to the psyche of even the most famous and rich.
While used as a criticism towards the narrative approach for Michaels, his "inability to stay on topic" felt rather natural to me, as if he were "in the moment" which was actually a nice change from the typical "organized" documentary form of a true crime show or A&E's Biography. I felt as if I was visiting places right along with him and reacting as he might have (maybe not as excitedly, because in the back of my mind, what these people did to innocents would still remain) at discoveries that could still remain. If I had a criticism it would be towards the crime scene photographs of the murder victims; I felt the coroner and autopsy charts were sufficient enough I think showing the actual bodies of those killed was a bit too exploitative and rather desperate for shock value.
How producer Evans is mentioned (he was supposed to keep a protective eye on Tate while Polanski was away in preparation for directing Day of the Dolphin in England), along with Jack Nicholson, the members of Mamas and the Papas, James Dean, and even MGM producer (and husband of Jean Harlow) Paul Bern (who was found dead from a gunshot wound, with a report confirming his death a suicide, considered perhaps staged) in correlation with events prior to and after the Tate murders add credence to the "six degrees" part of the documentary's title. This isn't just about the murders and Manson, as host Michaels himself get a rub by the documentary, showing his home, pimping his "Dearly Departed Tours" business, and allowing us to see his morbid memorabilia concerning Hollywood's dead. Two particular deaths at Charlie's urging that left me rather haunted was the murder of Shorty Shea (a Hollywood stuntman married to a black woman (which repulsed racist Charlies), who worked at the Spahn Ranch) and Steven Parent, a teenage kid with a fascination in electronics offering a radio to a potential buyer staying in a guest house nearby the eventual Mansion Family kill zone involving the Tate murders. I think "wrong place-wrong time" just kept returning to my mind as I watched this. You just sense that if "this or that" had occurred, some of these lives might could have been avoided a fate most unkind.
The document of a couple who discover Tex and the girls "hosing off" the blood from the murders, the husband of the house going so far as attempting to remove the keys from their car and confronting them hostilely, and living to tell about it, really just further signifies how fate deals some a good hand, while others get the shaft. To hear that Manson and his bunch were looking to kill others, eventually caught at Barker Ranch, just cements how dangerous they really were, and that the need to remove them from society was of vital importance. Fascinating was the details, regarding Polanski and his search for Tate's murderer (even accusing John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas!), and how the Manson family remained untied to the pool of suspects for a period of time afterward, only add to the pop culture curiosity to this whole documentary. The mentioning of the paranoia and fear gripping Hollywood (by Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas) encapsulates what human monsters can do to the psyche of even the most famous and rich.